Welcome to the Best of VMeXplorer page. This page is full of my best and most current blog and video postings.
My Next Generation 8 Home Lab: (2023)
- How to upgrade a Dell T7820 to a U.2 Backplane
- Working with Dell T7820 Disk trays
- Dell T7820: CPU Upgrade Issues *Solved*
- First Look GEN8 ESXi/vSAN ESA 8 Home Lab
My Next Generation 8 Super VMware Workstation: (2023)
- Here it is! My Super VMware Workstation Completed!
- 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
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: (Ongoing)
- 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
Home Lab Gen 7: (09/2020-12/2022)
- Home Lab Generation 7: Updating from Gen 5 to Gen 7
- Home Lab Generation 7: Upgrading vSAN 7 Hybrid capacity step by step
- Home Lab Generation 7: Part 1 – Change Rational for software and hardware changes
- Home Lab Generation 7: Updating the Dell HBA330 firmware with No Dell Server
- Home Lab Generation 7: Part 2 – New Hardware and Software Updates
- Home Lab Generation 7: Upgrading and Replacing a vSAN 7 Cache Disk
- Home Lab Generation 7: Migration to ALL Flash vSAN
GOLDMINE Items worth their weight in gold! (Always Active)
- 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: (Ongoing)
- 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)
Home Lab Gen 5: (01/2020 – 09/2020)
- Home Lab GEN V: VIDEO The Quest for More Cores! – First Look
- Home Lab GEN V: BLOG The Quest for More Cores! Design Considerations
- Home Lab GEN V Build: Part 1 – VIDEO Build Components Overview
- Home Lab GEN V Build: Part 2 – VIDEO Case Selection
- Home Lab Gen V Build: Part 3 – VIDEO Motherboard Overview
- Home Lab Gen V Build: Part 4 – VIDEO First Install Steps
- Home Lab Gen V Build: Part 5 – VIDEO Motherboard Install
- Home Lab Gen V Build: Part 6 – VIDEO Final Steps
- Home Lab Gen V Build: Part 7 – VIDEO: Wrap up, Outcomes, and Design Changes
Home Lab Gen 4: (10/2016 – 2019)
- Home Lab Gen IV – Part I: To InfiniBand and beyond!
- Home Lab Gen IV – Part II: Design Considerations
- Home Lab Gen IV – Part III: Best ESXi White box Mobo yet?
- Home Lab Gen IV – Part IV: Overcoming installation challenges
- Home Lab Gen IV – Part V Installing Mellanox HCAs with ESXi 6.5
Gigabyte MB31-SB0 (01/2017 – 2019)
- Gigabyte Firmware / BIOS update for MergePoint Embedded Management Software and Motherboard
- Home Lab Gen IV – Part III: Best ESXi White box Mobo yet?
vSAN: (Ongoing)
- 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)
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