homelab

VMware Workstation Performance enhancements

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There can be a multitude of factors that could impact performance of your Workstation VMs. Running a VCF 9 stack on VMware Workstation demands every ounce of performance your Windows 11 host can provide. To ensure a smooth lab experience, certain optimizations are essential. In this post, I’ll walk through the key adjustments to maximize efficiency and responsiveness.

Note: There are a LOT of settings I did to improve performance. I take a structured approach by trying things slowly vs. applying all. The items listed below are what worked for my system and it’s recommend for that use case only. Unless otherwise stated, the VM’s and Workstation were powered down during these adjustments.

Items recently covered in my VMware Workstation Gen 9: BOM1 deployment.

  • Host BIOS/UFEI Settings
    • Check out my blog under the ‘BIOS settings’ for more information.
  • Hardware Design:
    • Fast Storage: NVMe, SSD, and U.2 all contribute to VM performance
    • Placement of VM files: We placed and isolated our ESX VMs on specific disks which helps to ensure better performance
    • PCIe Placement: Using the system block diagram I placed the devices in their optimal locations
    • Ample RAM: Include more than enough RAM to support the VCF 9 VMs
    • CPU cores: Design enough CPU cores to support the VCF 9 VMs
    • Video Card: Using a power efficient GPU can help boost VM performance
  • VM Design
    • Disk Choices: Matched the VM disk type to the physical drive type they are running on. Example – NVMe physical to a VMs NVMe disk
    • CPU Settings: Match physical CPU Socket(s) to VM CPU settings.
    • vHardware Choices: When creating a VM, Workstation should auto-populate hardware settings. Best vNIC to use is the vmxnet3. You can use the Guest OS Guide to validate which virtual hardware devices are compatible.
  • Fresh Installs
    • There’s nothing like a fresh install of the base OS to be a reliable foundation for performance improvments.
    • When Workstation is installed it adapts to the base OS. There can be performance gains due to this adaption.
  • Disable Side-Channel Mitigations (Core Isolation)
    • Disabling these can boost performance, especially on older processors, but may reduce security.

New Items to help with performance

Exclude Virtual Machine Directories From Antivirus Tools

NOTE — AV exceptions exclude certain files, folders, and processes from being scanned. By adding these you can improve Workstation performance but there are security risks in enabling AV Exceptions. Users should do what’s best for their environment. Below is how I set up my environment.

  • Script:
  • Manual Steps:
    • Open Virus and Threat Protection
    • Virus & threat protection settings > Manage Settings
    • Under ‘Exclusion’ choose ‘Add or remove exclusions’
    • Click on ‘+ Add an exclusion’
    • Choose your type (File, Folder, File Type, Process)
    • File Type: Exclude these specific VMware file types from being scanned: 
      • .vmdk: Virtual machine disk files (the largest and most I/O intensive).
      • .vmem: Virtual machine paging/memory files.
      • .vmsn: Virtual machine snapshot files.
      • .vmsd: Metadata for snapshots.
      • .vmss: Suspended state files.
      • .lck: Disk consistency lock files.
      • .nvram: Virtual BIOS/firmware settings. 
    • Folder: Exclude the following directories to prevent your antivirus from interfering with VM operations 
      • VMware Installation folder
      • VM Storage Folders: Exclude the main directory where you store your virtual machines
      • Installation Folder: Exclude the VMware Workstation installation path (default: C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\).
      • VMware Tools: If you have the VMware Tools installation files extracted locally, exclude that folder as well. 
    • Process: Adding these executable processes to your antivirus exclusion list can prevent lag caused by the AV monitoring VMware’s internal actions: 
      • vmware.exe: The main Workstation interface.
      • vmware-vmx.exe: The core process that actually runs each virtual machine.
      • vmnat.exe: Handles virtual networking (NAT).
      • vmnetdhcp.exe: Handles DHCP for virtual networks.

Power Plan

Typically by default Windows 11 has the “Balanced” Power plan enabled. Though these settings are good for normal use cases, using your system as a dedicated VMware Workstation requires a better plan.

Below I show 2 ways to adjust a power plan. 1) Using a script to create a custom plan or 2) manually make similar adjustments.

  • 1) Script: I created a script that creates a custom power plan named “VMware Workstation Performance Plan” and makes all the needed changes for my system. You can find my blog here.
  • 2) Manual Adjustments:
    • Open the power plan. Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > Change settings that are currently unavailable
    • You might see on every page “Change settings that are currently unavailable”, just click on it before making changes.
    • Set Power Plan:
      • Click on ‘Hide Additional Plans’.
      • Choose either “Ultimate Performance” or “High Performance” plan and then click on “Change plan settings”
      • Hard Disk > 0 Minutes
      • Wireless Adapter Settings > Max Performance
      • USB > Hub Selective Suspend Time out > 0
      • PCI Express > Link State Power Management > off
      • Processor power management > Both to 100%
      • Display > Turn off Display > Never

Lastly, make sure the correct power plan is active. I used the commands ‘powercfg -list’ to show the active plan and then ‘powercfg -setactive GUID’, replacing GUID with the plan I wanted.

