Tips added since initial publication: There are server-side issues that result in failing to get work assigned to your VM, see ongoing discussions here, new automatic bigadv on 16 CPU or larger VMs seems to have helped. I have now published a short video of downloading/deploying/configuring 1.0.1…
Check out the many related articles on the web in my See Also section below. If you're feeling kinda TLDR, try the video gallery below, with General Availability expected by May 1 2020. This long awaited major vSphere release was officially announced earlier today, and I've included 3 key excerpts…
When I was at VMware as a vSAN SE, I often got asked about what home lab equipment to buy. The answer was usually along the lines of "it depends." In other words, you need to know what the goals of the buyer are, and I always spent time asking a lot of questions before proposing anything,…
This article has been replaced by this newer article: Supermicro Xeon D SuperServer BIOS 2.3 / IPMI 3.88 released, how to upgrade with ease! Article as it originally appeared below. Step-by-step walk through video is now available! The only information I have about this 2.1 BIOS release is…
Put your nomination(s) in by January 21 2020, all the instructions are in Nikola Pejková's post here. You can nominate yourself (or be nominated by another person), so don’t be shy and apply by sending your profile summary or CV to As of Jan 21 2020, nominations are now closed. Existing Vanguards re…
Backstory Last week, this timely twitter exchange occurred, seen at right. JD Wallace noticed that the code at VMUG Advantage isn't always quite at the very latest patch level. The kind volunteer who updates the VMUG Advantage EVALExperience growing library of huge files does so on a quarterly…
This vSphere update was officially announced 6.7 Update 3 last week, and yesterday, it became available to download. For folks with only VMUG Advantage EVALExperience with its (currently) older 6.7 Update 2 VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.7.0.update02-13006603.x86_64.iso they can instead use ESXCLI to…
This vSphere update was officially announced last week: VMware vSphere 6.7 Update 3 Announced Today, vSphere 6.7 Update 3 became generally available, and anybody can download and install or upgrade, or just use VUM to upgrade. If you only have VMUG Advantage EVALExperience with its (currently)…
This vSphere update was officially announced one week ago: Announcing vSphere 6.7 Update 3 Aug 13 2019 by Niels Hagoort at VMware vSphere Blog We are excited to announce the future release of VMware vSphere 6.7 Update 3. This new vSphere release comes with enhancements that will continue to…
If you're just here for the nostalgia, no problem, check out the Photos, Videos below, or have a look back at all my VTUG tweets. Don't get misty on me, not yet, I got more for you, read on... Magic moment #1 One of the most touching moments in my IT career ever was thanks to Matt Broberg…
Turn Your QNAP, Synology, ASUSTOR, WD, or Netgear NAS into a VM Backup Appliance, claiming to improve backup performance by up to 2X and offload your IT infrastructure I recently wrote about NAKIVO v8.5.2 with detailed walk-thru install and configure videos, see that detailed article here: NAKIVO…
Table of Contents Here's all the links for you, jumping you right down to the section you're most interested in below: Microsoft Windows Update Microsoft Windows Download Microsoft Windows Evaluation Center Microsoft Visual Studio Downloads Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC) …
Turn Your QNAP, Synology, ASUSTOR, WD, or Netgear NAS into a VM Backup Appliance, claiming to improve backup performance by up to 2X and offload your IT infrastructure It's no secret that I appreciate the simplicity of installing the NAKIVO Backup & Replication appliance in my home's personal…
This vSphere update was officially announced last week, see: Announcing vSphere 6.7 Update 2, vSphere Platinum updates, and vSphere ROBO Enterprise Apr 02 2019 by Himanshu Singh at VMware vSphere Blog I am excited to share that today we are announcing the VMware vSphere 6.7 Update 2 release,…
This vSphere update was officially announced earlier today: Announcing vSphere 6.7 Update 2, vSphere Platinum updates, and vSphere ROBO Enterprise Apr 02 2019 by Himanshu Singh at VMware vSphere Blog I am excited to share that today we are announcing the VMware vSphere 6.7 Update 2 release, with…
