# vNinja.net | VMware, VCF & Homelab > ## Posts - [ESX Security Advice that Actually Matters in 2026](https://vNinja.net/2026/05/12/esxi-security-advice-that-actually-matters-in-2026/) — ESX security in 2026 is driven less by hypervisor hardening and more by identity, reachability, and control-plane exposure, where vCenter access and visibility gaps ultimately determine real-world compromise paths. - [VCF Security Reality Check: What This Series Covers](https://vNinja.net/2026/05/12/vcf-security-reality-check/) — Scope and assumptions for the VCF Security Reality Check series. - [Intel Arc SR-IOV Hardware Transcoding with Plex on Proxmox VE](https://vNinja.net/2026/05/07/intel-arc-sr-iov-hardware-transcoding-with-plex-on-proxmox-ve/) — How to set up Intel Arc SR-IOV on Proxmox VE with three ASUS NUC 15 Pro units for Plex hardware transcoding, including notes on kernel compatibility and the required Plex beta release. - [GL-iNet Brume 3 (GL-MT5000) VPN Security Gateway: Some Takeaways](https://vNinja.net/2026/04/21/gl-inet-gl-mt5000-vpn-security-gateway/) — At the end of 2025 I received a GL-iNet Brume 3 (GL-MT5000) as part of a beta testing program, and it’s been quietly running in my home network ever since. I didn’t redesign my setup around it or do anything particularly fancy—simply dropped it into the network alongside my existing gateway to see how it would behave in a real-world environment. - [When Synology Says No: Building a Minimal rsync-to-NFS Bridge That Actually Works](https://vNinja.net/2026/04/08/when-synology-says-no-rsync-to-nfs/) — - [VMUG Connect 2026 Amsterdam – Security, Community, and the Reality of "Living with IT"](https://vNinja.net/2026/03/20/vmug-connect-2026-amsterdam-security-community-living-with-it/) — This past week I attended VMUG Connect 2026 Amsterdam at RAI Amsterdam.This was the first VMUG Connect event ever held in Europe, and that alone made it a notable milestone. - [Will We See YOU at VMUG Connect 2026 in Amsterdam?](https://vNinja.net/2025/12/21/vmug-connect-2026-amsterdam-session/) — - [VMUG Connect is expanding in 2026 with five stops!](https://vNinja.net/2025/11/24/vmug-connect-2026/) — - [vSphere: It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Gets Root](https://vNinja.net/2025/09/18/vsphere-its-all-fun-and-games-until-someone-gets-root/) — At the VMUG UserCon UK 2025 I presented a session called *vSphere: It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Gets Root*. The premise of the talk was the havoc a malicious actor can wreck to an environment, if they gain root access to an ESXi host. Of course, once someone has gained root access, all bets are off anyway, but there are some interesting tecniques that can be utilized simply by using native commands. This is otherwise known as **Living off The Land (LOTL)**, where attackers use legitimate tools and features that are already present on a system. - [GL-iNet Opal (GL-SFT1200) Travel Router: Real Usage Experience](https://vNinja.net/2025/09/15/gl-inet-opal-travel-router-experience/) — In August 2024, I acquired a GL.iNet Opal (GL-SFT1200) Travel Router, and it has since become an indispensable companion for my multi-day travels. Its compact design and robust feature set have consistently met my connectivity needs on the road. - [vSphere LCM Moving From Baselines to Images](https://vNinja.net/2025/09/12/vsphere-moving-from-baselines-to-images/) — If you are using baselines to update your VMware clusters it is time to move to using images instead. - [Storage in Hypervisor and Kubernetes Environments: What Are the Options?](https://vNinja.net/2025/09/12/storage-in-hypervisor-and-kubernetes-environments/) — When talking about modern infrastructure, storage is as critical as compute and networking. Applications — whether traditional VMs or cloud-native containers — depend on reliable, performant, and consistent storage. - [Containers in Your Hypervisor vs. VMs in Kubernetes: What’s the Difference?](https://vNinja.net/2025/09/11/containers-in-your-hypervisor-or-vms-in-kubernetes/) — When talking about modern infrastructure, there are multiple ways to combine virtualization and Kubernetes. The architectures described below are general concepts and not specific to any single hypervisor. They illustrate common patterns for combining virtualization and Kubernetes, but exact implementations may vary depending on your infrastructure vendor and setup. - [How to set up a VMware vSphere Native Key Provider (NKP)](https://vNinja.net/2025/08/15/how-to-set-up-a-vsphere-native-key-provider/) — From VMware vSphere 7.0.2 you can configure a vSphere NKP to enable encryption-related functionality from your vCenter. The ESXi hosts do not require a TPM 2.0 chip to use NKP, but a TPM chip provides enhanced security. - [Casting Home Assistant Dashboards to Google Nest Hub 2nd Gen - Take 2](https://vNinja.net/2025/07/20/homeassistant-google-nest-hub-2nd-gen-take2/) — Back in 2022, I shared how I used Cast All The Things (CATT) to display Home Assistant Lovelace dashboards on my Google Nest Hub 2nd gen. At the time, the setup was admittedly complex relying on Node-RED to SSH into a virtual machine and trigger bash scripts. That approach served me well for a few years, but I've since streamlined the process significantly. With the help of two excellent tools, ha-catt-fix and the ryanbarrett/catt-chromecast container I have eliminated the need for Node-RED and the custom scripts entirely. - [Migrating From Sonoff ZBDongle-P to SMLIGHT SLZB-MRW10 in Zigbee2MQTT](https://vNinja.net/2025/07/16/migrating-from-zbdongle-p-to-slzb-mrw10-zigbee2mqtt/) — My home Zigbee network has been powered by a Sonoff ZBDongle-P coordinator since 2022, and it's worked very well. The problem with it is that it's USB based, and since I run Zigbee2MQTT as an addon to Home Assistant in a VM, that VM needs to be pinned to a specific host in the the cluster and I couldn't move it around. Thankfully there's been some great development around these kinds of devices in the last couple of years, and newer devices with direct network connectivity, powered via PoE, is now available. - [VMware Critical Security Advisory: VMSA-2025-0013](https://vNinja.net/2025/07/15/vmware-critical-security-advisory-vmsa-2025-0013/) — Back in May at Pwn2Own Berlin 2025 a couple of new VMware ESXi, Workstation/Fusion and VMware Tools exploits were successfully exploited. Today Broadcom has released a new security advisory, VMSA-2025-0013, specifically targeting these exploits. - [VMware Explore on Tour 2025: London](https://vNinja.net/2025/07/09/vmware-explore-on-tour-2025-london/) — Registration for VMware Explore on Tour 2025 London is now live! - [vSphere 8: Error Installing HA components failed](https://vNinja.net/2025/07/09/error-installing-ha-components-failed-vsphere-8/) — Enabling vSphere HA in a cluster might fail with Applying HA VIBs on the cluster encountered a failure or Installing HA components failed on the cluster: domain-cX - [ESX to ESXi and Back Again](https://vNinja.net/2025/06/18/esx-to-esxi-and-back-again/) — With the release of VMware Cloud Foundation 9, Broadcom has reverted the name of the hypervisor back to ESX removing the ESXi name that was introduced with ESXi 4.1, when the old service console was removed. - [VCF / VVF 9 Deprecation Notices](https://vNinja.net/2025/06/18/vcf9-deprecation-notices/) — While new features and enhancements are always exciting, new releases often also come with deprecation notices and end of support notices for features that were previously available, and those might also have a huge impact on a deployment. That is also the case for VCF 9 / VVF 9, and they are highlighted in the Release Notes for VCF 9 under Product Support Notes. - [VCF 9.0 Is Here — What Does That Mean?](https://vNinja.net/2025/06/17/vcf9-is-here-what-does-that-mean/) — The main focus in Broadcoms annoncement is that this is the realization of the Modern Private Cloud. The focus has switched from being everything, everywhere to everyone, aka the old VMware Multi-Cloud vision, to a clear focus on Private Cloud — **and Private Cloud only**. This release also aligns all the products in the VCF (and vSphere Foundation (VVF)) stack into one product with a set of features, instead of a set of products combined into a release. - [phpIPAM to Homepage](https://vNinja.net/2025/01/22/phpipam-to-homepage/) — I recently set up Homepage which offers an application/service dashboard for my resources. For a small home lab this works well, and it is very handy to have an easy to access dashboard like this available. It offers integration and widgets for a whole slew of services like Plex, Uptime Kuma and Synology. It even has native icmp based monitoring built in. All in all, it's pretty slick!

phpIPAM to Homepage automates services.yaml creation based on information from phpIPAM for larger lab environments - [Seamless Home Assistant NFC Automations on iPhone](https://vNinja.net/2025/01/02/nfc-tags-iphone-home-assistant/) — Home Assistant has the ability to read and write NFC tags via the Companion App but using this on an iPhone is a bit cumbersome as Apple doesn't allow that apps read NFC tags and do an action without a confirmation from the user. This default setting makes sense, as I don't want random NFC's triggering events on my phone, but there is no way of overriding this behaviour even for known tags — which sometimes defeats the purpose of having NFC tags automate actions and events in Home Assistant. There is, however, a way to work around this limitation. - [Ghostty — Workaround for Missing or Unsuitable Terminal xterm-ghostty](https://vNinja.net/2024/12/28/ghostty-workaround-for-missing-or-unsuitable-terminal-xterm-ghostty/) — The freshly made public [Ghostty](https://ghostty.org/) terminal emulator by [Mitchell Hashimoto](https://mitchellh.com/ghostty) (co-founder of Hashicorp) is all the rage at the moment, and it definitely looks interesting!

