2016 on iThinkVirtual™

How To: Create A VMFS5 Datastore On A USB Drive

Sun, 14 Aug 2016 21:45:09 -0400

Create A VMFS5 Datastore On A USB Drive

Ever wondered if it was possible to use a USB Drive as a VMFS5 datastore in VMware vSphere 6.0? I sure know that I have! Not that I would like to run any VM’s on said datastore, as I’m sure performance would not be optimal, but instead to test its functionality and use it for storing ESXi host logs for example. Well, I ran into an issue today where I needed to unmount all of my NFS mounts on ESXi 6.0 U2 in order to recreate some of the volumes before remounting them. The problem was that I was unable to unmount one of my volumes because it was bound to the ESXi host for scratch logs. As I didn’t have a spare drive of any sort to attach to my host so that I could reconfigure the location for scratch logs, I began tinkering with the idea of using a small USB drive as a temporary datastore for these logs.

PernixData FVP Freedom Woes With Missing Supermicro System UUID

Sat, 06 Aug 2016 22:44:03 -0400

PernixData FVP Freedom Woes With Missing System UUID

Recently, I’ve been wanting to give PernixData FVP Freedom a run in my HomeLab Datacenter to better familiarize myself with the product and see how much of a performance improvement I’d get if any at all. I’ve heard from so many people how much they love the product so I figured “why not”?

Installing phpIPAM on Ubuntu 16.04

Mon, 09 May 2016 00:46:21 -0400

Installing phpIPAM on Ubuntu 16.04

I have been thinking, for a while now, about deploying an IP Address Management (IPAM) system in my Home Lab environment to keep track of my assigned addresses across my various VLANs. In looking for the right solution, I came across many different choices, from Infloblox to Microsoft’s very own IPAM feature within Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2. I read many articles, and kept seeing rave reviews and tons of praise about phpIPAM and that it was simple to install and get it running (at least that’s how it’s advertised). I went to the phpIPAM website to lookup more information and noticed they have an installation guide available. Upon observing it, I quickly became disappointed at the lack of detailed instructions to actually deploy it on a system. I guess they assume everyone has adequate knowledge of Linux operating systems, but myself personally, I’m still pretty novice at Linux and am looking to become more proficient with it. I figured this is a good opportunity to get some hands-on Linux experience since I already knew how to, at the ver least, install an OS!

Creating a Single-Node VSAN

Mon, 02 May 2016 14:00:54 -0400

Creating a Single-Node VSAN

Many of us homelab enthusiasts tend to build “whitebox” systems from spare PC parts and a few internal hard drives for local storage that we’ve either ordered or had laying around in order install ESXi and run a single-node lab environment. VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) enables the ability to build a local SAN environment utilizing the local hard drives in the host. The only downside/caveat is that you need a minimum of (3) ESXi hosts in a cluster to enable and configure VSAN. Bummer!

Create a Synology VM with XPEnology

Sat, 30 Apr 2016 05:44:02 -0400

Create a Synology VM with XPEnology

I’m a huge fan of Synology NAS systems, but I must say, they do often put a gaping hole in your wallet. Well, fortunately the folks over at XPEnology have created an alternative way for us to create your own Synology devices, whether it be deployed on a bare-metal system or as a virtual machine. I currently own a few Synology NAS devices, but I love having the ability to spin up a working VM version quickly and with ease, for use in my nested lab environments.

Home Lab 2016 – Part 3

Sat, 23 Apr 2016 22:11:29 -0400

Home Lab 2016 – Part 3

Hello all! My sincere apologies for the brief hiatus, but I am back to continue my Home Lab 2016 series. In my previous posts, I covered the components that make up my new Home Lab. In this post I will quickly cover my Storage and Network solutions that connect my lab. Let’s get to it!

Configure OpenDNS on Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite

Sun, 27 Mar 2016 15:46:36 -0400

I recently picked up a new router/firewall for my home, and chose the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite (ERLite-3). This device comes with a lot of bells and whistles and if you would like more information on it, please see here.

Intel NIC not detected by ESXi

Tue, 22 Mar 2016 03:48:41 -0400

Intel NIC Not Detected by ESXi

In this post I am going to cover a random issue I encountered after installing ESXi 6.0 Update 2 on one of my new Home Lab 2016 hosts. The actual installation of ESXi was extremely easy and painless (I may cover that in another post). After I had completed the installation, I was attempting to configure my Management network interfaces and suddenly noticed that only 4 network interfaces were being detected!

Home Lab 2016 – Part 2

Tue, 15 Mar 2016 23:36:15 -0400

Home Lab 2016 – Part 2

Welcome back for Part 2 of my Home Lab 2016 Series. I hope that you enjoyed my previous post, Part 1 from last week, where I covered the basis of my home lab and presented the Bill of Materials (BOM) for my mini-datacenter environment.

Home Lab 2016 – Part 1

Sat, 05 Mar 2016 00:18:50 -0500

Home Lab 2016 – Part 1

Having a home lab is every IT enthusiasts dream come true, and now I can finally say that I have fulfilled that dream! I previously was (and currently still am…) using a 1-node “white box” system I had built from a spare gaming machine I had laying around, running on an open-air tech bench from TopDeck. It’s comprised of the following: