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)
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- 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:
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:
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)