The first real issue I had with it, was when using SSH to connect to remote resources. This produced the `missing or unsuitable terminal: xterm-ghostty` error message, because the remote resource doesn't have the `xterm-ghostty` [terminfo](https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/terminfo.5.html) defined. The official [Ghostty docs](https://ghostty.org/docs/help/terminfo#ssh) has some workarounds for it, but these are either to convoluted like copying terminfo entries to all remote systems, or setting `SetEnv TERM=xterm-256color` in `.ssh/config` for each remote host. The other alternative is to set `SetEnv TERM=xterm-256color` system wide but that also affects other terminal emulators (as does setting it in `.ssh/config`) - [Beware Of The Rogue VMs!](https://vNinja.net/2024/11/11/beware-of-the-rogue-vms/) — At this years VMware Explore 2024 in Barcelona, I did a presentation called CMTY1321BCN: Beware Of The Rogue VMs!, a recording of the session is also available on the VMware Explore 2024 Community YouTube channel. Here is a quick text based recap of it. - [Rickrolling WiFi at VMware Explore Barcelona 2024](https://vNinja.net/2024/11/08/rickrolling-wifi-at-vmware-explore-barcelona-2024/) — This last week I attended VMware Explore 2024 in Barcelona. While at was at the conference, I had a small ESP32 board with an external antenna in my backpack, connected to a powerbank. The sole purpose of this little device, was to provide some fun random WiFI SSID's, and to see if anyone actually connected to it. - [GL-iNet Opal (GL-SFT1200) Travel Router: First Impressions](https://vNinja.net/2024/08/25/gl-inet-opal-travel-router-first-impressions/) — For a while now I've been looking at travel routers, in order to have something small and portable I can bring with me wherever I go. After some research, I ended up purchasing a GL-iNet Opal (GL-SFT1200) Travel Router. The device seems to tick all the boxes for my requirements, including WireGuard VPN and DNS encryption - [My Updated Pi-Hole Setup](https://vNinja.net/2024/08/10/my-updated-pi-hole-setup/) — Back in 2018 I outlined My Pi-Hole Setup and while the setup is still mostly the same some things have naturally evolved from there. That being said, Pi-Hole has been rock solid for all these years, and is still my main go-to for blocking ads and trackers from my home network devices. Since that post from 2018, I have done a few changes. - [Driver Issues When Updating VMware ESXi With vLCM Images](https://vNinja.net/2024/08/05/driver_issues_when_updating_vmware_esxi_with_vlcm_images/) — Since baselines are deprecated in vSphere version 8 and baselines are restricted to only VMware-provided content after ESXi 7.0.3 Update P I helped one of my customers to move over to image based updating via vLCM. This has not gone by without any issues as mentioned in my previous post.

This time I was updating a 7.0.3 installation of ESXi to Update Q and got stuck on a driver issue that I had not seen before: **“Downgrades of manually added component Mellanox Native OFED ConnectX-3 Drivers (3.19.70.1) in the desired ESXi version are not supported”**. - [VMware Explore 2024 Barcelona Content Catalog Is Now Live](https://vNinja.net/2024/07/31/vmware-explore-2024-barcelona-content-catalog-is-live/) — The content catalog for VMware Explore 2024 Barcelona is now live! Scheduling will open on the 24th of September 2024, but you can start favouriting sessions now for easy access. - [vCenter Upgrade 8.0 U3a vSphere Lifecycle Manager Port Issues](https://vNinja.net/2024/07/30/vcenter-upgrade-8.0u3a-vsphere-lifecycle-manager-port-issues/) — I was updating one of my customer’s environment to vCenter 8.0 Update 3a today and was moving from the old vSphere Update Manager Baselines over to image based updating via vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM), but the compliance check stopped at 30% for some reason. - [VMware vSphere CVE-2024-37085 - A Nothing Burger](https://vNinja.net/2024/07/29/vmware-vsphere-cve-2024-37085/) — Microsoft has caused some noise today with CVE-2024-37085, which explains a well known feature in vSphere. A feature that has been available since vSphere 5.1 came out in September 2012 (no, that is not a typo, it is in fact 12 years old!). The feature in question is that if an ESXi host is joined to an Active Directory domain, it will by default look for an AD security group called ESX Admins and grants every member of that security group *root* access to the host. - [Where Did My VMware Security Advisories Go? They Went Here!](https://vNinja.net/2024/05/13/where-did-my-vmware-security-advisories-go-here/) — VMware by Broadcom recently published a blog post called Where did my VMware Security Advisories go? outlining the location changes for the VMware Security Advisories (VMSAs), making clear that from May 6th 2024, they are moved to the Broadcom Support Portal.

While this was anticipated as part of the content transition following the acquisition, it was not anticipated that the VMSAs would be moved into a walled garden that required a login. While it was free to create an account, and get access to the advisories, this was a move that caused some uproar and controversy.

Thankfully VMware by Broadcom has reconsidered the login requirement, and the advisories are again easiliy accessible for everyone - [VMware by Broadcom Promises Free Security Updates for vSphere](https://vNinja.net/2024/04/16/vmware-by-broadcom-promises-security-updates/) — In a new blog post by Broadcom CEO Hock Tan VMware by Broadcom promises that they will continue to provide security updates for VMware vSphere and other products for all customers who are running the old perpetual licenses, even if those customers don't transition to the new subscription based license model. - [Vaultwarden+Caddy and Microsoft CA](https://vNinja.net/2024/03/06/vaultwarden-caddy-and-microsoft-ca/) — In my work lab environment, we have a need to share passwords and other login credentials among the team who uses it. Recently we decided to try out using Vaultwarden for this purpose. Linuxiac.com has a great guide on setting up Vaultwarden with Caddy, with Docker Compose, but this particular setup relies on Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates. Let's Encrypt is great, but requires some online presence, which we don't want for this environment. In addition that we have an internal Microsoft CA based PKI infrastructure that we wanted to use for this purpose. - [Migrating from Unifi USG to UXG-Lite](https://vNinja.net/2024/02/19/migrating-from-usg-to-uxg-lite/) — It was finally time to replace my old UniFi Security Gateway (USG) 3P with it's shiny new brother, the Gateway Lite (UXG-Lite). The USG 3P has served me well over the last 5 or so years, but as the new UXG-Lite promises better throughput especially when enabling IDS/IPS it was time to replace it. In addition to the routing performance improvements, the UXG-Lite also offers WireGuard VPN support out of the box, which will allow me to get rid of my old L2TP VPN setup.

