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…
* Customers pay only the cost of Software Assurance. See also visitor comment below. You may recall me doing a bit of Hyper-V testing and demonstration earlier this year, using the impressively-stable Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 5 (beta) code. I also tested it as a VMware ESXi 6.0U2 VM…
You may have recently read about VTUG Co-Leader Chris Williams, in my recent post about falling DDR4 prices that are helping make Supermicro Xeon D-1541 SuperServers more obtainable for virtualization enthusiasts who are always thirsty for more RAM. Well, just so happens he's taking delivery of his…
I now have measurements of watt burn and dB levels for each of the SuperServer Xeon D form factors, seen near in TinkerTry's exclusive comparison table. The mini-tower is still by far the quietest and most versatile. The faster and cheaper Samsung 960 M.2 NVMe drives run cooler than the 950 PRO, so…
Just a quick update to the original article back on February 7 2016: First look at the new Intel Xeon D-1541 Supermicro SuperServer SYS-5028D-TN4T since a number of questions have come up about the CPU and the multiplier. While this Xeon D-1541 loaner is a pre-release BIOS on a pre-release Rev.…
What a nice way to start the day, thanks to TinkerTry commenter Jay Oliphant @JackOfAllTech. I somehow hadn't spotted this article yet, what a great find! Jay is also the super helpful TinkerTry visitor who helped me squash a strange TinkerTry CDN bug, back in 2014. A Lego server, nice! Hey…
I've said this before. Using VMware vSphere in a home lab isn't without its challenges. For IT Pros, it's best to know multiple platforms anyway. For me personally, VMware is still a vast majority of what my customers run, so keeping up on the latest vSphere is what spend much of my time doing in…
VMware ESXi or Microsoft Hyper-V home labs crave RAM. Lots of RAM. It's likely the bottleneck you'll bump into first. It's also not easily upgradeable, once you hit your CPU/motherboard limits. So we continue to wait for possible solutions. My own 2011-vintage Z68 based vZilla build has 32GB of…
Disclosure. I work for IBM's storage division, but am not involved in this NVIDA collaboration in any way. This is a personal blog, reflecting my own opinions and observations. Today, I was rather surprised to see announcements about this new NVLink. Can you imagine a shared (a vGPU/vSGA) GPU ready to…
, thanks Chris Harney! It's cold. It's dark. It's foggy. It's winter, in New England. The perfect time to head on over to the Gillette Stadium to hang out with over a thousand other IT Professionals, and talk about virtualization! C'mon, let's face it. We work in indoors, so does the weather…
. Another wonderful event, thank you Chris Harney @csharney! See also Virtualization Technology User Group Summer Slam 2013. Met a lot of new folks, learned a lot in the breakout sessions, and enjoyed some beautiful autumn weather on the drive over. A pleasant day, and a very worthwhile trip for …
Mar 12 2014 Update, see also ESXi 5.5 Update 1 info, just released Mar 11 2014: TinkerTry.com/download-vsphere-5-5-u-1-lab original article appears below. Do you have an efficient and affordable home "vZilla" system of your own, that's got some RAM, and a yearning to juggle many…
See the BrontaStor 822R-E4/SNU at Armari Performance In Computing. Other models announced Sep 18 2013 to follow, seen here, with a full review at Hexus.net, and product overviews at the BrontaStor YouTube Channel.* If you've been following my site for a while, you know that back in the summer of…
Mar 12 2015 11:15am EDT update – with ESXi 6.0 now released, worth noting that Rufus still works just fine, including the new but very similar Rufus 2.0 Portable, and this USB flash drive. 8 people are reading this article right now! : The executable is digitally signed and the signature should s…
: The executable is digitally signed and the signature should state: "Akeo Consulting" (v1.3.0 or later) "Pete Batard - Open Source Developer" (v1.2.0 or earlier) Rufus: Reliable USB Formatting Utility (with Source), read the introduction, FAQ, and support forum. If you're trying …
Remember this post, from Dec 16 2011? Practical ways to deal with VMware ESXi 5.0′s 2TB virtual disk size limitation by Paul Braren on Dec 16 2011 Well, 2 Terabytes isn't cool, you know what's cool? 62 Terabytes. With my new ESXi 5.5 GA build, passing through some or all of my 4 port USB 3.0 PCI card …
Well, this is a first for TinkerTry. A blog post that simply asks a question for site visitors to weigh in on. No need for me to stir the kettle on this one, since "MooTrader" has done that for us last night here: A bigger question, is it time for the home enthusiast to move to Hyper-V?…
Here's the fun email I received a while back YOU’RE INVITED: Summer Slam VTUG (aka NEVMUG) and Lobstah Bake! Hey All, I wanted to reach out to the VTUG community. As most of you know Summer Slam 2013 is fast approaching. It is a great event and in this day and age of training budgets being cut, it i…
It tends to take a while for the latest and greatest in consumer tech to sneak its way into the datacenter. Think about USB 3.0, for example. It can allow a small businesses or test lab to implement much more affordable external storage and backup options. For example, USB 3.0 passthrough allowed…
A little summer fun, combined with some summer learning, and a bit of travel tech. Today, I traveled from Connecticut to Maine, for the free Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals, where I'll use my eSATAp cable to non-destructively install Hyper-V on my laptop Wednesday July 17th, …
This is big news today. I'm fortunate to have an active, corporate bulk MSDN subscription through April of 2016. But those with TechNet-only aren't likely to be terribly happy about today's news. Microsoft to shut down TechNet subscription service Ed Bott, Jul 1 2013 Summary: One of the best s…
Yeah, nothing polarizes opinions more than talking about Apple. Hang on a second though, keep an open mind. I've used PCs since the mid 1980s, and I have to admit, from an engineering and design perspective, little out there impresses me like the surprisingly affordable 2011 Mac mini. Excellent…
SPCS001 - Technology Insight: Intel® Next Generation Microarchitecture Code Name Haswell Per Hammarlund, Ronak Singhal, Hong Jiang This technical deep-dive with video is from an April 10 2013 presentation at IDF2013 (Intel Developer Forum) in Bejing, China is now available, with a brief …
When working at an IBM customer center from 1995-2005, I spent a lot of evenings helping host local user groups, something I thoroughly enjoyed. If you've been to this site before, you already know I like getting out, such as attending the Hyper-V Loadfest. The value I get out of these events is f…
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 since 2014, Veeam Vanguard Emeritus, 2015 to 2019.
After 6 successful years testing and shipping well over 1,000 Xeon D Bundles, Wiredzone had to stop selling them in 2021 due to cost, supply, and logistics challenges. Fingers crossed for Intel Ice Lake D solutions in 2022, go Gelsinger! Or AMD EPYC, we'll see.
Easily update VMware ESXi at TinkerTry.com/easy-update-to-latest-esxi
