HOME LABS: A DEFINITIVE GUIDE
The HOME LABS: A DEFINITIVE GUIDE is a culmination of my work from the past 10+ years. Initially, I presented this guide to various VMUG groups and I’ve improved it every year since.
The links below are my most current recorded sessions and slides for you to download. During these sessions I go into detail around Home lab design considerations, which is something we usually don’t think of when building a home lab. I do hope you find this information very useful. Please feel free to ask any questions or post comments… Thanks — Enjoy!
Note – If you want me to present this guide to your group do reach out. As I’m always happy to help.
AUG-2022 Explore 2022 Sessions (Not recorded Slides Only)
JUNE-2022 vExpert Session – Home Labs Definitive Guide
MAY-2021 VMUG Advantage Session – Home Labs Definitive Guide
AUG-2020 VMUG Advantage Session – Home Labs Definitive Guide
MAY-2020 Cedar Park VMUG Session – Home Labs Definitive Guide
MAR-2020 TAM Lab Recorded Session
vmexplorer 
April 12, 2016 at 11:47 pm
Hello, I’m curious, what sort of VM performance do you get with iSCSI and your FreeNAS server with ESXi
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April 15, 2016 at 10:31 am
I am no longer using FreeNAS as its over all performance was weak, I found the communities support unpleasant, and finally the over all product at the time I used it was quite buggy. I spent more time getting it to run vs. using it. Granted my choice of FreeNAS hardware wasn’t perfect but I used what I had. In the end I migrated my FreeNAS box to VMWare VSAN and I could not have been happier — https://vmexplorer.com/2014/08/18/vsan-the-migration-from-freenas-2/
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February 26, 2021 at 10:23 pm
looking to build a remote gaming machine and passthrough your GPU to a virtual machine. Can this be done in a HomeLab with VMWare or am I in-over-my-head? Great presentation. I also watch all your build vids on YouTube.
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February 27, 2021 at 5:29 pm
Hey Darrell, thanks for the comment and support. I have not tried nor have I looked into something like that. It’s been on my mind a bit but right now I’ve been doing a lot with NSX and vRNI. If I were to do something like this, I guess would start by reading the ESXi documentation and looking for blogs where folks have done this. Check out this blogger, he’s been doing home labs and GPUs too — https://tinkertry.com/vmware-vsphere-esxi-7-gpu-passthrough-ui-bug-workaround Hope this helps! Reach out anytime!
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February 28, 2022 at 4:08 pm
I used your list to purchase (2) DEEPCOOL GAMMAXX 400 which does not fit the Supermicro X9DRD-7LN4F-JBOD.
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February 28, 2022 at 4:40 pm
@Jeff – Thank you for your comment. For some reason the CPU Cooler adapter plate I used on the X9DRD-7LN4F-JBOD that allowed the GAMMAX400 cooler to mount wasn’t listed on my Home Lab Guide parts list. Here is the part I used >> https://www.ebay.com/itm/123822787976 I will add this today.
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