This is how I migrated my entire home network from the USG-3P to a new UXG-Lite, with minimal downtime. - [Let's Talk Data by Proact](https://vNinja.net/2024/01/26/lets-talk-data-proact/) — My employer, Proact, has a podcast called Let's Talk Data and I have recently joined as permanent member of the panel after I've been a guest a couple of times before. Along with my colleagues Tony Gent and Christian Lehrer we dive into various IT-topics. This is a general IT podcast, as the tagline suggests; *The Podcast for IT-professionals – by IT-professionals* - [Removing vCLS Machines in vSphere 7.0.3](https://vNinja.net/2023/12/30/removing-vcls-machines/) — I was recently contacted by a customer that needed help with some vCLS VMs that somehow had gotten moved to a datastore and now resided on servers that they weren’t registered on. - [Fun and Games With WLED, ESP32, IKEA UPPLYST and Home Assistant](https://vNinja.net/2023/12/17/fun-and-games-with-wled-esp32-ikea-upplyst-and-homeassistant/) — IKEA has a fun little LED lamp called [UPPLYST](https://www.ikea.com/no/no/p/upplyst-led-vegglampe-sky-hvit-30424516/) which is shaped like a cloud. I've been using this lamp in the background of my video meetings from the home office for quite some time, but recently decided to have some more fun with it. - [Down the Rabbit Hole With VMware Aria Automation Config @ Explore 2023 [VMTN2239BCN]](https://vNinja.net/2023/11/08/down-the-rabbit-hole-with-vmware-aria-automation-config-explore-2023/) — At VMware Explore 2023 Barcelona I was lucky enough to be able to present my Down the Rabbit Hole With VMware Aria Automation Config session, and the good people behind vBrownbag has made a recording of it available on YouTube! - [VMware Explore 2023 Barcelona Partner Leadership Forum](https://vNinja.net/2023/11/03/vmware-explore-2023-barcelona-partner-leadership-forum/) — My VMware Explore 2023 Barcelona week kicked off with a Partner Technical Leadership Forum at the Fira. - [Updating Shodan Monitor Assets via REST API and Curl](https://vNinja.net/2023/11/01/updating-shodan-monitor-assets-via-rest-api-and-curl/) — Shodan Monitor is a service by shodan.io that allows for monitoring of IPs, networks or domains, based on your own definitions. In my case, I use it to monitor my home network public IP, and to alert me if there is anything strange going on, like new services or any other abnormalities. This is very useful, I get alerts both via a Slack Webhook and email, but as most residential connections I have a dynamic IP address from my ISP. It doesn't change often, but it happens. My Shodan Monitor definition is based on an IP assignment, and all of a sudden I got notifications for things that were not present in my network. My public IP had changed, and I was now receiving alerts for someone elses network who had been assigned my old public IP. Suboptimal. - [vSphere Distributed Switch Configuration on Some Hosts Differed From That of the vCenter Server](https://vNinja.net/2023/11/01/vsphere-distributed-switch-configuration-on-some-hosts-differed-from-that-of-the-vcenter-server/) — I recently came across this message: _The vSphere Distributed Switch configuration on some hosts differed from that of the vCenter Server._ when I was going to upgrade some vDS switches. There were several complicated solutions presented to me via Google, but this is how I eventually managed to fix it easily. - [Tips for VMware Explore Barcelona 2023](https://vNinja.net/2023/10/18/tips-vmware-explore-barcelona-2023/) — VMware Explore Barcelona 2023 is upon us and if you are travelling for the first time or just looking for some general tips about the conference, look no further. I previously wrote about my experience traveling to VMware Explore last year. It was my first trip to VMware Explore, which was also my first big convention. My tips will be a characterized by Explore being downsized last year before a lot of last minute registrations, so everything was very crowded. - [VMware Explore 2023 Barcelona: My Sessions](https://vNinja.net/2023/09/26/vmware-explore-2023-barcelona-my-sessions/) — VMware Explore Barcelona 2023 is fast approaching, the 6th to 9th of November is only a little over a month away. [The content catalog is now open for scheduling](https://event.vmware.com/flow/vmware/explore2023bcn/content/page/catalog), and I'm lucky enough to have *two* sessions lined up this year. - [Using vSphere Datasets in Salt](https://vNinja.net/2023/09/25/vsphere-datasets-in-salt/) — vSphere 8 introduced the new vSphere Datasets feature. In short, Datasets provides a way to exchange information (metadata) between vCenter and a VM, read/writeable through VMware Tools. I thought this might be a nice way to pass information from vCenter, or a VM, to Salt in order to use this metadata information on a Salt minion. Thankfully, this was fairly easy to accomplish. - [Tech X 300 2023: Wrapped](https://vNinja.net/2023/09/23/techx-300-2023-wrapped/) — VMUG Denmark put on the (northern European?) VMUG event of the year on the 20th and 21st of September; Tech X 300. It was held at the beautiful Nordisk Film Biografer Palads cinema in Copenhagen, which offers great rooms for the presentations, along with huge screens. I think the largest one was over 12 meters wide! - [VMware vSAN 8 U2 Announced at Explore 2023](https://vNinja.net/2023/08/22/vmware-vsan8u2/) — There is nothing really big and revolutionary in the core vSAN 8 U2 announcement, besides vSAN Max that is. It is nice to see that native file services in vSAN ESA are now in feature parity with vSAN OSA, and that the configuration of 2-Node and Stretched Clusters as been simplified. Other than that, everything else seems to be performance improvements, simplified management and scalability improvements but no stand-out new features in the core offering iself. - [VMware vSAN 8 U2 to the Max](https://vNinja.net/2023/08/22/vmware-vsan8u2-to-the-max/) — The clear stand-out new offering in vSAN 8 U2 is the new Disaggregated Storage offering called vSAN Max. Broken down to its core, this is vSAN HCI Mesh on steroids, with some new and very shiny sprinkles on top. vSAN Max, with its new license model, is a dedicated storage cluster, built on vSAN ESA. A vSAN Max cluster only provides storage resources, and does not run traditional VM workloads. This storage cluster can be consumed by other vSphere clusters, either as a primary storage option or in addition to the storage those cluster already consume from other sources. - [VMware vSphere 8 U2 Announced at Explore 2023](https://vNinja.net/2023/08/22/vmware-vsphere8u2/) — Like with vSAN 8 U2, there are really no new stand-out features in the vSphere 8 U2 announcement. It is an evolutionary release, with a number of welcome improvements both to hardware support and sane defaults for security and hardening, but no eyepopping new features. - [iOS VPN Connection Toggle Shortcut](https://vNinja.net/2023/07/17/ios-shortcut-toggle-vpn/) — I have probably been living under a rock for quite some time, but it turns out **iOS Shortcuts** (and MacOS) are pretty awesome, once you identify a proper use case for them. For me, the use case was simplifying connecting to my home, or work lab, network, via VPN. Now, I am pretty sure I have looked into how to do this years ago, without finding a solution, but in case someone else might benefit from it, here is a walkthrough of creating a simple VPN toggle button on your iOS homescreen, i.e no more diving into settings to connect. - [VMUG TechX 300 Here I Come!](https://vNinja.net/2023/06/27/techx-300-here-i-come/) — This september, VMUG Denmark is hosting TechX 300: The ultimate technical summit for enthusiasts seeking a deep dive into VMware solutions, and I am lucky enough to have been selected as a speaker! My talk is called Down the Rabbit Hole with VMware Aria Automation Config (SaltStack), which should be a lot of fun. Expect live demos! - [IT Architect Series: Stories From the Field, Volume 2](https://vNinja.net/2023/05/19/it-architect-series-stories-from-the-field-vol2/) — Another book in IT Architect series has finally been released: IT Architect Series: Stories from the Field, Volume 2. This is the follow up to Volume 1 which was released back in 2020. - [Upgrading to vCenter 8 Update 1: Invalid Type, expected String, instead got NoneType](https://vNinja.net/2023/04/19/upgrading-vcenter8-invalid-type/) — vCenter 8.0 Update 1 was released on April 18th, and I quickly jumped to upgrading my existing home lab vCenter, but ran into an issue that prevented the upgrade from completing, namely the error message Invalid Type, expected String, instead got NoneType. - [Are Your (old) ESXi Hosts Publicly Available? — They won't be for long.](https://vNinja.net/2023/02/06/are-your-esxi-hosts-publicly-available/) — Back in February 2021, I published a post named Is Your VMware vCenter Publicly Available?
It is now February 2023, and here we are again. A new widespread ransomware attack dubbed **ESXiArgs** is targeting publicly available ESXi hosts, using a vulnerability that was patched **two years ago** (CVE-2021-21947). - [VMware Explore 2023 Dates and Venues](https://vNinja.net/2023/01/06/vmware-explore-2023/) — Some ~~unofficial~~ dates and details for VMware Explore 2023 has come to light, and by the looks of things the rumors of moving the US version from San Francisco to Las Vegas are true. It also seems like the EMEA conference will yet again be held in Barcelona. - [My Experience: VCP-DCV for vSphere 7.x 2V0-21.20 Exam](https://vNinja.net/2023/01/04/vcp-dcv-vsphere7-2v0-21.20/) — I knew one thing was going to change when I transitioned from being an operations engineer and became a consultant: the fact that I had rarely done any kind of certification.

Trying to figure out what certification I should start with was a daunting prospect, but luckily, I could ask Christian Mohn, and we decided I should start with VCP-DCV for vSphere 7.x (VCP for short). It’s described by VMware as “The VCP-DCV 2022 certification validates candidate skills to implement, manage, and troubleshoot a vSphere infrastructure, using best practices to provide a powerful, flexible, and secure foundation for business agility that can accelerate the transformation to cloud computing.”, and sounds like a good place to start to showcase that you are generally skilled when it comes to working with VMware. - [CloudBytes Podcast — Season 3](https://vNinja.net/2022/12/22/cloudbytes-season-3/) — The CloudBytes Podcast recently released Season 3 of their series of podcasts. The main topic this season is core components of cybersecurity, and I was lucky enough to be asked to be a guest on no less than two of the episodes. - [Leveling Up: My First VMUG Presentation](https://vNinja.net/2022/12/22/leveling-up-my-first-vmug-presentation/) — I’ve been a member of VMUG for years now and I’ve always looked up to the people organizing it. I got asked to hold a short presentation for Norway VMUG in November and I was so honored. Then the nerves started! What should I talk about? Could I be interesting? Am I good enough? Impostor syndrome was doing a number on me, but I was adamant that I would get over this. I had always secretly wanted to speak at VMUG and now was my chance. - [VMware vCenter CVE-2022-31697](https://vNinja.net/2022/12/20/vmware-vcenter-cve-2022-31697/) — VMware has released security advisory VMSA-2022-0030 which includes several vulnerabilities: CVE-2022-31696, CVE-2022-31697, CVE-2022-31698, CVE-2022-31699. Among these CVE-2022-31697 caught my eye as a potential issue in many environments. - [vSAN 8 ESA VMware Compatibility Guidance](https://vNinja.net/2022/12/07/vsan8-esa-vmware-compatibility-guidance/) — VMware has just released a new KB90343: What You Can (and Cannot) Change in a vSAN ESA ReadyNode™. For those looking to utilize the new vSAN 8 Express Storage Architecture (ESA) this is a great resource that outlines what components in a vSAN ESA ReadyNode™ can be changed and it also includes a very handy vSAN ESA ReadyNode™ FAQ. - [My First VMware Explore](https://vNinja.net/2022/12/02/my-first-vmware-explore/) — Weirdly I have worked mainly with VMware products for years now without having the pleasure to go to VMware Explore. This year that was about to change and I was so excited! I was heading from the cold weather of Norway to sunny Barcelona to attend VMware Explore Europe and I could hardly wait.

I have written down a little recap of my trip, with some tips and tricks for other people that might have not gone to Explore before. - [VMware vSAN 8 ESA in my Homelab](https://vNinja.net/2022/11/24/vsan8-esa-in-homelab/) — Ever since [vSAN 8](/2022/08/30/vmware-vsan8-announced/) was announced, I've been waiting to try out the new Express Storage Architecture in my [HomeLab](/homelab/), especially since the internal storage in my hosts is NVMe only. Yesterday the last piece of the puzzle was released, namely the new [USB Network Native Driver v1.11 for ESXi 8](https://flings.vmware.com/usb-network-native-driver-for-esxi) which I needed before reinstalling my hosts in order to get vSAN traffic isolation.