Power Throttling (Not very common)

Power throttling in Windows 11 is an intelligent, user-aware feature that automatically limits CPU resources for background tasks to conserve energy and extend battery life. By identifying non-essential, background-running applications, it reduces power consumption without slowing down active, foreground apps.

To determine if it is active go in to System > Power and look for Power Mode

If you are using a high performance power plan usually this feature is disabled.

If you are running a power plan where this is enabled, and you don’t want to disable it, then you can maximize your performance by disabling power throttling for the Workstation executable.

powercfg /powerthrottling disable /path “C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\x64\vmware-vmx.exe”

Sleep States

Depending on your hardware you may or may not have different Sleep states enabled. Ultimately, for my deployment I don’t want any enabled.

To check if any are from a command prompt type in ‘powercfg /a’ and adjust as needed.

Workstation Memory Page files

In my design I don’t plan to overcommit physical RAM (640GB ram) for my nested VM’s. To maximize the performance and ensure VMware Workstation uses the physical memory exclusively, I follow these steps: Configure global memory preferences, Disable Memory Trimming for each VM, Force RAM-Only Operation, and adjust the Windows Page Files.

Configure Global Memory Preferences

  • This setting tells VMware how to prioritize physical RAM for all virtual machines running on the host. 
    • Open Workstation > Edit > Preferences > Memory
    • In the Additional memory section, select the radio button for “Fit all virtual machine memory into reserved host RAM”.

Disable Memory Trimming for each VM:

  • Windows and VMware use “trimming” to reclaim unused VM memory for the host. Since RAM will not be overallocated, I disable this to prevent VMs from ever swapping to disk.
    • Right-click your VM and select Settings
    • Go to the Options tab and select the Advanced category.
    • Un-Check the box to disable memory page trimming.
    • Click OK and restart the VM

Force RAM-Only Operation (config.ini):

  • This is an advanced step that prevents VMware from creating .vmem swap files, forcing it to use physical RAM or the Windows Page File instead.
  • Close VMware Workstation completely.
  • Navigate to C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Workstation\ in File Explorer (Note: ProgramData is a hidden folder).
  • Open the file named config.ini with Notepad (you may need to run Notepad as Administrator).
  • Add the following lines to the end of the file:
    • mainMem.useNamedFile = “FALSE”
    • prefvmx.minVmMemPct = “100”
  • Save the file and restart your computer

Windows Page Files

  • With 640GB of RAM Windows 11 makes a huge memory page file. Though I don’t need one this large I still need one for crash dumps, core functionality, and memory management. According to Microsoft, for a high-memory workstation or server, a fixed page file of 16GB to 32GB is the “sweet spot.” I’m going a bit larger.
  • Go to System > About > Advanced system Settings
  • System Properties window appears, under Performance choose ‘Settings’
  • Performance Options appears > Advanced > under Virtual memory choose ‘change’
  • Uncheck ‘Automatically manage paging…’
  • Choose Custom size, MIN 64000 and MAX 84000
  • Click ‘Set’ > OK
  • Restart the computer

Windows Visual Effects Performance

The visual effects in Windows 11 can be very helpful but they can also minimally slow down your performance. I prefer to create a custom profile and only enable ‘Smooth edges of screen fonts’

  • Go to System > About > Advanced system Settings
  • System Properties window appears,
  • On the Advanced Tab, under Performance choose ‘Settings’
  • On the Visual Effect tab choose ‘Custom’ and I chose ‘Smooth edges of screen fonts’

Disable BitLocker

Windows 11 (especially version 24H2 and later) may automatically re-enable encryption during a fresh install or major update. By default to install Windows 11 it requires TPM 1.2 or higher chip (TPM 2.0 recommended/standard for Win11), and UEFI firmware with Secure Boot enabled. BitLocker uses these features to “do its work”. To disable I do the following.

  • Registry Edit (Post-Installation – may already be set):
    • Press Win + R, type regedit, and press Enter
    • Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\BitLocker
    • Right-click in the right pane, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value
    • Name it PreventDeviceEncryption and set its value to 1
    • Disable the Service:
      • Press Win + R, type services.msc, and press Enter.
      • Find BitLocker Drive Encryption Service.
      • Right-click it, select Properties, set the “Startup type” to Disabled, and click Apply.

Clean out unused Devices:

Windows leaves behind all types of unused devices that are hidden from your view in device manager. Though these are usually pretty harmless its a best practice to clean them up from time to time.

