Thank you again Jim, for you being you, and for inviting me again! Including "The Home Tech Podcast" episodes, it's my 18th time on the air with you, with all of them listed below! It's always fun to catch up. I've got a few notes below, just in case you'd like to explore any of these…
Earlier this summer, Synology reached out to me to discuss the possibly of turning in some long term evaluation NAS equipment in return for some hands-on time with the very new Synology 1522+ featuring AMD Ryzen and ECC memory capability. Naturally, I said yes, especially since they were offering…
Thank you again Jim, for you being you, and for inviting me again! Always fun to catch up, here's some ideas, just in case you'd like to explore any of these a little further. Jim’s Podcast episode and video announcement post: Paul Braren with an Insteon Departure, the EV Decider and Heat Pumps f…
TinkerTry Home Lab Testing of Synology DS1618+ and DS1621xs+. DSM 6.2.x at left, DSM 7.x at right. Click/tap twice to zoom in. DSM 7 has made getting started even easier. Introduction This article is a natural follow-on to my previous, closely-related article about some hands-on time I had with…
Image adapted from "Microsoft support policy for 4K sector hard drives in Windows" In my day job in IT, the move to all flash has been pretty much complete for all near big business and enterprise sales for a good 2-3 years now. The picture is different in the home lab. NASs are commonly…
Roughly two years ago, Ryan Shrout, Allyn Malventano, and Ken Addison headed from their massive accomplishments at PC Perspective to join Intel. I had the honor of meeting these guys in the PC Perspective studio, and Allyn was kind enough to even record an NVMe story swap with me in that very same…
Introduction This article is an update to my previous, closely-related article about some hands-on time I had with this 2018 product: Synology DiskStation DS1618+ NAS First Look featuring 10GbE! Mar 11 2019 which generated many reader comments where it became evident that others felt much as I…
I've been beating up my Samsung 960 PRO 2TB for a good 3 years now. It's in my daily driver, a Windows 10 VM in my Supermicro SuperServer SYS-5028D-TN4T system with Xeon D-1567 12 core, also known as Bundle 1. Shop Amazon. Amazon - Sabrent 4TB Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 Internal SSD High…
This new podcast episode 451 is available at the averageguy.tv at Paul Braren with Tech Challenges and Successes – HGG451 where you can also view, listen, and/or subscribe. Here's an excerpt: Paul Braren joins us this week as we get an update on several of home projects. From a discussion on Cox i…
TinkerTry makes no claims to be a news site, but I do write a bit about topics that affect home lab enthusiasts including storage, with spinning drives for things like backups certainly a recurring theme here. So much of YouTube has a whole lot of flashy thumbnails these days intended to draw your…
White Canyon Software has been in the business of certified drive wipes for over 21 years! It's about time I had a look for myself, here's their WipeDrive 9 Product Page. Disclosure: This unpaid article and video demonstrates WipeDrive by WhiteCanyon. WhiteCanyon has run an occasional ad through…
TeslaFi Affiliate Link above, Amazon and other commission-earning links below. I just got home from a roadtrip to visit family in Boston, spending just $9.11 cents in electricity to move ourselves 208 miles total. What a nice treat to catch this tweet (pictured at right) by @awraynor, time to…
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…
Disclosure - This test unit was provided by Synology. It's an evaluation, with no promises or stipulations about what content I produce. No money, no Synology advertisements placed. "TinkerTry.com, LLC" may earn a modest commission from readers who use the shopping links below. Backstory…
This new podcast episode 385 is now available at the averageguy.tv here, where you can also view, listen, and/or subscribe. Here's an excerpt: Paul Braren from https://tinkertry.com and on Twitter at @paulbraren joins this week as we catch up with him and his job with VMware, some travel tech from…
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…
Once in a long while, I get an opportunity to get my hands on some amazing hardware, packed with top-flight components. This is one of those times! With permission granted to publish, I'm now able to give you a glimpse into what a fully supported vSAN ReadyNode really looks like, up close and…
If you've been watching my article: Status of VMware vSphere 6.7 support by VM backup companies Apr 19 2018 you already know what's been happening with the VM backup companies trying to get full vSphere 6.7 support out the door within about 60 to 90 days of its announcement and release: …
I created the video below that features a very detailed walk-through of an imaging process of the ESXi hypervisor installation that seems to work quite well for me. I tested this heavily when tinkering with various vSphere 6.5 and 6.7 versions in my home lab. While the use of such an tool isn't…
Image above adapted from Anthony Spiteri's excellent VeeamON 2018 Recap. See also my extensive, picture-filled @paulbraren #VeeamON timeline. I may not have been VMware's first choice to cover this Other Veeam Vanguards from VMware's Technical Marketing team were unable to attend due to…
Above image adapted from What's New with vSphere 6 HOL. Table of Contents, in alphabetic order: Altaro VM Backup Commvault Micro Focus VM Explorer Virtual Machine Backup NAKIVO Backup & Replication Unitrends Backup Veeam Backup & Replication This short article is really just about one of…
Introduction This article takes a quick look at Intel's latest SSD specs, and their potential for use in a VMware virtualization home lab environment. I do not currently have a sample of the 760p for first-hand testing. The information here is based on a briefing I recently received from an Intel…
"Home Gadget Geeks" available in 5 color choices and 3 sizes at Amazon. Alternative title: "Paul Braren's nostalgic look back at PC, audio, video, PC, and phone tech from the 1970s to 2000s, including the ThinkPad 701c Butterfly with an expanding keyboard" The below article…
There are three recent Intel announcements that are quite interesting. The first is about 4 recent detailed technical publications, the second is about a maximum Optane capacity doubling, and the third is about a new 3D XPoint fab, in collaboration with Micron. Of most interest to me personally is…
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