Once the hosts were installed and configured, it was time to enable vSAN and try out the new Express Storage Architecture. vSAN ESA is configured in the same way as the traditional OSA version, you just select that you want ESA at configuration time. - [VMware Explore Europe 2022: My Immediate Thoughts](https://vNinja.net/2022/11/11/vmware-explore-europe-2022-my-thougths/) — This week was the return of VMworld, *post-pandemicly renamed to VMware Explore*, in Europe. As has been the case for several years now, it was held in the Fira Gran Via in Barcelona. - [VMware vSAN 8 Announced — New Architecture Model!](https://vNinja.net/2022/08/30/vmware-vsan8-announced/) — With vSphere 8 comes vSAN 8, and with it a slew of improvements and even a brand new architecture option! This new optional next generation architecture is built into vSAN 8, and going forward customers can choose which architecture to deploy; vSAN Original Storage Architecture (OSA) or vSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA). - [VMware vSphere 8 — The Enterprise Workload Platform Announced!](https://vNinja.net/2022/08/30/vmware-vsphere8-announced/) — VMware announces vSphere 8 — The Enterprise Workload Platform at VMware Explore US 2022. The new release comes with a number of new features and enhancements. Read more for a quick summary of changes and enhancements. - [Expired VMware vCenter certificates](https://vNinja.net/2022/08/08/expired-vmware-vcenter-7-certificates/) — Last week, I worked with a customer on what was seemingly a straightforward VMware vCenter 7 certificate replacement job but encountered several red herrings that also turned out to be issues that needed solving. I thought I’d share these in this post, in the hope that they can help others in future. The initial issue was that during the summer holidays, the customer’s certificates had expired, and they were presented with **“Error 503, service unavailable”** messages when trying to log into vSphere Client. While renewing certificates with certificate-manager in [vCenter BASH Shell via SSH](https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2097936) the services got stuck at 85%, and then failed to start after several minutes. - [VMware issues Updated ESXi SD card USB Boot Device Guidance](https://vNinja.net/2022/04/27/updated-esxi-sdcard-usb-boot-device-guidance/) — VMware has released an updated version of [KB85685 SD card/USB boot device revised guidance (85685)](https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/85685). Previous versions of this KB stated that in the next major version of ESXi SD Card / USB boot would be deprecated and unsupported. This has now changed, as the updated version dated 27th of April 2022 states that this will still be supported in the next major version. - [Patching Dell Optiplex 7090 UFF](https://vNinja.net/2022/03/29/patching-dell-optiplex-7090-uff/) — My new lab is based on [Dell OptiPlex 7090 UFF hosts](/2022/03/07/the-home-lab-2022-edition/) and after enabling vSAN on the four node cluster, the first two hosts I set up started having issues, especially with the cache devices. It seems that they just disappear from the host, especially when doing IO-intensive operations like changing the vSAN policy for a few VMs from RAID-1 to RAID-5. Once the host is rebooted, the device is back in place, seemingly without issues until the next time it disappears. Strangely this was not a problem before I configured vSAN, and only used the same devices as local datastores. - [Installing Tanzu Community Edition on vSphere — Some Quick Notes](https://vNinja.net/2022/03/16/tanzu-community-edition-vsphere-notes/) — Installing Tanzu Community Edition (TCE) on vSphere is well documented on the [tanzucommunityedition.io](https://tanzucommunityedition.io/docs/latest/installation-planning/) site, but I ran into a couple of small quirks when installing it in my home lab. - [The Home Lab: 2022 Edition](https://vNinja.net/2022/03/07/the-home-lab-2022-edition/) — For years now my homelab has been a single Dell Precision T7500 host, with a total of 24 GB RAM and a few TB of locally attached disks. I also had a small Synology DS216play and a very old HP MicroServer N36L that I ran FreeNAS on. A few months back, the MicroServer decided to call it quits after many, many years of service (it was released in May 2010!). To replace it I got ordered a new Synology DS920+, which again forced me into have a proper look at my entire home lab environment. The conclusion was very clear; My home lab environment was in dire need of a complete overhaul!

To make a long story short, I ended up with a pretty odd choice of new hosts for my home lab! - [VMware vSphere 7 Update 3c Finally Released](https://vNinja.net/2022/01/29/vsphere-7-update-3c-finally-released/) — ![vSphere logo](/img/2021-vSphere-Family-Icon.png#floatright) Back in November 2021, VMware vSphere Update 3 was released and then ultimately retracted again due to critical issues with the code base and upgrade procedures — For details, see [KB article 86398](https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/86398).

**As of January 27th, VMware vSphere 7 Update 3c is now available for download!** - [Caddy 2: A Couple of Simple Use Cases](https://vNinja.net/2022/01/28/caddy-a-couple-of-use-cases/) — Heard of Caddy 2? If not, here's a quick intro on how I currently use it. Note that I am barely toucing the surface of what it can do, but after I have a couple of simple, yet very handy use cases for it:

Reverse Proxy and Static File Server. - [Casting Home Assistant Dashboards to Google Nest Hub 2nd Gen](https://vNinja.net/2022/01/05/homeassistant-google-nest-hub-2nd-gen/) — I recently bought a [Google Nest Hub 2nd gen](https://store.google.com/product/nest_hub_2nd_gen) and wanted to use it as a dashboard device for [Home Assistant (HA)](https://www.home-assistant.io/). Now. the Google Nest Hub is not really meant used like this, as there is no real way of installing 3rd party apps on it, such as the Home Assistant app. Thankfully there are ways to get it to display [Lovelace Dashboards](https://www.home-assistant.io/lovelace/) from HA, and here is how I solved it with local network access only. - [Combined Pi-Hole Statistics in Home Assistant](https://vNinja.net/2021/11/08/combined-pi-hole-stats-in-home-assistant/) — I have been running [Pi-Hole](https://vninja.net/2018/10/08/my-pi-hole-setup/) since 2018, and I'm still amazed as to how much ads it actually blocks. It's simply incredible, and I often run my VPN client on my phone to connect to my home network, just to get DNS filtering no matter where I am. Due to some recent changes to my home environment, I have now moved to a dual [Pi-Hole](https://pi-hole.net) setup, utilizing [Michael Stanclift's](https://twitter.com/vmstan) excellent [Gravity Sync](https://vmstan.com/gravity-continued/) to keep the Gravity blocklists syncronized between instances. I am also a heavy user of [Home Assistant](/tags/home-assistant/), so natually I have statistics from Pi-Hole visible in a Dashboard there as well, utilizing the [Pi-Hole integration](https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/pi_hole/), which works very well. However, with two Pi-Hole instances, I would like to see some combined statistics, instead of them being seperated out by instance. - [Hot Add NVMe Device Caused PSOD on ESXi](https://vNinja.net/2021/09/08/hot-add-nvme-device-caused-psod-on-esxi/) — I recently had a case of “go with your gut” when we added some new NVMe disks to an existing VMware vSAN solution at a customer.

Normally I'm very cautious and will put hosts into maintenance mode, no matter how small the hardware change I’m doing is, but against my better judgement this time I decided to hot add some disks (which of course is supported). However, I fumbled and managed to insert it and quickly remove it again before inserting it again, and ended up with a dreaded Purple Screen of Death (PSOD) on the host.

Naturally this freaked me out and I was eager to figure out what the problem was. Searching through the KBs at VMware didn’t give me any clues, but a quick Google search took me to the

ESXi 7.0u2c Release Notes.

- [ESXi SD-Card/USB boot devices unsupported in 7.0u3](https://vNinja.net/2021/09/02/esxi-sd-card-usb-boot-device-unsupported-in-7.0u3/) — In the ongoing saga of SD-Card/USB-boot device support in ESXi, VMware has just published a new KB article named Persistent storage warnings when booting ESXi from SD-Card/USB devices (85615) outlining that from 7.0u3 (at the time of writing, not released yet) onward support for such boot devices is deprecated.

They also list the workarounds for this as either install to a non SD/USB device, or to add a persistent storage device.

Note: As of 03. September 2021 the [Persistent storage warnings when booting ESXi from SD-Card/USB devices. (85615)](https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/85615) KB article has been removed from kb.vmware.com for unknown reasons. Hopefully it will be back soon.

Additional information can also be found in Boot device guidance for low endurance media(vSphere and vSAN) (82515), which somewhat contradictory states that upgrades will still be supported in 7.x.

