Welcome to the Best of VMeXplorer page.  This page is full of my best and most current blog and video postings.

Home Lab Information:

VMware Workstation Generation 9: Nested VCF Home Lab Build (Current 2025-2026)

• • VMware Workstation Gen 9: Part 1 – Under development Coming soon.
  • Updating VMware Workstation 17 to 25H2

VMware Workstation Generation 8 : Nested vSphere 8 Home Lab (2023-2025 Archived)

• VMware Workstation Gen 8: Environment Revitalization
• VMware Workstation 17 Nested Home Lab Part 9: Performance Testing
• VMware Workstation 17 Nested Home Lab Part 8b: More on Networking
• VMware Workstation 17 Nested Home Lab Part 8: Setting up vSAN ESA
• VMware Workstation 17 Nested Home Lab Part 7: Setting up vSphere Environment
• VMware Workstation 17 Nested Home Lab Part 6: Installation of ESXi 8 Hosts
• VMware Workstation 17 Nested Home Lab Part5: Install VCSA
• VMware Workstation 17 Nested Home Lab Part 4A/B: Install Windows 2022
• VMware Workstation 17 Nested Home Lab Part 3: Workstation Networking
• VMware Workstation 17 Nested Home Lab Part 2: Window 11/Workstation 17 Install
• VMware Workstation 17 Nested Home Lab Part 1: Goals, Requirements, and planning
• VMware Workstation 17 Nested vSAN ESA Overview 

VMware Workstation Generation 8: Hardware Build (Completed 02/2023 Archived)

• Here it is! My Super VMware Workstation Completed! 
• Supporting Blogs and Videos:
  • Supporting 18TB drives with Intel Virtual RAID on CPU (VROC)
  • Installing Intel U2 Optane Disk using an adapter
  • Noctua NH-D9 DX-3647 4U Install
  • Super VMware Workstation: Install tips for the Supermicro X11SPL-F
  • Super VMware Workstation: Supermicro X11SPL-F First Look and Basic Overview

VMware Home Lab Generation 8: (Completed 02/2023 Archived)

• Home Lab Generation 8 Parts List (Part 2)
• First Look GEN8 ESXi/vSAN ESA 8 Home Lab (Part 1)
• Troubleshooting Items:
  • How to upgrade a Dell T7820 to a U.2 Backplane
  • Working with Dell T7820 Disk trays
  • Dell T7820: CPU Upgrade Issues *Solved*

Storage Posts:

10Gbe NAS Home Lab Series (asustor and Synology 07/2021-07/2022)

• 10Gbe NAS Home Lab Part 1: Parts Overview and Synology DS1621+
• 10Gbe NAS Home Lab Part 2: Dissecting the Synology DiskStation DS1621+
• 10Gbe NAS Home Lab Part 3: asustor DRIVESTOR 2 PRO and LOCKERSTOR10 Unboxing
• 10Gbe NAS Home Lab Part 4: asustor DRIVESTOR 2 PRO and LOCKERSTOR10 Teardown
• 10Gbe NAS Home Lab Part 5: Initial Setup DRIVESTOR 2 Pro and LOCKERSTOR 10
• 10Gbe NAS Home Lab Part 6: Initial Setup Synology 1621+
• 10Gbe NAS Home Lab Part 7: Network testing with iperf3 on containers
• 10Gbe NAS Home Lab Part 8: Interconnecting MikroTik Switches

Quick NAS Topics: 

• Quick NAS Topics Changing Storage Pool from RAID 1 to RAID5 with the Synology 1621+
• Quick NAS Topics: USB WiFi on the DRIVESTOR 2 Pro
• Quick NAS Topics: Expanding the Capacity of your NAS with the DRIVESTOR 2 Pro
• Quick NAS Topics: One Touch Backup with the LOCKERSTOR 10
• Quick NAS Topics: Create your own iperf3 Docker Container

vSAN: 

• Home Lab Generation 7: Upgrading and Replacing a vSAN 7 Cache Disk
• Home Lab Generation 7: Migration to ALL Flash vSAN
• vSAN – Working with the vSAN HCL Database
• VSAN – What’s new in vSAN 6.6 Video Demo
• VSAN – vSAN 6.6 Release resources
• Honeywell Next Generation Platform with Dell FX2 + VMware VSAN
• VSAN – Performance Degradation of Hybrid disk groups on VSAN 6.2 Deployments (2146267)
• VSAN – Setting up VSAN Observer in my Home Lab
• VSAN – The Migration from FreeNAS
• vSAN 1.0 Released Home lab update here I come!

freeNAS: (10/2013 – 08/2014)

• VSAN – The Migration from FreeNAS
• Home Lab – freeNAS build with LIAN LI PC-Q25, and Zotac M880G-ITX
• Home Lab – VMware ESXi 5.1 with iSCSI and freeNAS
• Home Lab – Adding freeNAS 8.3 iSCSI LUNS to ESXi 5.1

Various Posts:

GOLDMINE Items worth their weight in gold! 

• How to reset the remembered password requirements for VCSA root account
• Create an ESXi installation ISO with custom drivers in 9 easy steps!
• Create an ESXi 6.0U2 installation ISO with Realtek 8168 Drivers
• How to pinpoint ESXi hardware devices with vmkchdev
• Home Lab: A List of uncommon or niche products (2021 Update)
• P2V GOLD – Remove all Windows Non-Present devices at once via GUI and CLI!
• Turning a ‘No you cannot attend’ to a ‘Yes’ for VMworld
• Quick ways to check disk alignment with ESXi and Windows VM’s
• HP PSP, SmartStart, and Firmware Matrix – PURE GOLD
• 2 VMTools Secrets your mother never told you about!

Various Exam Notes: 

• My notes and tips around taking the 2V0-17.25 – VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Administrator
• How I passed VCAP-DCV Deploy 2022 – Notes and thoughts(2022)
• CompTIA Project+ PK0-003 Passed today!(2017)
• Passed VMware Certified Professional 6 – Data Center Virtualization Delta Exam 2V0-621D(2016)
• Passed VCP 5 Delta Test (2014)
• Passed my VCP5 Test (2012)
• Passed the VCP4 (2011)