The quickest way to do this is using a tool called Device Cleanup Tool. Check out my video for more how to with this tool.

Here is Device Cleanup Tool running on my newly (<2 months) installed system. As you can see unused devices can build up even after a short time frame.

Debloat, Clean up, and so much more

There are several standard Windows based features, software, and cleanup tools that can impact the performance of my deployment. I prefer to run tools that help optimize Windows due to their ability to complete tasks quickly. The tool I use to debloat and clean up my system is Winutil. It’s been a proven util for not only optimizing systems, installing software, updates, but helping to maintain them too. For more information about Winutil check out their most recent update.

For ‘Tweaking’ new installs I do the following:

  • Launch the WinUtil program
  • Click on Tweaks
  • Choose Standard
  • Unselect ‘Run Disk Cleanup’
  • Click on Run Teaks

Additionally, you may have noticed Winutil can create an Ultimate Preforamnce power plan. That may come in handy.

Remove Windows Programs:

Here is a list of all the Windows Programs I remove, they are simply not needed for a Workstation Deployment. Some of these can be removed using the WinUtil most I remove with Revo Uninstaller Free Edition.

  • Cortana
  • Co-polit
  • Camera
  • Game Bar
  • Teams
  • News
  • Mail and Calendar
  • Maps
  • Microsoft OneDrive
  • Microsoft to do
  • Movies and TV
  • People
  • Phone Link
  • Solitare
  • Sticky Notes
  • Tips
  • Weather
  • Xbox / xbox live

References and Other Performance Articles:

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GL.iNet Comet (GL-RM1) a handy single KVM Over IP

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Recently I was working on my Ubuntu 25 workstation and I needed a way to reliably remote into the system. This Workstation uses a Supermicro motherboard. It has built in IPMI (remove KVM) but the it only supports remote KVM to the on board video card. xrdp was other option but it is no longer supported under Ubuntu 25. Using Microsoft RDP to Ubuntu desktop or remote sharing constantly disconnected, had issues, or would show black screens. The VNC options I looked at were either buggy or had a subscription fee. Other options like Team Viewer, and No Machine either cost too much or simply were too complex.

Enter the GL.iNet Comet (GL-RM1) It is a specialized hardware-based KVM-over-IP (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) device designed to give you complete remote control over a computer event at the BIOS level. Unlike software solutions, the Comet allows you to access a machine even if the operating system has crashed or hasn’t booted yet.

Key Features

FeatureSpecification
Max Resolution4K @ 30fps (also supports 2K @ 60fps)
ProcessorQuad-core ARM Cortex-A7
Memory / Storage1GB DDR3L RAM / 8GB eMMC Storage
Connectivity1x Gigabit Ethernet port (No built-in Wi-Fi)
Remote AccessTailscale integration, GoodCloud, and local web UI
PortsHDMI In, USB-C (Keyboard/Mouse), USB 2.0 (Expansion)
Dimensions80 x 60 x 17.5mm; 85g

What I like and don’t like about it:

Pros

  • Feature Rich: For a “budget” KVM over IP the amount of well laid out features and settings is a huge plus.
  • BIOS-Level Access: It’s nice to have full control over the workstation. I can remotely troubleshoot a PC before the OS loads, allowing for remote OS installations and BIOS setting changes.
  • Ease of Setup: Once I found its IP on my network it was very simple to set up. The web interface is designed very well and works great.
  • Toolbox feature: (Fig-1): The Clipboard allows for pasted text to be pasted into a remote device. It also has keyboard shortcuts, WOL, and Terminal access
  • Virtual Media and Accessories (Fig-1): It has ~5.5GB of built in storage to mount to the remote host or via the Accessories I can mount a USB memory stick.
  • Compact Design: Roughly the size of a computer mouse, making it highly portable for field technicians.
  • Mouse Jiggle: Has a feature to enable mouse jiggle on the remote system to keep the remote desktop from locking.
  • Remote Cloud Access: I have not tried this feature but you can set it up to be accessed over the internet.

Cons

  • No Built-in Wi-Fi: The standard GL-RM1 requires a wired Ethernet connection for internet access.
  • USB 2.0 Only: The expansion port is limited to USB 2.0 speeds, which may be slow for large virtual media transfers.
  • Power Requirements: It cannot be powered by some PD (Power Delivery) adapters and requires a standard 5V/2A source.
  • Limited High-Speed Video: While it supports 4K, it is capped at 30fps, which is sufficient for productivity but not ideal for gaming or smooth video playback.