Just like everything else, plan accordingly. I do applaud VMware for being transparent about this, and even publishing the new KB article before ESXi 7.0u3 is released. Everyone still running production on SD-Card/USB devices needs to take action as soon as possible to ensure support going forward. - [Upgrading to ESXi 7.0 build 18426014 U2c. ESXi stuck in Not responding from vCenter](https://vNinja.net/2021/08/24/upgrading-to-esxi-7.0-build-18426014-u2c-esxi-stuck-in-not-responding-from-vcenter/) — Well, not directly related to the new ESXi 7 U2c build, BUT if you're one of the lucky ones (like me), you've been experiencing big issues with SD/USB device since ESXi U1/U2, hence the vCenter <> ESXi (at least the configurations, tokens, etc.) has not been working for a while. I mean, last time vCenter talked successfully with my host was back in May 2021, when the USB dropped. That's like four (4!) months ago. Today, VMware finally released the ESXi 7 U2c, which has included an updated module for the **vmkusb**. Hopefully this will fix the previous experienced SD/USB device issues, but before that - let's talk patching! - [On the Line with Cohesity Podcast Episode 42: Back to Travel and VMworld 2021 with Christian Mohn](https://vNinja.net/2021/08/04/on-the-line-cohesity-podcast/) — As timings will have it, two podcasts I've been a guest on has been released this week. This time it is On The Line with Cohesity — Episode 42: Back to Travel and VMworld 2021 with Christian Mohn. - [The On-Premise IT Roundtable Podcast: It’s Time to Embrace the Bottlenecks in Storage](https://vNinja.net/2021/08/03/the-on-premise-it-roundtable-podcast/) — I've recently had the opportunity to join the The On-Premise IT Roundtable Podcast for a discussion about storage and bottlenecks, titled It’s Time to Embrace the Bottlenecks in Storage. - [Storage Field Day #22 — Here We Go](https://vNinja.net/2021/07/30/sfd22-here-we-go/) — Next week is [Storage Field Day 22](https://techfieldday.com/event/sfd22/), and for the first time since [Tech Field Day 6](https://vninja.net/news/tech-field-day-6-delegate-i-am/) 10 years ago I am a delegate! I am *really* looking forward to hearing from the presenting sponsors, and being part of what looks like a really great group of delegates. - [vSoup Is Back!](https://vNinja.net/2021/06/30/vsoup-is-back/) — After a rather prolonged hiatus, the vSoup Podcast is back! For the first time since March 2017, [Ed](https://twitter.com/eczerwin), [Chris](https://twitter.com/ChrisDearden) and myself got together and recorded an episode - [ESXi 7.0 SD Card/USB Drive Issue Temporary Workaround](https://vNinja.net/2021/06/01/esxi-7.0-sd-card-issue-temporary-workaround/) — This is a guest post by Espen Ødegaard: As VMware has not released a fix yet (regarding issues with SD card and USB drive), I'm still experiencing issues with [ESXi 7.0 U2a Potentially Killing USB and SD drives](https://vninja.net/2021/05/18/esxi-7.0-u2a-killing-usb-and.sd-drives/), running from USB or SD card installs. As previous workaround (copying VMware Tools to RAMDISK with option `ToolsRamdisk`) only worked for 8 days (in my case), I needed something more permanent, to get the ESXi-hosts more stable (e.g. host being able to enter maintenance mode, move VMs around, snapshots/backup, doing CLI-stuff/commands, etc.). - [Searching vCenter Tasks and Events via PowerShell and GridView](https://vNinja.net/2021/05/19/searching-vcenter-tasks-and-events-via-powershell/) — This is a guest post by Espen Ødegaard: As searching and filtering for events in vCenter Server trough vSphere Client somewhat limited (OK, it really sucks, to be honest), it's usually much faster using PowerCLI, to retrieve, filter & searching events. - [ESXi 7.0 U2a Potentially Killing USB and SD drives!](https://vNinja.net/2021/05/18/esxi-7.0-u2a-killing-usb-and.sd-drives/) — This is a guest post by Espen Ødegaard: After upgrading my 4-node vSAN-cluster (homelab) to ESXi 7.0 build 17867351 U2a, I detected that ESXi had issues talking to the USB device, where the ESXi was installed. I found a related KB from VMware, outlining issues with the new VMFS-L, which started my baseline for troubleshooting [VMFS-L Locker partition corruption on SD cards in ESXi 7.0 (83376)](https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/83376) In short, it says that the VMFS-L partition may have become corrupt, and a re-install is needed. **There is no resolution for the SD card corruption as of the time this article was published** - [ESXi: Error Occurred While Saving Snapshot Msg.changetracker](https://vNinja.net/2021/05/18/error-occurred-while-saving-snapshot-msg.changetracker.mirrorcopystatus/) — This is a guest post by Espen Ødegaard: I recently ran into a strange issue in my home lab, **running ESXi 7.0.2, build 17867351** where Veeam Backup & Replication v10 reported the following error: Failed to create VM snapshot. Error: CreateSnapshot failed, vmRef vm-4013, timeout 1800000, snName VEEAM BACKUP TEMPORARY SNAPSHOT, snDescription Please do not delete this snapshot. It is being used by Veeam Backup., memory False, quiesce False - [Creating an Elgato Stream Deck Sleep Button in macOS](https://vNinja.net/2021/04/15/elgato-stream-deck-sleep-button/) — I recently got an [Elgato Stream Deck](https://www.elgato.com/en/stream-deck) for the home office, and I've set it up mostly to control [OBS Studio](https://obsproject.com/) for a couple of projects I'm working on. Since I also have a couple of [Key Light Airs](https://www.elgato.com/en/key-light-air), I also use it to control them. While setting it up, I figured I needed a *sleep* button on it, that basically locks my Macbook and turns off the lights in one fell swoop. Conceptually this seemed like an very easy thing to set up, but it turns out there are some macOS quirks that needs to be addressed for this to work. By default in macOS High Sierra, or newer, there is a predefined lock screen hotkey: `Command ⌘ + Control ⌃ Q` which works very well. In fact, it works a little to well as it turns out. - [VMware vSAN 7.0 Update 2 Announced](https://vNinja.net/2021/03/09/vmware-vsan7u2-announced/) — VMware vSAN 7.0 Update 2 has been made generally available, and what is new this time around?
**Disaggregated HCI, Durable Writes, Enhanced File Services, Efficiency Enhancements, vSAN over RDMA and more!** - [VMware vSAN 7.0 Update 2 Videos](https://vNinja.net/2021/03/09/vmware-vsan7u2-videos/) — With the vSAN 7.0 Update 2 annnouncement, and availability, a series of videos has been published, and here is a list of the videos I've found so far. - [VMware vSphere 7.0 Update 2 Announced](https://vNinja.net/2021/03/09/vmware-vsphere7u2-announced/) — VMware has just announced the general availability of the new vSphere 7.0 Update 2 release, which offers a bunch of new features and improvements. This includes both new load balancer options for Tanzu, as well as greatly improved security through encryption, better lifecycle management and improvements on vMotion speeds in high bandwidth networks. - [VMware vSphere 7.0 Update 2 Videos](https://vNinja.net/2021/03/09/vmware-vsphere7u2-videos/) — With the vSphere 7.0 Update 2 annnouncement, and availability, a series of videos has been published, and here is a list of the videos I've found so far. - [Is Your VMware vCenter Publicly Available?](https://vNinja.net/2021/02/27/is-your-vcenter-publicly-available/) — On the 23rd of February 2021 VMware issued the [VMSA-2021-0002 security advisory](https://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2021-0002.html) and one of the issues it addresses is **VMware vCenter Server updates address remote code execution vulnerability in the vSphere Client (CVE-2021-21972)**. This is a critical issue, and if left unpatched could land your vSphere estate in big trouble as there is already Proof-of-Concepts available for this vulnerability. So get patching as soon as possible! Of course, this can only be exploited if you have access to the VMware vCenter Client, so if the managment plane is isolated that helps mitigate the risk. - [Norwegian vExperts 2021](https://vNinja.net/2021/02/12/norwegian-vexperts-2021/) — ![vExpert 2021](/img/vexpert2021.png#floatright) VMware has just announced the list of [vExperts for 2021](https://blogs.vmware.com/vexpert/2021/02/11/vexpert-2021-award-announcement/) and true to tradition here is a list of the Norwegian vExperts for 2021. This year there is a total of 13 Norwegian vExperts, one more than in 2020. If you want to be included in this list when it opens up again in June 2021, it's time to start plannning. As a [vExpert Pro](https://vexpert.vmware.com/directory/pro) I'm happy to assist anyone who wants help applying! - [Making a Node-RED Twitter Bot](https://vNinja.net/2021/01/20/node-red-twitter-bot/) — I use [Node-RED](https://nodered.org/) extensively for home automation purposes, in conjunction with Home Assistant. See the [Home Automation](/tags/home-automation) tag for posts in that series. This post, however, is for a different use case and not home automation. For years I've been using [Zapier](https://zapier.com/) to automatically tweet new posts for this site via the [@vninjanet](https://twitter.com/vninjanet) account, but that has proven rather inflexible and I wanted a better way to automate this, while adding features that Zapier currently does not support like adding specific hashtags automatically. I have been using the sites RSS feed as the trigger in Zapier, and wanted to continue doing that, even if moving it to Node-RED. - [How I Use Home Assistant: Part 4 — Automatically Enable and Disable Sonos Night Mode with Node-RED](https://vNinja.net/2021/01/03/how-i-use-home-assistant-part4/) — Sonos Beam is my main driver for television audio, which is great, but the sound travels between the floors in my house so I want [Night Mode](https://support.sonos.com/s/article/1948?language=en_US) to be enabled late at night. I also do not want to manually have to tweak the night mode settings, and figured that doing it on a schedule, from within Home Assistant was the way to go. - [How I Use Home Assistant: Part 3 — Morning Coffee](https://vNinja.net/2021/01/03/how-i-use-home-assistant-part3/) — I need my caffeine fix. It also needs to be very readily available when I wake up. Before home automation, I used to load my [Moccamaster KBGT741 Thermal Coffee Maker](https://www.seattlecoffeegear.com/technivorm-thermo-moccamaster-kbgt-741) with water and ground coffee before bedtime so all I had to do was to hit the power button to get caffeine flowing. But why not schedule it to before I get up so that there is always fresh coffee available the instant I get up in the morning? Add an [IKEA Trådfri Smart Outlet](https://www.ikea.com/no/no/p/tradfri-adapter-90356166/), and I can schedule my fix! Since the coffee maker brews into a insulated carafe, it doesn't get burned if, I sleep in, while at the same time keeping it hot. That's a win-win! I know, this method doesn't provide the absolute best coffee experience, but as far as I'm concerned availability beats quality in the wee hours of the morning. - [How I Use Home Assistant: Part 2 — Light Color Changes for Calendar Based Events with Node-RED](https://vNinja.net/2021/01/02/how-i-use-home-assistant-part2/) — In my hallway there are a few Phillips Hue White and Color Ambiance Bulbs that I've had some fun with the last couple of years. Originally automated through [IFTTT](https://ifttt.com/), they change color if one of my favorite football teams play a match. This has been working well for quite some time, but with [IFTTT recently starting to limit ](https://help.ifttt.com/hc/en-us/articles/360055682873-What-happens-if-I-do-not-upgrade-to-IFTTT-Pro-)the amount of Applets you can create, and the fact that they only run every 15 minutes, I decided to try and emulate the functionality I used with Home Assistant and Node-RED instead. - [How I Use Home Assistant: Part 1 — My Setup](https://vNinja.net/2021/01/01/how-i-use-home-assistant/) — I've been running [Home Asssistant](https://www.home-assistant.io/) (HA) in my network for well over a year now, and it's primary use case has been connecting devices from different ecosystems into one management interface. Lately I have been migrating a few automations from native HA to [Node-RED](https://github.com/hassio-addons/addon-node-red), which has been a fun exercise, and I'm looking to expand the usage of automations in the time to come.

**My mantra for this setup is that everything that can be automated, should be automated, while at the same time keeping it as simple and unobtrusive as possible for everyone in the household.** - [Forward Looking Statements: 2021 Edition](https://vNinja.net/2020/12/07/forward-looking-statements-2021/) — Misleading title, I know, especially considering most of this post is actually looking back at 2020. It's been a few years since I did one of these posts, and with the havoc of 2020 close to be firmly in the rearview mirror, why not try to pick it up again?

Since I didn't post a list of goals for 2020, it's hard to review it item by item, but it's safe to say that 2020 has been one hell of a year. A lot of people have been much more adversely affected by the whole COVID-19 pandemic than I have, but being confined to the **Home Office of Isolation™** since March has taken it's toll, at least mentally.

