Category Archives: Home Lab

Updating the Home Lab

Posted on 9 March 2020 by Chris

I recently got a few new SuperMicro servers for the home lab along with a 10 GbE Cisco switch and an updated Synology NAS. Look for some posts in the coming weeks on my planning and deployment of the new … Continue reading →

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Home Lab Overview

Posted on 8 February 2018 by Chris

Since I work with different customers all the time, I am constantly testing things for work in my home lab. When customers and co-workers hear about my lab they often ask what hardware is in the lab. I’m putting this … Continue reading →

Posted in Home Lab, VMware | 2 Comments

Adding an isolated network to my home lab

Posted on 22 March 2016 by Chris

Last week I set up a Satellite server in my home lab so I could test out deploying systems via kickstart. I wanted to kickstart the VM’s using DCHP and PXE but I didnt want the DHCP server running on … Continue reading →

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Configuring Infoblox in the home lab for vRO

Posted on 7 December 2015 by Chris

Infoblox’s IPAM is an awesome product for IP address management, DHCP, DNS, etc. It is used by lots of companies and is often integrated with vRA/vRO. Because of this, I have a local install of the IPAM in my home … Continue reading →

Posted in Automation, Home Lab, Sysadmin, vRO | Leave a comment

Installing Fedora 21 and ESXi 5.5 on my new Shuttle DS81

Posted on 7 March 2015 by Chris

As I previously wrote, I recently assembled a new workstation for the home lab that I will be using as both a Linux and ESXi host. I’ll be using it as an admin workstation while not traveling (Linux) and then … Continue reading →

Posted in ESXi, Home Lab, Linux, VMware, Vurtualization | 2 Comments

New Fedora 21 and ESXi Host in the homelab

Posted on 7 March 2015 by Chris

A while back I wrote about setting up an old Toshiba laptop we had laying around as a workstation to manage my VMware environment including vCO (now named vRO). That laptop has been working well but I wanted something a … Continue reading →

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Repair a vCenter SQL Express Database

Posted on 27 May 2014 by Chris

The day before yesterday the power flickered at our house and because I had procrastinated installing a UPS in my home lab, my systems all powered off unexpectedly. Yesterday I went out and bought the UPS and powered everything back … Continue reading →

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Linux Desktop for VMware Administration

Posted on 23 April 2014 by Chris

I recently replaced my daughters aging Toshiba laptop with a used MacBook Pro. The MacBook Pro was much faster and she reallylikes working in OS X so it was a great fit for her needs. With the freeing up of … Continue reading →

Posted in Home Lab, Linux, vCenter, VMware, vSphere | 4 Comments

VSAN in the home lab

Posted on 17 April 2014 by Chris

Today I received the 3 mSATA drives I bought from eBay with some NCAA tournament winnings. I got the cheapest mSATA drives I could find which ended up being 32 GB Samsung disks for $25 each with free shipping. I … Continue reading →

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MacBook Pro 8,3 Linux Success… Kinda

Posted on 23 January 2012 by Chris

In my previous post about my frustration getting Linux installed on my 8,3 MacBook Pro I mentioned that I could not get an installer to boot. Well, with Open SuSE 12.1 I was able to finally get the installer to … Continue reading →

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