What could be better:

  • Video Display: The initial video display looks a bit pixelated, but with a few video quality changes it works well. It’s totally usable but even in lossless mode it could be a bit more clear.
  • The ESC Key: To exit the remote screen you have to push the ESC key or hold the ESC key to exit full screen. Sometimes this ESC key is registered by the remote system and can cause unexpected behaviors. Example – Press ESC and your current window closes out. A work around I found with Windows was to press ALT + TAB and it releases the mouse back to the local OS.
  • Mouse Movement: Initially there are two mouse icons (local and remote) and a bit of a delay between them. A few changes in the mouse settings and the experience is much better. Would rather see these be the default settings. Mouse speed is a bit slow, a simple adjustment to the OS mouse speed is helpful.
  • High CPU: when running HTML interface in Chrome I notice my laptop fan start up and Chrome uses a lot of RAM. I simply switched to the Brave browser and it works great. Could be something about my setup and Chrome.

How It Compares

The GL.iNet Comet occupies a unique “budget-friendly” tier in the IP-KVM market.

  • Vs. PiKVM: While the PiKVM is highly expandable and open-source, it often requires buying a Raspberry Pi separately and assembling it, which can end up being more expensive and bulkier. The Comet is a “plug-and-play” alternative that is significantly cheaper as a complete package.
  • Vs. JetKVM: The JetKVM includes a local display for easier on-site monitoring, whereas the Comet is more minimalist. However, users have noted that the Comet’s availability and stability for remote connections (via GoodCloud/Tailscale) make it a very competitive choice.
  • Vs. Comet PoE (GL-RM1PE): The PoE variant is slightly larger but allows you to power the device and provide data through a single cable, which is a major advantage for clean server rack setups.

Summing it up

The Comet (GL-RM1) is working out well for my home lab as I needed reliable remote access into my workstation. To me, its primary advantage is providing a reliable, cost effective, feature rich, and quick way to do remote access with out having to install and maintain buggy software based remote access.

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Deploying the ASUSTOR DRIVESTOR 4 Pro Gen 2 | AS3304T v2

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For years, my trusty DRIVESTOR 2 Pro was the heartbeat of our home. From kids navigating online school to adults working from home, it served as our essential, daily hub for family backups. Unfortunately, a sudden power event had other plans for it.

While I was lucky enough to have my data backed up elsewhere. In this post, I’ll walk you through how these two models compare, share some photos of the new hardware, and show you exactly how I got my new setup up and running.

Device Compare

ASUSTOR AS3302T (Gen 1)ASUSTOR AS3304T v2 (Gen 2)
Drive Bays 2 x 3.5″/2.5″ SATADrive Bays 4 x 3.5″/2.5″ SATA
Processor Realtek RTD1296 (1.4GHz Quad-Core)Processor Realtek RTD1619B (1.7GHz Quad-Core)
Memory (RAM) 2GB DDR4 (Non-expandable)Memory (RAM) 2GB DDR4 (Non-expandable)
Networking 1 x 2.5-Gigabit EthernetNetworking 1 x 2.5-Gigabit Ethernet
USB Ports 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 1USB Ports 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 1
Btrfs Support No (EXT4 only)Btrfs Support Yes (Snapshots supported)
RAID OptionsSingle, JBOD, RAID 0, 1RAID OptionsSingle, JBOD, RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10
FAN/Size 1 x 70mm
Standby/Idle Noise 19db
Active Operation Noise 32db		FAN/Size 1 x 120mm
Standby/Idle Noise 19.7db
Active Operation Noise 32db
Power Consumption 12.3W (Operation)Power Consumption 25.1W (Operation)
Dimensions 170(H) x 114(W) x 230(D) mmDimensions 170(H) x 174(W) x 230(D) mm

Key Improvements in the AS3304T v2

  • Processor & GPU: The v2 uses the newer RTD1619B chip. It is roughly 20% faster in clock speed and features an upgraded iGPU, which provides significantly better 4K transcoding for media players like Plex.
  • Modern File System (Btrfs): A major software upgrade for the v2 models is the addition of Btrfs support. This enables Snapshots, which protect your data against accidental deletion or ransomware by allowing you to “roll back” to a previous state.
  • Storage Flexibility: Beyond having twice the bays, the AS3304T v2 supports RAID 5 and 6. These configurations offer a better balance of high capacity and data redundancy compared to the RAID 1 limit of the 2-bay AS3302T

Product Photo

Initial Setup

I plugged in the power and the network cable into the device and allowed it to get a DCHP address. To find the address assigned I downloaded and scanned my network with the ASUSTOR Control Center (acc.asustor.com). One I knew the IP address I went to it on port 8001.

When I first entered the web interface I was welcomed by the main screen. One important note is the orange initialization statement. It notes your drive will be erased and a warning to backup your data.

One thing I like about the initial setup is the ability to update the ADM (ASUSTOR Data Master) version. I allowed it to update as I was doing my install.

After I made all my selections, then ADM completes it pre-tasks.

Next, the T&Cs are presented.