I'm lucky enough to have my own dedicated office, grown kids that doesn't need home schooling and an employer who facilitates, and embraces, remote work. I know everyone else doesn't have that luxury, given their role, but for those of us who has, it is a blessing.

**2020 has also shown us who the real heroes are, the front line workers who can't do their job from a comfortable and safe home office. Health care workers, teachers, public transport, shop workers and others who provide crucial services. On behalf of us lucky ones, thank you for beeing there. Thank you for caring, and thank you for making it possible for the rest of us to continue working.** Hopefully 2021 will be better, at least eventually, as the vaccines become available, and we can start to slowly return to a new kind of normal. - [Automating Elgato Key Lights From macOS Touch Bar](https://vNinja.net/2020/12/04/automating-elgato-key-lights-from-touch-bar/) — Since I recently got an [Elgato Key Light Air](/2020/11/30/issues-connecting-elgato-key-light-air-to-ubiquiti-unifi-wireless-networks/) for the Home Office of Isolation™, I've been playing around with how to automate it. I've seen a lot of people using Elgato [Stream Decks ](https://www.elgato.com/en/gaming/stream-deck)for automating these lights, but I don't really have the need for a dedicated device for this. At least not yet. As it turns out, it's actually pretty easy to automate these lights via other means. The light itself runs a http server on port 9123, and via `/elgato/lights` it's possible to connect to it's internal API for remote control. There is even a [Postman Collection](https://www.postman.com/collections/f1c92ce7daec35ca2864) available, which makes it very easy to get started with connecting and changing settings around. - [Using VMware Validated Design Stencils in Draw.io](https://vNinja.net/2020/11/30/using-vmware-vvd-stencils-in-draw.io/) — [Ryan Johnson](https://twitter.com/tenthirtyam) who works on VMware Validated Design, has created a GitHub repo for [VMware stencils](http://vmware.com/go/stencils). The repository contains the stencils used for VMware Validated Designs in SVG, Visio and OmniGraffle formats, as well as a very nice Powerpoint presentation that shows how to use the stencils. Great work Ryan, and team! - [Issues Connecting Elgato Key Light Air to Ubiquiti UniFi Wireless Networks](https://vNinja.net/2020/11/30/issues-connecting-elgato-key-light-air-to-ubiquiti-unifi-wireless-networks/) — Happily I ordered the Elgato Key Light Air, as that should provide the light that I was lacking. [Assembling and connecting](https://www.elgato.com/sites/default/files/qsg/Key_Light_Air_QSG.pdf) it was very easy, but when it came to adding it to my home WiFi I ran into some unexpected issues. As is customary with this kind of IoT-ish device, the setup is to connect to it's own WiFi through a management app, in this case the Elgato Control Center, and then use that to connect it to the WiFi of your choice. For the life of me, I couldn't get the Key Light to connect to my home WiFi, it just timed out with an *unexpected error*—which is very unhelpful. - [vExpert 2021 Applications are now Open!](https://vNinja.net/2020/11/24/vexpert-2021.md/) — In case you weren't aware, applications for VMware vExpert 2021 is now open. [See the official announcement for details](https://blogs.vmware.com/vexpert/2020/11/20/vexpert-2021-applications-are-open-dont-miss-out/). The applications are open until January 9th 2021, and the announcement of the class of 2021 is scheduled for February 19th 2021. - [macOS: Aggregate Device for Teams - Fixing Auto-Adjusting Mic Level](https://vNinja.net/2020/11/06/macos-aggregate-device-for-teams.md/) — After working pretty well for many, many months, my external mic, a Blue Yeti, suddenly started having issues in Microsoft Teams on macOS. The issue was isolated to Teams, other video and audio solutions worked fine. For some reason, Teams had decided to start auto-adjusting the input level on its own, rendering it pretty useless. While some might say it's a blessing that I get auto-muted, seemingly at random, but for me at least it's pretty annoying. - [VMworld 2020: vCommunity Discord](https://vNinja.net/2020/09/24/vmworld-2020-vcommunity/) — VMworld 2020 is soon upon us, and due to the current world situation it's an online only event this year. Personally I think this is a big loss, mostly because I usually spend most of my time at VMworld networking and speaking to people I often only see once a year, something that simply will not happen this year. Thankfully Nick Howell and Jeramiah Dooley took the baton, and has tried to recreate or even re-invent some of the social aspects of the conference experience, on Discord. - [Photon OS 3.0 Template Gotcha](https://vNinja.net/2020/09/23/photon-os-30-template-gotcha/) — Photon OS is VMware's minimal Linux distribution, and in a small project in the lab I thought I should use it for some small lightweight Veeam Backup & Replication v10 Linux proxies. After deploying it, and converting it to a template, I ran into some very frustrating authentication issues after deployment. To make a very long troubleshooting story short, I forgot to ensure that a new unique *machine-id* was created, wrecking havoc with, amongst other things, the DHCP server assignments. - [VMworld 2020: vTrail Map](https://vNinja.net/2020/09/22/vtrailmap2020/) — vTrail Map by Yadin Porter de León and the Level Up Project is usually a physical resource that gets handed out at VMworld. Since the world is pretty much in lockdown, and VMworld is a virtual only conference this year, the vTrailmap 2020 has been transformed into an online resource and experience! In short, vTrail Map is a community guide for the virtualization community. As I'm lucky enough to be a vTrail Map Champion for VMworld 2020, it's really fun to announce that the first virtual vTrail Map is now live! - [IT Architect Series: Stories From the Field, Vol. 1](https://vNinja.net/2020/09/21/it-architect-series-stories-from-the-field-vol1/) — A new book from the crew behind the IT Architect series of books has finally been released: IT Architect Series: Stories From the Field, Vol. 1. I have been fortunate enough to be able to contribute one of the chapters in this book, alongside quite an all star list of a total of thirty five contributers. I have also contributed as an editor for quite a few of the stories. In my opininion, this is another must have book for all aspiring and existing IT infrastructure architects and fits in really well with the existing books in the IT Architect Series. - [VMware Announcements September 2020 — The Resource List](https://vNinja.net/2020/09/15/vmware-announcements-september2020/) — Today saw a bunch of announcements from VMware, including **vSphere 7.0 Update 1**, **vSAN 7.0 Update 1**, **VMware Cloud Foundation 4.1** and I thought it might be useful to post a list of some of the resources that has been published. - [VMware vSphere 7 Update 1 With Tanzu News](https://vNinja.net/2020/09/15/vmware-vsphere7-with-tanzu/) — VMware vSphere 7 Update 1 With Tanzu enables administrators to run Kubernetes clusters in vSphere, without any other requirements!
Not only has VMware with this move adressed the VMware Cloud Foundation requirement for getting started with running modern applications on vSphere, but since there is no requirement for NSX or even vSAN for this to work the entry level point has been dramatically lowered. It's basically Kubernetes infrastructure on vSphere, with your choice of networking, storage and load balancing solutions! - [vNinja 10 Years](https://vNinja.net/2020/07/21/vninja-10-years/) — 3654 days — 120 months — 10 years — 2010 to 2020 — A [decade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decade) — That is **a long** time.

