Introduction I'm pleased to present you with the result of a massive installation and documentation effort by a TinkerTry fan. This voluntary article was authored by Greater Detroit's Steve Shanks, who is currently a Senior Consultant at The Speedware Company. He volunteered to help speed folks…
Introduction I'm pleased to present you with the result of a massive installation and documentation effort by a TinkerTry fan. This voluntary article was authored by Greater Detroit's Steve Shanks, who is currently a Senior Consultant at The Speedware Company. He volunteered to help speed folks…
This article is a starting point for you, the proud Supermicro Superserver Xeon D system owner! For virtualization enthusiasts with a SuperServer Xeon D This article will help you enjoy an even smoother ownership experience. VMware ESXi 6.5 runs well on Xeon D Supermicro ServerServers, here's what…
You can go with RAID for increased resilience and/or speed. Or you can go simple JBOD, and simply use the magic of VMware's Storage vMotion to move VMs among tiers at will, depending upon your needs for which speeds.Click to see more. I have chosen the latter approach for my Supermicro SuperServer…
TinkerTry's tagline: TinkerTry IT @ home Efficient virtualization, storage, backup, and more... I tend to go pretty deep in my articles for nearly 5 years now, ever since I created my original self-built Core i7 beast aptly named vZilla in 2011. It worked well, but using a consumer motherboard …
TinkerTry's tagline (since January 2013): TinkerTry IT @ home Efficient virtualization, storage, backup, and more... My writings are not done on a whim. This new Veeam beta obviously has my attention as the most interesting product in years, since bare metal restore software for Windows is rare. Ra…
It's a smart move, when an enterprise backup company markets their wares to the home lab enthusiast. Why? Well, we're often IT professionals, and there's no better way to get to know sofware than by trying software. 30 day time bombs don't exactly encourage you to really test these products hard …
Ookla speed test in my home on Oct 29 2014, on 802.11ac Yep, it's that time again. Migrating my extended family to iPhone 6. Eventually, all seven of them. One iPhone 6, 6 iPhone 6 Plus. See also Verizon iPhone 5 customer upgrading to iPhone 6 Plus on Sep 12 2014, here’s some useful tips. Doing a bu…
All things R2 Essentials, all in one place. If you’re looking to avoid domain joins, I've written up the exact client connector installation steps. My Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials system is handling daily backups of 12 PCs in my extended family, since January 2014. It's humming along as a VM a…
Unfortunately, the D-Link gigabit switches listed here first didn't work out well, details here. TinkerTry has featured many home network related articles. This is the place to easily find the best of them! For networking devices you leave running 24x7, you can get unmanaged gigabit switches at…
This is not a sponsored blog post. My extended family has purchased 7 of the various PFCLCD models since 2012, and it's gone well, with just one battery replacement needed so far. I've found them to be very easy to install and configure at friends and family homes. Without a PC, and without a man…
(I've not been updating this article since May 2015, because I've been focusing my efforts on a big step up from typical of Intel NUC / Shuttle PCs, moving to 128GB of RAM with the Xeon D-1540, details here) Let's start with the shopping tools. If you're after which mobo works with which CPU, then…
Recently had the opportunity to outfit a family member's house with a new entertainment system. Had to nail down a beautiful and super easy-to-use solution for the holidays. Mission accomplished! Learned a few things along the way to share, should you choose to buy these exact 3 highly-rated items…
There's a fair amount of discussion lately about USB 3.1, SATA Express (SATA 3.2), and finally, the Thunderbolt 2.0 that's arriving soon in the Apple Mac Pro. So when I was asked by a family member about the speed differences, I figured it'd be easy to answer. I Googled around, but all I found were…
April 20 2022 Urgent Update - Insteon ceased all sales and service operations abruptly in mid April of 2022, as covered by arstechnica here. Their abrupt closure left customers without access to their hubs to change any settings, myself included. While smarthome.com hasn't been taken offline yet, I…
If you're looking to avoid domain joins, I have a write-up on the connector installation, Windows Server 2012 Essentials – Connector installation followed by this fix, Windows Server 2012 Essentials remote client loses its Internet connection, here’s your DNS-related fix and optionally, the icing on …
Here's a collection of articles to help you build your own VMware vSphere lab. The focus is on simplicity, with ways of getting going with a very usable rig, quickly and effectively, using affordable commodity parts (see also Superguide: vZilla). This Superguide will be updated with the latest…
Usually, the server versions of Windows require a centrally managed antivirus solution. That also usually means the considerable cost that comes with such enterprise solutions. But what if you just want to find a basic antivirus solution that works on any of these 3 generations of products: …
The Lenovo ThinkPad USB 3.0 Docking Station (0A33970) is available from Amazon here. If you want to learn more about the possibility of getting more monitors hooked up to your USB 3.0 equipped system, you've come to the right place. Should work with nearly any brand of recent vintage laptop or de…
All of these systems have a focus on energy efficiency, with few frills to needlessly burn up watts. Built for the long haul, to serve my family's needs for the next 3-4 years. And they're pretty much bricks if access is unauthorized (RAID encryption, HDD passwords, etc). The content here is…
I’ve tested 4 brands of Z68 motherboards out, and the results are in, certain ASRock and MSI Z68 Motherboards can do VMDirectPath! I tested these 4 mid price point boards myself while building vZilla and each cost somewhere between $170-$230. As of July 14, 2011, using the BIOS version listed in t…
Jul 12 2011 Original Post: (see also updates, appended at the end) Create your own fast and resilient VMware whitebox, for both "production" and "lab" use. I'm happy to finally be publishing this summary on July 12, 2011...the day vSphere 5 was announced. Back in April, my goals…
TinkerTry - PCs, EVs, home tech, efficiency and more, including virtualization. My opinions here, not my employer's.
Paul Braren, MCSE in 1998, VCP #2681 in 2005, vExpert 2014 to 2024, Veeam Vanguard Emeritus, 2015 to 2019.
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After 6 successful years testing then shipping well over 1,000 Xeon D Bundles, Wiredzone had to stop selling them in mid-2021 due to cost, supply, and logistics challenges. So far, Xeon D-1700/2700 (Ice Lake D) was a minor refresh for 2023, with Xeon D-1800/2800 (Granite Rapids D) refresh looking a little better for 2024. More cores, but still just PCIe Gen4 and DDR4. Looking ahead, I'm glad it's Pat Gelsinger at Intel's helm. I'm also grateful to have had the honor of working at VMware when Pat was the CIO there. I'll leave it at that, given the whole Broadcom thing.
Easily update VMware ESXi at TinkerTry.com/easy-update-to-latest-esxi