I get to choose my system appearance.

I entered my information.

The system does its final initialization.

I enter in my ASUSTOR ID and then on next page put in your Contact information, region, and language

All done!

Back in the web interface, I’m prompted to adjust my http and https ports. I change them from the defaults of 8000 and 8001.

The ADM guide appears and it is a good way to learn where things are. I’m not going through all 6 steps but just know its a very hand tool.

Here is what the first one looks like.

It actually takes you step by step.

Once I exit the ADM guide, I first set up my network address. Settings > Network > change to manual IP > enter my IP and save it. The web interface reboots into the new IP. Additionally, I disabled IPv6.

Next I go into the Storage Manager and validate my disks. It also gives me a status of the RAID 5 initialization.

Then in Access Control I’ll setup a few user accounts.

While in Access Control, I setup shared folder. The add shared folder window appears, I name my share, select access ‘by user’, choose the user and their access rights, chose to encrypt of not, and click on finish to complete the process.

From my experience ADM is a very intuitive and easy to learn. Speaking of learning, ASUSTOR has a FREE NAS Tutorial that explains how to use it! I’ve used it quite a bit is worth a look.

While losing my original DRIVESTOR 2 Pro was a headache, the jump to the DRIVESTOR 4 Pro Gen 2 has been a massive silver lining. With the extra drive redundancy of RAID 5, I feel much more secure about our family’s digital files. It’s faster, quieter, and handles our school and work-from-home needs without breaking a sweat. If you’re looking for a NAS that balances power with a genuinely easy learning curve, ASUSTOR remains my top recommendation.

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Using PowerShell to setup AV exceptions for Workstation 25H2u1 and Windows 11

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Adding AV exceptions to your Workstation deployment on Windows 11 can really improve the overall performance. In this blog post I’ll share my exclusion script recently used on my environment.

NOTE: You cannot just cut, paste, and run the script below. There are parts of the script that have to be configured for the intended system.

What the script does.

  • For Windows 11 users with Microsoft’s Virus & threat protection enabled this script will tell AV to not scan specific file types, folders, and processes related to VMware Workstation.
  • It will ignore exceptions that already exist.
  • It will display appropriate messages (Successful, or Already Exists) as it completes tasks.

What is the risk?

  • Adding an exception (or exclusion) to antivirus (AV) software, while sometimes necessary for application functionality, significantly lowers the security posture of a device. The primary risk is creating a security blind spot where malicious code can be downloaded, stored, and executed without being detected.
  • Use at your own risk. This code is for my personal use.

What will the code do?

It will add several exclusions listed below.

  • File Type: Exclude these specific VMware file types from being scanned: 
    • .vmdk: Virtual machine disk files (the largest and most I/O intensive).
    • .vmem: Virtual machine paging/memory files.
    • .vmsn: Virtual machine snapshot files.
    • .vmsd: Metadata for snapshots.
    • .vmss: Suspended state files.
    • .lck: Disk consistency lock files.
    • .nvram: Virtual BIOS/firmware settings. 
  • Folder: Unique to my deployment it will exclude the following directories to prevent your antivirus from interfering with VM operations 
    • VMware Installation folder
    • VM Storage Folders: Exclude the main directory where I store my virtual machines.
    • Installation Folder: Exclude the VMware Workstation installation path ((default: C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation).
  • Process:
    • vmware.exe: The main Workstation interface.
    • vmware-vmx.exe: The core process that actually runs each virtual machine.
    • vmnat.exe: Handles virtual networking (NAT).
    • vmnetdhcp.exe: Handles DHCP for virtual networks.

The Script

Under the section ‘#1. Define your exclusions ‘ is where I adapted this code to match my environment

# Check for Administrator privileges
if (-not ([Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal][Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent()).IsInRole([Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole]::Administrator)) {
Write-Warning "Please run this script as an Administrator."
break
}

# 1. Define your exclusions

# This is where you put in YOUR folder exclusions
$folders = @("C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation", "D:\Virtual Machines", "F:\Virtual Machines", "G:\Virtual Machines", "H:\Virtual Machines", "I:\Virtual Machines", "J:\Virtual Machines", "K:\Virtual Machines", "L:\Virtual Machines")

# These are the common process exclusions

$processes = @("C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmware.exe", "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\x64\vmware-vmx.exe", "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmnat.exe", "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmnetdhcp.exe")

# These are the common extension exclusions

$extensions = @(".vmdk", ".vmem", ".vmsd", ".vmss", ".lck", ".nvram")

# Retrieve current settings once for efficiency
$currentPrefs = Get-MpPreference
Write-Host "Checking and applying Windows Defender Exclusions..." -ForegroundColor Cyan