A lot has changed in these 10 years, and looking back at my first [post on this site](/news/welcome-to-vmaware/) makes that very evident — the name even changed, **pre launch!** The original name was ***vmaware*** and I even had the domain registered and configured, but before I made the site live I found out someone else was already using that, but under a different [tld](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-level_domain). Luckily I caught it, *rookie mistake on my part* — I know, before I launched the site and changed it to ***vNinja*** instead. - [macOS: Hiding Menu Bar Icons With Dozer](https://vNinja.net/2020/05/27/macos-hiding-menu-bar-icons-with-dozer/) — The macOS Menu Bar tends to get cluttered over time, as applications really like to put an icon up there. I'm aware that you can remove most of them by dragging the icon away from the meenu bar, while holding down command (⌘) but, some times the icon is useful when you need it. It just doesn't have to be in your face all the time. - [macOS: Split Tunnel L2TP VPN Routing](https://vNinja.net/2020/05/27/macos-split-tunnel-vpn-routing/) — I use my Ubiquiti USG for Remote User VPN Using L2TP, but L2TP does not provide routing information to the client, so I needed a way to automatically create routes when the VPN connection fires. Thankfully, this is pretty easy in macOS (and Linux). The `/etc/ppp/ip-up` file triggers every time a PPP (L2TP is based on PPP) connection is made, thus making it easy to trigger a route command when a connection is made. - [VMware Updates Minimum Requirements for vSphere 7 With Kubernetes in VCF](https://vNinja.net/2020/05/25/vmware-vsphere7-with-kubernetes-vcf-update/) — VMware has updated the requirements for running Kubernetes workloads on VMware Cloud Foundation, and I'm happy to see that the requirements has been scaled down quite a bit. The news is that it is now supported to enable the Kubernetes Supervisor Control Plane on the management Workload Domain, letting go of the hard requirement of running it in a seperate Workload Domain. - [VMware vSphere 7 With Kubernetes and Tanzu Resources](https://vNinja.net/2020/05/12/vmware-with-kubernetes-and-tanzu/) — The dust has settled a bit after the big VMware vSphere 7 release, and [vSphere 7 with Kubernetes](https://vninja.net/2020/03/10/vmware-vsphere7-with-kubernetes/), and there is now some really good resources available for those looking into the details about the various Kubernetes and Tanzu parts of it. - [The Problem with VMware vSphere 7 With Kubernetes](https://vNinja.net/2020/03/10/vmware-vsphere7-with-kubernetes/) — All in all, [**Cloud Foundation 4.0**](/2020/03/10/vmware-cloud-foundation-40-announced/) seems to be a solid version upgrade, with a lot of promise. The tight integration between Cloud Foundation and vSphere with Kubernetes, coupled with the other managementment tools already available from VMware should prove to be a solid foundation (pun intended) for anyone looking to provide both traditional virtualization and container workloads in their on-premises datacenters going forward. The problem, in my not so humble opinion, with this is that vSphere with Kubernetes is (for now?) only available through **Cloud Foundation 4.0**. That is a very limiting form factor for delivery, and something that might just slow the adoption rate for it considerably. - [VMware Cloud Foundation 4.0 Announced](https://vNinja.net/2020/03/10/vmware-cloud-foundation-40-announced/) — During todays Online Launch Event [App Modernization in a Multi-Cloud World](https://www.vmware.com/app-modernization.html) VMware announced the next generation of VMware Cloud Foundation; version 4.0. This release includes support for the new versions of vSphere and vSAN as well as updates to the vRealize Suite and NSX. - [VMware vSAN 7 Announced](https://vNinja.net/2020/03/10/vmware-vsan7-announced/) — vSAN 7 has finally been announced, and it comes with a good set of new features and improvements, here is a quick rundown of the highlights. - [macOS Keeps Asking for SSH Passphrase](https://vNinja.net/2020/03/05/macos-asking-for-ssh-passphrase/) — I'm a big fan of [Public Key authentication for SSH](https://www.ssh.com/ssh/public-key-authentication) but I recently ran into an issue after adding my Public Key to a couple of new Linux VMs I use. The problem was that macOS kept asking for the SSH passphrase when connecting to them, which kind of defeats the purpose of using Public Key authentication in the first place. Thankfully, the solution is pretty simple. - [Norwegian vExperts 2020](https://vNinja.net/2020/02/24/norwegian-vexperts-2020/) — ![vExpert 2020](/img/vexpert-2020.png#floatright) VMware has just announced the list of vExperts for 2020, and I'm honored to be awarded for the tenth year in a row! That being said, I'm happy to see the list of Norwegian vExperts grow! It wasn't that many years ago that we were only two (or for the first couple of years, only one!), now the count is at **12**! - [rPI+Volumio+HiFiBerry=Awesome](https://vNinja.net/2020/02/14/using-rpi-volumio-hifiberry/) — My audio setup is a old [NAD 326 BEE](https://nadelectronics.com/product/c-326-stereo-integrated-amplifier/) stereo amplifier with a couple of [Dali Blue 5005](https://www.dali-speakers.com/discontinued/blue/dali-blue-5005/) speakers. I also have a turntable connected to it, and it sounds *beautiful*. The solution for enabling streaming to an old (but awesome!) amp, was using the Raspberry Pi 3 B+ I had laying around. I added a [HiFiBerry DAC+](https://www.hifiberry.com/products/dacplus/) HAT to it, and enclosed it in a [nice little case](https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/cases/acrylic-case-for-dac-rca-and-digi-black-pi-4/) that also comes from HifiBerry. - [My Hugo and Visual Studio Code Workflow](https://vNinja.net/2020/02/12/my-hugo-workflow/) — Since moving this site over to [Hugo back in 2018](/2018/07/22/migrating-from-wordpress-to-hugo/), I've developed a workflow that seems to work pretty well. Given that I see that a lot of others are also moving over to static site generators, and I wasn't exactly ahead of the curve on it myself, I figured I would try to write up how I work with [Hugo](https://gohugo.io/) and [Visual Studio Code](https://code.visualstudio.com/) on my MacBook to generate content. - [macOS: Using Custom DNS Resolvers](https://vNinja.net/2020/02/06/macos-custom-dns-resolvers/) — Some times there is a need to use custom DNS servers for some domains, in my case specifically for access to the new lab environment we are building at work (more on that later, this is one beefy lab!) One way of doing this, is adding custom DNS servers to `/etc/resolv.conf` but in macOS you really shouldn't be editing that file manually, as it often gets overwritten or otherwise edited by VPN clients and such. Thankfully, there is a better way to create persistent and manageable custom domain specific DNS settings. - [macOS: Using and creating Multi-Output Sound Devices](https://vNinja.net/2020/02/04/macos-multi-output-devices/) — I recently got a pair of new displays for the office, a couple of lovely *Dell U2719DC's*. These offer USB-C connectivity, which is really nice, and makes it easy to connect my MacBook when I'm in the office. Connected to one of the displays is a _Logitech Z337_ set of speakers with a sub, since there is no built-in speakers in these displays. The problem I had with that setup, is that macOS doesn't let me easily differenciate between the two as they are named exactly the same, sometimes creating confusion as to which of them should be the sound output to the speakers. - [macOS: Catalina Chrome Self-signed Certificate Issues](https://vNinja.net/2019/12/03/macos-catalina-chrome-cert-issues/) — Way back in 2017, the [CA/Browser Forum](https://cabforum.org/about-us/) voted on [Ballot 193 – 825-day Certificate Lifetimes](https://cabforum.org/2017/03/17/ballot-193-825-day-certificate-lifetimes/), which passed. In short, this means that CA issued certificates issued after March 1st 2018 can not have a validity period longer than 825 days. macOS Catalina implements this change, as described in [Requirements for trusted certificates in iOS 13 and macOS 10.15](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210176). So it's been a long time coming, but most of us are just now realizing how this affects us. **Warning:** This also applies to Self-signed certificates, like the ones issued for VMware vSphere and related solutions, like NSX-T and others, where the default age is 10 years or so. - [Guide: Creating an Isolated Ubiquiti Unifi IoT Network](https://vNinja.net/2019/08/12/unifi-iot-networks/) — As I've [covered before](/tags/unifi/), I run my home network mostly on Ubiquiti UniFi hardware. Since this offers a lot of nifty possibilities, I figured I should try to isolate all my "IoT"-devices in a separate network, while still making them accessible. After all, you don't want a security issue on some sensor/automation thing you have in your house to be able to access and encrypt your familiy photos, right? The thing that sits in the corner and controls the color of your lightbulbs, do not need to have access to the same network as your other data. - [Guide: Creating Isolated Networks with Ubiquiti UniFi](https://vNinja.net/2019/08/08/creating-isolated-networks-ubiquiti/) — Some times you might need to create an isolated network, while still allowing that network to access the internet. Ubiquity UniFi offers the easy option of creating a guest network for this, but that limits traffic between the devices in the same network as well, which might not be desirable. My primary use case for creating an isolated network, is to provide my tenant with his own dedicated network, without exposing anything on my own home network — but I still want him to be able to connect his own devices to each other, if he wants to — or even replacing the AP with something else, should he choose to do so. Another use case might be to create a dedicated network for all of those IoT-devices that keep popping up, like Amazon Echo's, Google Home and Chromecasts as well as Phillips Hue bridges etc. - [Win a VMworld US 2019 Pass With Veeam](https://vNinja.net/2019/08/08/win-a-vmworld-pass-with-veeam/) — If you want to go to VMworld US 2019 in San Francisco, and still don't have a ticket, don't despair. [There is still time, as Veeam is giving away three full conference passes!](https://www.veeam.com/vmworld/tickets) - [VMware Center for Advanced Learning Advanced Architecture Course (CALAAC)](https://vNinja.net/2019/07/21/vmware-center-for-advanced-learning-advanced-architecture-course/) — Back in late April I got notified that I had been accepted to attend the **VMware Center for Advanced Learning Advanced Architecture Course**, to be held in Paris, France July 9 - 19, 2019. Now that it is done, I find myself on a train from Paris to Nice, rocking out to [Hüsker Dü](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%BCsker_D%C3%BC) contemplating just what it is that I have been a part of. First things first — *this is not a class that can be taken lightly*. You can not simply sign up for this, you have to be nominated and either work for VMware or a Partner to be taken into consideration to be accepted. - [Guide: Ubiquiti USG Remote User VPN Using L2TP](https://vNinja.net/2019/04/10/ubiquiti-usg-remote-user-vpn-using-l2tp/) — I've recently standardized on Ubiquiti equipment in the new house, and so far I am very happy with it. Wireless is working flawlessly, which is more than I could say for my old setup. A part of the new setup is a UniFi® Security Gateway (USG) that I am using as my gateway/firewall for my fiber connection, so I thought why not use that a my VPN termination as well? - [Top vBlog 2018 Results](https://vNinja.net/2019/03/27/top-vblog-2018-results/) — Top vBlog 2018 Results: I am very happy to see that the site is still ranked in the top 25, clocking in at a very respectable 22nd place, and that also puts it into the 7th spot in the *Independant Blogger* category! - [Netlify, Slack and IFTTT Webhooks for fun and ... profit?](https://vNinja.net/2018/12/13/netlify-webhooks/) — A few months ago I migrated this site [from Wordpress to Hugo](https://vninja.net/2018/07/19/hello-my-name-is-hugo/), hosted by Netlify, and I have been very happy with it since. As mentioned in the previous post, I utilize webhooks from Netlify to send alerts to Slack whenever a new build is triggered. - [Top vBlog 2018](https://vNinja.net/2018/11/19/top-vblog-2018/) — The top [vBlog 2018 voting has opened](http://vsphere-land.com/news/voting-now-open-for-top-vblog-2018.html), time to go rock the vote and show your favorite bloggers some love for their hard work and dedication. - [VMworld 2018 NSX Roving Reporter: Eirik Vada](https://vNinja.net/2018/11/10/vmworld-2018-nsx-roving-reporter-eirik-vada/) — My good friend, and colleague, [Eirik Vada](https://twitter.com/vvadster) was interviewed by Ather Beg, the NSX Roving Reporter, during VMworld 2018. Since he doesn't toot his own horn, I decided to do it for him! - [Headshot-as-a-Service VMworld Europe 2018](https://vNinja.net/2018/11/09/headshot-as-a-service-vmworld-2018/) — [Headshot-as-a-Service](/2018/11/05/headshot-studiovmworld-details/) was a success, but I have to say it didn't quite turn out the way I wanted. Finding a proper location was hard, getting the lighting right (which I don't think I did) and without any advertising except my own blog posts and tweets, the turnout wasn't quite what I had expected. If I'm doing this again, there are some things that needs to be changed in both execution and setup. - [VeeamON Virtual 2018 — Reserve Your Seat Now](https://vNinja.net/2018/11/09/veeamon-virtual-2018-reserve-your-seat/) — Hot on the heels of VMworld Europe 2018, Veeam is hosting its annual virtual conference on december 5th. Just like [last year](https://vninja.net/virtualization/veeamon-tour-virtual-2017-reserve-your-spot/), I will be part of the panel in the Expert Lounge! - [VMworld 2018 Europe Day Two](https://vNinja.net/2018/11/07/vmworld-2018-europe-day-two/) — The keynote by [Sanjay Poonen](https://twitter.com/@spoonen) on day two continues to drive this message, as well as how we can use technology for good. [Robin Matlocks](https://twitter.com/@rmatlock) *how do we use our collective talents to ensure we have a better future for everyone* resonates well, and serves as a great for [Martha Lane Fox](https://twitter.com/marthalanefox), the **Dot com dinosaur**. Her talk about the early .com-era and how technology today has a reponsibility to be a force for good was great! - [VMworld 2018 Europe Day One](https://vNinja.net/2018/11/06/vmworld-2018-europe-day-one/) — The keynotes at VMworld Europe are always interesting, mostly because one always wonders what was left to announce from the US equivalent that is earlier in the year. This year there was a good gap between the US version in August, and the European one in November, unlike last year when it was only a couple of weeks, so my hope was that there would be some real new news and announcements in Barcelona. - [Headshot Studio@VMworld Details](https://vNinja.net/2018/11/05/headshot-studio@vmworld-details/) — As previously announced, I'll be offering [headshots for anyone](https://vninja.net/2018/10/26/headshot-studiovmworld-agenda/) who pops by at the announced times. After having a look at the VMworld layout this yeah, I've found a spot where I can set up everything without causing anyone trouble.