Dear Home Lab Enthusiast with data to protect: Today's Veeam announcement was big. A way to run enterprise level software with all the features you need for a lab environment, with none of the guilt. That's right, up to 10 VMs, and physical systems too! Got your attention? Read on! I started using…
Notice the 900P U.2 NVMe SSD above the motherboard There was a little-discussed and finally mature capability that arrived with VMware ESXi 6.5, back in November of 2016. See Amazon for the Intel Optane SSD 900P Series, but this consumer drive might not be ideal for most home virtualization lab…
I must have mentioned Duo's MFA to over a dozen folks all this year, sharing the existence of this great gem with user group attendees, colleagues, friends, and strangers. If you have an alway-on Windows or Windows Server jump box or VM listening for connection attempts to port 3389 in your home…
Table of Contents Here's all the links for you, jumping you right down to the section you're most interested in below: Microsoft Windows Update Microsoft Windows Download Microsoft Windows Evaluation Center Microsoft Visual Studio Downloads Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC) …
Introduction Fun discussion about Mac mini, Intel NUC, and tiny Supermicro 1U E200/E300 systems. I'm aware of the interest in these 2 newer SYS-E300-9D variants that quietly arrived without a press release. The product pages seem to first be noticed on October 30. The 8 core version is said to…
Specification Differentiations These features: From the Oct 30 2018 Apple Event. Standard: Desktop 8th-generation 3.2GHz Intel Core Processor Thunderbolt 3 / USB C expansion (4 ports) NVMe based SSD storage running at full speeds Optional: up to 6 cores up to 64GB of RAM (SODIMMs) up to 10GbE…
On Aug 27 2018, VMware announced many improvements coming in vSphere 6.7 Update 1 / vSAN 6.7 Update 1, which I wrote about here. On Oct 16 2018, the VCSA and ESXi ISO bits became available for download, seen on Virtually Ghetto here including release notes and download links. As usual, you'll want…
Back at VMworld 2018 US, I was a bit bummed when I heard that there was a home lab panel featuring @sirgeekness @homelaber @DemitasseNZ @virtualhobbit and @importcarguy, at the very same time as I was scheduled to present on another stage. Well, I wasn't bummed for long, since the ever effervescent…
Dec 30 2024 Read Me First - I've updated my VCSA appliance to 8.0.3.00400, and have successfully updated to ESXi 8.0 U3c, getting past the '[MemoryError]' issue, details below. The major update 8.0 Update 3 release was indicated officially at VMware by Broadcom here on June 25 2024. The Memory…
TinkerTry - PCs, EVs, home tech, efficiency and more, including virtualization. My opinions here. IT Professional offering part-time consulting.
Paul Braren, MCSE in 1998, VCP #2681 in 2005, vExpert 2014 to 2025, Veeam Vanguard Emeritus, 2015 to 2019.
Easily update VMware ESXi at TinkerTry.com/easy-update-to-latest-esxi
These systems still work great for many even 9+ years later, mine included, even with (unsupported) vSphere 8 and Windows 11 Version 21H2. But unless you added the optional TPM module, it may be the end of the line as far as repurposing them for running the latest Windows 11 Version 24H2 and beyond.
After 6 successful years testing then shipping well over 1,000 Xeon D Bundles, Wiredzone had to stop SuperServer bundles in mid-2021 due to cost, supply, and logistics challenges. Bare bones system sales continued for years longer.
What's next in 2025? I don't yet have my answer for my home lab, especially now that VCF certification is required to keep non-production home lab licenses going, even as a vExpert and VMUG Advantage EVALExperience customer.
As for a SuperServer follow-on, the Xeon D-1700/2700 (Ice Lake D) was a minor refresh for 2023, with Xeon D-1800/2800 (Granite Rapids D) refresh slightly better in 2024, and hopefully Xeon 6 (Granite Rapids-D) much better in 2025 featuring PCIe Gen5, MCRDIMMs, and 100GbE networking, wow! Feb. 27 2025 update update looks promising, but pricey. Infortunately, it's become clear to me that Supermicro is less focuses on the mini-tower form factor these days.
As for the CPU industry, it's unfortunate that Pat Gelsinger was apparently ousted from Intel's helm in these challenging times, but I'm also grateful to have had the honor of working at VMware when he was the CIO there. I'll leave it at that, given the whole Broadcom thing.