# --- Validate and Add Folders ---
foreach ($folder in $folders) {
if ($currentPrefs.ExclusionPath -contains $folder) {
Write-Host "Note: Folder exclusion already exists, skipping: $folder" -ForegroundColor Yellow
} else {
Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath $folder
Write-Host "Successfully added folder: $folder" -ForegroundColor Green
}
}

# --- Validate and Add Processes ---
foreach ($proc in $processes) {
if ($currentPrefs.ExclusionProcess -contains $proc) {
Write-Host "Note: Process exclusion already exists, skipping: $proc" -ForegroundColor Yellow
} else {
Add-MpPreference -ExclusionProcess $proc
Write-Host "Successfully added process: $proc" -ForegroundColor Green
}
}

# --- Validate and Add Extensions ---
foreach ($ext in $extensions) {
if ($currentPrefs.ExclusionExtension -contains $ext) {
Write-Host "Note: Extension exclusion already exists, skipping: $ext" -ForegroundColor Yellow
} else {
Add-MpPreference -ExclusionExtension $ext
Write-Host "Successfully added extension: $ext" -ForegroundColor Green
}
}

Write-Host "`nAll exclusion checks complete." -ForegroundColor Cyan

The Output

In the output below, when the script creates an item successfully it will show in green. If it detects a duplicate it will output a message in yellow. I ran the script with a .vmdk exclusion already existing to test it out.

When its complete the AV exclusions in Windows should looks similar to the partial screenshot below.

To view the exclusions, in Win 11 open ‘Virus & Threat Protection’ > Manage Settings > Under Exclusions chose ‘Add or remove exclusion’

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Upgrading Workstation 25H2 to 25Hu1

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Last February 26 2026 VMware released Workstation Pro 25H2u1. It’s an update that does repair a few bugs and security patches. In this blog I’ll cover how to upgrade it.

Helpful links

Meet the Requirements:

When installing/upgrading Workstation on Windows most folks seem to overlook the requirements for Workstation and just install the product. You can review the requirements here.

There are a couple of items folks commonly miss when installing Workstation.

  • The number one issue is Processor Requirements for Host Systems . It’s either they have a CPU that is not supported or they simply did not enable Virtualization support in the BIOS.
  • The second item is Microsoft Hyper-V enabled systems. Workstation supports a system with Hyper-V enabled but for the BEST performance its best to just disable these features.
  • Next, if you’ve upgraded your OS but never reinstall Workstation, then its advised to uninstall then install Workstation.
  • Lastly, if doing a fresh OS install ensuring drivers are updated and DirectX is at a supportable version.

How to download Workstation

Download the Workstation Pro 25H2u1 for Windows. Make sure you click on the ‘Terms and Conditions’ AND check the box. Only then can you click on the download icon.

Choose your install path

Before you do a fresh install:

If you are upgrading Workstation, review the following:

  • Ensure your environment is compatible with the requirements
  • If you have existing VMs:

Note: If you are upgrading the Windows OS or in the past have done a Windows Upgrade (Win 10 to 11), you must uninstall Workstation first, and then reinstall Workstation. More information here.

Upgrading Workstation 25H2 to 25Hu1

Run the download file, wait a min for it to confirm space requirements, then click Next

Accept the EULA.

Compatible setup check

Confirm install directory

Check for updates and join the CEIP program.

Allow it to create shortcuts

Click Upgrade to complete the upgrade

Click on Finish to complete the Wizard.

Lastly, check the version number of Workstation. Open Workstation > Help > About

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My Silicon Treasures: Mapping My Home Lab Motherboards Since 2009

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I’ve been architecting home labs since the 90s—an era dominated by bare-metal Windows Servers and Cisco products. In 2008, my focus shifted toward virtualization, specifically building out VMware-based environments.  What began as repurposing spare hardware for VMware Workstation quickly evolved. As my resource requirements scaled, I transitioned to dedicated server builds. Aside from a brief stint with Gen8 enterprise hardware, my philosophy has always been “built, not bought,” favoring custom component selection over off-the-shelf rack servers.  I’ve documented this architectural evolution over the years, and in this post, I’m diving into the the specific motherboards that powered my past home labs.

Gen 1: 2009-2011 GA-EP43-UD3L Workstation 7 | ESX 3-4.x

Back in 2009, I was working for a local hospital in Phoenix and running the Phoenix VMUG. I deployed a Workstation 7 Home lab on this Gigabyte motherboard. Though my deployment was simple, I was able deploy ESX 3.5 – 4.x with only 8GB of RAM and attach it to an IOMega ix4-200d. I used it at our Phoenix VMUG meetings to teach others about home labs. I found the receipt for the CPU ($150) and motherboard ($77), wow price sure have changed.

