home lab

  • After installing the TPM in Supermicro verifying it is enabled

    Add a TPM card to VMware vSAN Host

    Security is an extremely important part of server technology these days. With the sophistication of malicious attacks, supply chain hacks, and other risks to business-critical data, security contains several layers of protection. Security not only must be applied to software…

  • Multiple hosts with VLAN trunking on a physical network switch with gateway forwarding next hop

    VMware Home Lab Network Design

    Many of us run VMware home labs and these no doubt have many different architectures and hardware configurations across the entire landscape, and that is great! There is no one single way to configure a home lab the “right way”…

  • Creating a vSAN network in VMware Workstation

    vSAN Lab on VMware Workstation: Step-by-Step

    Home labs comes in many shapes and sizes. One of the first types of labs that many are able to invest in is running VMware Workstation on top of a workstation PC or even a laptop. VMware Workstation is a…

  • Creating a new conditional forwarder in Microsoft DNS server

    DNS Conditional Forwarder Multiple Internal Domains Setup

    I do a lot of work in the home lab environment and this includes building up Active Directory domains for various types of testing and building out of test environments. If you do build out different environments for testing and…

  • Vmware workstation pro is a great option for a home lab environment on a budget

    Copy VMware Workstation VM to ESXi: Home Lab

    When it comes to building your first home lab, there is nothing wrong with starting out with VMware Workstation. Realistically, this may be all you need. Having a decent workstation or laptop with a good bit of RAM running VMware…

  • Nested-ESXi-lab-environment-with-stretched-vSAN-cluster-with-Witness-host

    Nested ESXi Lab Build Networking and Hardware

    Many who are learning VMware vSphere and those who may already work with VMware vSphere products each and every day benefit from having a lab environment. I have always been a proponent of lab environments. Even with many touting moving…

  • Managing-Windows-Server-2019-Hyper-V-with-Windows-Admin-Center

    Windows Server Home Lab Build and Configuration

    I talk a lot about home labs on the site as I think they are a great way to get your hands “dirty” with learning new technology and skills from servers, networking, storage, automation, troubleshooting and many other great foundational…

  • Configuring-VM-Startup-and-Graceful-VM-shutdown

    Supermicro VMware Home Lab Automatic Power On and Power Off

    Running a VMware vSphere home lab is a great way to learn and grow as a virtualization professional. I have a home lab that I have built up over the past few years with Supermicro server hardware. The Supermicro servers…

  • VMUG-Advantage-tremendous-value-for-home-labs

    VMware Cloud Foundation vCF 4.0 added to VMUG Advantage

    I am a big proponent of the VMUG Advantage subscription as I have detailed in many previous posts. VMUG Advantage keeps getting better and better and since I have been a paying member, the price has remained unchanged. The newest…

  • The-SYS-E301-9D-8CN8TP-mini-1-U-server

    Supermicro VMware Home Lab

    I have been making some changes and additions to the home lab recently and have added a new little machine to the mix that I will talk about. However, as most of you know if you have visited my Home…