REF Link – Home Lab – Install of ESX 3.5 and 4.0 on Workstation 7

Gen2: 2011-2013 Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 Workstation 8 | ESXi 4-5

Gen1 worked quite well for what I needed but it was time to expand as my I started working for VMware as a Technical Account Manager. I needed to keep my skills sharp and deploy more complex home lab environments. Though I didn’t know it back then, this was the start of my HOME LABS: A DEFINITIVE GUIDE. I really started to blog about the plan to update and why I was making different choices. I ran into a very unique issues that even Gigabyte or Hitachi could figure out, I blogged about here.

Deployed with an i7-2600 ($300), Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 ($150), and 16GB DDR3 RAM

REF Link: Update to my Home Lab with VMware Workstation 8 – Part 1 Why

Gen2: Zotac M880G-ITX then the ASRock FM2A85X-ITX | FreeNAS Sever

Back in the day I needed better performance from my shared storage as the IOMega had reached its limits. Enter the short lived FreeNAS server to my home lab. Yes it did preform better but man it was full of bugs and issues. Some due to the Zotac Motherboard and some with FreeNAS. I was happy to be moving on to vSAN with Gen3.

REF: Home Lab – freeNAS build with LIAN LI PC-Q25, and Zotac M880G-ITX

Gen3: 2012-2016 MSI Z68MA-G45 (B3) | ESXi 5-6

I needed to expand my home lab into dedicated hosts. Enter the MSI Z68MA-G45 (B3). It would become my workhorse expanding it from one server with the Gen 2 Workstation to 3 dedicated hosts running vSAN.

REF: VSAN – The Migration from FreeNAS

Gen4: 2016-2019 Gigabyte MX31-BS0 

This mobo was used in my ‘To InfiniBand and beyond’ blog series. It had some “wonkiness” about its firmware updates but other then that it was a solid performer. Deployed with a E3-1500 and 32GB RAM

REF: Home Lab Gen IV – Part I: To InfiniBand and beyond!

Gen 5: 2019-2020 JINGSHA X79

I had maxed out Gen 4 and really needed to expand my CPU cores and RAM. Hence the blog series title – ‘The Quest for More Cores!’. Deployed with 128GB RAM and Xeon E5-2640 v2 8 Cores it fit the bill. This series is where I started YouTube videos and documenting my builds per my design guides. Though this mobo was good for its design its lack of PCIe slots made it short lived.

REF: Home Lab GEN V: The Quest for More Cores! – First Look

Gen 7: 2020-2023: Supermicro X9DRD-7LN4F-JBOD and the MSI PRO Z390-A PRO

Gen 5 motherboard fell short when I wanted to deploy and all flash vSAN based on NVMe. With this Supermicro motherboard I had no issues with IO and deploying it as all Flash vSAN. It also gathered the attention of Intel to which they offered me their Optane drives to create an All Flash Optane system. More on that in Gen 8.

The MSI motherboard was a needed update to my VMware Workstation system. I built it up as a Workstation / Plex server and it did this job quite well.

This generation is when I started to align my Gen#s to vSphere releases. Makes it much easier to track.

REF: Home Lab Generation 7: Updating from Gen 5 to Gen 7

Gen 8: 2023-2024 Dell T7820 VMware Dedicated Hosts

With some support from Intel I was able to uplift my 3 x Dell T7820 workstations into a great home lab. They supplied Engineering Samples CPUs, RAM, and Optane Disks. Plus I was able to coordinate the distribution of Optane disks to vExperts Globally. It was a great homelab and I leaned a ton!

REF: Home Lab Generation 8 Parts List (Part 2)

Gen 8-9: 2023-2026 ASRack Rock EPC621D8A VMware Workstation Motherboard

Evolving my Workstation PC I used this ASRack Rock motherboard. It was the perfect solution for running nested clusters of ESXi VMs with vSAN ESA. It was until most recently a really solid mobo and I even got it to run nested VCF 9 simple install.

REF: Announcing my Generation 8 Super VMware Workstation!

Gen 9: 2024 – Current

As of this date its still under development. See my Home Lab BOM for more information. However, I’m moving my home lab to only nested VCF 9 deployment on Workstation and not dedicated servers.

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VMware Workstation Gen 9: Part 3 Windows Core Services and Routing

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A big part of my nested VCF 9 environment relies on core services. Core services are AD, NTP, DHCP, and RAS. Core services are supplied by my Windows Server (aka AD230.nested.local). Of those services, RAS will enable routing between the LAN Segments and allow for Internet access. Additionally, I have a VM named DomainTools. DomainTools is used for testing network connectivity, SSH, WinSCP, and other tools. In this blog I’ll create both of these VMs and adapt them to work in my new VCF 9 environment.

Create the Window Server and establish core services

A few years back I published a Workstation 17 YouTube multipart series on how to create a nested vSphere 8 with vSAN ESA. Part of that series was creating a Windows Server with core services. For my VCF 9 environment I’ll need to create a new Windows server with the same core services. To create a similar Windows Server I used my past 2 videos: VMware Workstation 17 Nested Home Lab Part 4A and 4B.

Windows Server updates the VCF 9 environment

Now that I have established AD230 I need to update it to match the VCF 9 networks. I’ll be adding additional vNICs, attaching them to networks, and then ensuring traffic can route via the RAS service. Additionally, I created a new Windows 11 VM named DomainTools. I’ll use DomainTools for network connectivity testing and other functions. Fig-1 shows the NIC to network layout that I will be following.

(Fig-1)

Adjustments to AD230 and DomainTools

I power off AD230 and DomainTools. On both I add the appropriate vNICs and align them to the LAN segments. Next, I edit their VMware VM configuration file changing the vNICs from “e1000e” to “vmxnet3”.

Starting with DomainTools for each NIC, I power it on, input the IPv4 information (IP Address, Subnet, VLAN ID), and optionally disable IPv6. The only NIC to get a Default Gateway is NIC1. TIP – To ID the NICs, I disconnect the NIC in the VM settings and watch for it to show unplugged in Windows Networking. This way I know which NIC is assigned to which LAN Segment. Additionally, in Windows Networking I add a verbose name to the NIC to help ID it.

I make the same network adjustments to AD230 and I update its DNS service to only supply DNS from the 10.0.10.230 network adapter.

Once completed I do a ping test between all the networks for AD230 and DomainTools to validate IP Connectivity works. TIP – Use ipconfig at the CLI to check your adapter IP settings. If ping is not working there may be firewall enabled.

Setting up RAS on AD230

Once you have your network setup correctly validate that RAS has accepted your new adapters and their information. On AD230 I go in to RAS > IPv4 > General

I validate that my network adapters are present.

Looking ahead — RAS seemed to work right out of the box with no config needed. In all my testing below it worked fine, this may change as I advance my lab. If so, I’ll be sure to update my blog.

Next I need to validate routing between the different LAN Segments. To do this I’ll use the DomainTools VM to ensure routing is working correctly. You may notice in some of my testing results that VCF Appliances are present. I added this testing part after I had completed my VCF deployment.

I need to test all of the VLAN networks. On the DomainTools VM, I disable each network adapter except for the one I want to test. In this case I disabled every adapter except for 10-0-11-228 (VLAN 11 – VM NIC3). I then add the gateway IP of 10.0.11.1 (this is the IP address assigned to my AD230 RAS server).

Next I do an ipconfig to validate the IP address, and use Angry IP Scanner to locate devices on the 10.0.10.x network. Several devices responded, plus resolving their DNS name, proving that DomainTools is successfully routing from the 11 network into the 10 network. I’ll repeat this process, plus do an internet check, on all the remaining networks.

Now that we have a stable network and core Window services established we are ready to move on to ESX Host Deployment and initial configuration.

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Why your Home Lab needs a non-static port group.

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We’ve all been there, during a recovery or migration of a VCSA server we get the error – “Addition or reconfiguration of network adapters attached to non-ephemeral distributed virtual port groups is not supported.” But what does this mean and how do I prepare for this? In the blog post I’ll cover some of the basics and how I setup my home lab.

What does non-ephemeral and ephemeral mean?

  • Non-ephemeral or static binding is a port group setting that guarantees a port in the vDS. Think of it like seats at a table and once a seat is assigned it’s always reserved for that assignment.
  • Ephemeral or non-static binding will not guarantee a port in the switch. It’s kind of like first come first seated at the table, you leave the table someone else can take your spot.
  • Of course you’d want to make sure your ESXi hosts and important VM’s like the VCSA appliance have a “reserved seat at the table” and this is why vDS port groups are static by default.
  • See this KB for more information.

What are some of the impacts of not having a non-static port group?

  • If you are doing an migration, or recovery of a VM you’ll sometimes end up at the ESXi Host Client.
  • At some point during the network discovery process it’ll determine the target network is static bound.
  • As an example, restoring a VCSA server if the vDS port group it’s using is static or non-ephemeral binding port group (vDS) then it will surely through the error.

How do I prepare my Home Lab?

  • Choice 1 – simply create a vDS Port Group with the Ephemeral – no binding setting that uses the same uplinks as the network I want to communicate on.
  • Choice 2 – set your managment vDS Port Group to Ephemeral – no binding
  • By doing one of these 2 ahead of time, this will allow the correct network to be chosen.
  • Example – The screen shot below is a migration of a VCSA 8 server. When I get to step 4 I’m able to choose a non-static network. Had I not setup this port group ahead of time the migration would have been more difficult.

Want more information?

  • Check out this design link that explains how VCF is assgined Static and Non-Static port groups
  • Tech UnGlued did a good video around this topic.

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