Sadly there was not enough available space at the VMTN and VMware {code} area, but luckily there was some space nearby that I can use! - [VMworld 2018 Europe Day Zero](https://vNinja.net/2018/11/05/vmworld-2018-europe-day-zero/) — Day zero started of with the Nordic & Baltic VMware Partner Briefing Brunch at the Hotel W. The parter briefing contained updates on the way forward for VMware Partner Central as well as upcoming updates to the partner model, something I look forward too. In my opinion, and thankfully VMware's too, Partner Central is way overdue a major overhaul, so this is good news! - [VMworld 2018 Europe Day Minus One](https://vNinja.net/2018/11/04/vmworld-2018-europe-day-minus-one/) — I got in to Barcelona yesterday, and I have to say it is really nice to have some time before the actual VMworld crazyness starts. With no need to rush anything, we just found the hotel [Arrow ECS Norway](https://ecs-no.arrow.com/produsenter/VMware/Aktiviteter/Sider/VMworld-Barcelona-20181.aspx) has booked for us, and relax. - [VMworld 2018 Barcelona — Tips from the Nordics](https://vNinja.net/2018/10/30/vmwworld-2018-tips-nordic/) — [Liselotte Foverskov](https://twitter.com/lfoverskov), [Blogger](http://blog.textrovert.dk), vExpert and [VMUG.dk](http://VMUG.dk) extraordinaire has created a great video with VMworld 2018 tips from various Nordic VMworld-veterans, just in time for the event in Barcelona next week. **Check it out!** - [Headshot Studio@VMworld Agenda and Details](https://vNinja.net/2018/10/26/headshot-studio@vmworld-agenda/) — VMworld Europe 2018 is just over a week away, and I figured it would be time to announce some more details surrounding Headshot-as-a-Service. Since I have been unable to secure a permanent location for this at the event, I've decided to have it set up somewhere close to the Bloggers Lounge and vBrownbag in the Social Hub. - [Nordic VMUG Conference 2019 Announced](https://vNinja.net/2018/10/24/nordic-vmug-conference-2019/) — VMUG Denmark yet again is arranging the Nordic VMUG Conference, this time in Copenhagen on January 31st 2019. The agenda is still a work in progress, and is not finalized, but I'll be there! - [Veeam Vanguard Summit 2018 - a Recap](https://vNinja.net/2018/10/22/veeam-vanguard-summit-2018-recap/) — After decompressing for few days, I’m finally able to wrap my head around the Veeam Vanguard Summit 2018 in Prague. The Veeam team provided loads of great content for us Vanguards, both public, embargoed and NDA rated. - [vSphere VCSA 6.5 Update 2 to 6.7 Update 1 Upgrade Issues](https://vNinja.net/2018/10/17/vsphere-vcsa-6.5u2-to-6.7u1-update-issues/) — Now that vSphere 6.7 Update 1 has been released, I jumped at upgrading one of my lab environments from 6.5 Update 2 (which was not a supported upgrade path until 6.7 Update 1), and I pretty much immediately ran into issues. - [Veeam Vanguard Summit 2018 - a Precap](https://vNinja.net/2018/10/13/veeam-vanguard-summit-2018/) — For the first time since the [Veeam Vanguard](https://www.veeam.com/vanguard.html) program was started, I'll be able to join the Vanguard Summit! This event takes place next week (October 15th to 18th) in lovely Prague, Czechia. - [Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS Bionic Beaver Missing Entries in sources.list](https://vNinja.net/2018/10/08/ubuntu-18.04.1-lts-bionic-beaver-sources.list/) — While setting up a new Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS Bionic Beaver VM (which will be used for Grafana and InfluxDB), I ran into a small issue where the */etc/apt/sources.list* was close to empty - [My Pi-Hole Setup](https://vNinja.net/2018/10/08/my-pi-hole-setup/) — After playing around with Pi-Hole for a bit, and configuring some of my local clients to use it, I decided to go all in. I finally settled on an architecture and setup that looks like this. - [Trouble Installing Pi-Hole on Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS Bionic Beaver](https://vNinja.net/2018/10/08/installing-pihole-on-ubuntu-18.04.1/) — Pi-Hole is a nifty little software package that basically acts as a ad and tracking blocking server for your entire network. The installer silently fails on Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS Bionic Beaver, since it can not install dependencies. That's not good, but hey, there is an easy fix! - [macOS: Homebrew error in macOS 10.14 Mojave](https://vNinja.net/2018/09/25/homebrew-in-mojave/) — How to fix **Error: Git must be installed and in your PATH!** with Homebrew in macOS 10.14 Mojave. - [VMworld Europe 2018 Sessions and Some Advice](https://vNinja.net/2018/09/25/vmworld-europe-2018-sessions/) — VMware has opened the session builder for VMworld Europe 2018, and quite a few sessions are already fullly booked. Don't despair though if you session is full, there is still a chance that some sessions will get additional slots, as well as the possibility for walk-ins at the time of the sessions. Odds are that quite a few people who have scheduled a given session doesn't show up and that will open up slots for those waiting at the door. - [macOS: Lulu](https://vNinja.net/2018/09/12/software-lulu/) — **Software Recommendation:** LuLu is a small, shared-source macOS firewall that's finally reached v1.0. Unlike other macOS firewall solutions, LuLu is 100% free, with no ads and no trial version. I've been using it on my home Mac Mini for a while, and it works _perfectly_. - [Headshot Studio @ VMworld Confirmed](https://vNinja.net/2018/09/10/headshot-studio@vmworld-confirmed/) — I'm very happy to announce that I can now confirm that **Headshot Studio @ VMworld** will happen! Mainly due to Tom Dodds and 10ZiG, who has stepped up as a sponsor! This means I'll be able to set up a small headshot studio, complete with multiple light sources, a background, and softboxes! **Huge thanks to both Tom and 10ZiG!** - [IT Architect Series: Designing Risk in IT Infrastructure](https://vNinja.net/2018/09/04/designing-risk-in-it-infrastructure/) — Another must-have book for system administrators and architects has been published! Designing Risk in IT Infrastructure By [Daemon Behr](https://twitter.com/daemonbehr) This book wil help you understand what risk really is, a variety of different risk factors and how to mitigate them. Do you know what risks exist for a given solution, and why? - [Headshot Studio @VMworld?](https://vNinja.net/2018/09/02/headshot-studio@vmworld/) — Over the last couple of weeks an idea started to form, an idea that would try to combine two of my passions; The vCommunity and photography. In short, the idea is to set up some kind of mini-studio at VMworld Europe, and offer free [headshots](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_shot) to those who might be interested. - [VMware Cloud on AWS — New Amazon EC2 elastic, bare-metal instance for vSAN](https://vNinja.net/2018/08/26/vmware-cloud-on-aws-news/) — VMware Cloud on AWS (vSAN) utilizing Amazon Elastic Block Storage (EBS) is an interesting one. Being able to independently increment storage in the VMC without adding compute nodes is a feature that has been missing, **until now**. - [VMware vSAN 6.7u1 — What's New?](https://vNinja.net/2018/08/26/vsan67u1-whats-new/) — VMworld 2018 US is upon is, and as per usual this means a lot of new announcements. One of them is vSAN 6.7u1 which comes with a bunch of new and useful features. This release mainly focuses on improved operations and maintenance, with a bunch of nice new additions. - [VMware vSphere 6.7u1 — What's New?](https://vNinja.net/2018/08/26/vphere67u1-whats-new/) — Another VMworld, another vSphere announcement. As all new releases, vSphere 6.7u1 comes with a bunch of new features and capabilities — **yay, finally feature complete HTML5 client!** - [Book Recommendations August 2018](https://vNinja.net/2018/08/16/book-recommendations/) — Every now and then new vSphere related must-have books are released, and this month there is no less than two of them, namely the vSphere 6.7 Clustering Deep Dive and VDI Design Guide: A comprehensive guide to help you design VMware Horizon, based on modern standards. - [Migrating From Wordpress to Hugo](https://vNinja.net/2018/07/22/migrating-from-wordpress-to-hugo/) — Migrating From Wordpress to Hugo aka The Long and Winding Road - [Hello, My Name Is Hugo (Montoya)](https://vNinja.net/2018/07/19/hello-my-name-is-hugo/) — Goodbye Wordpress, hello Hugo! vNinja.net has been powered by Wordpress since it was launched back in 2010, and frankly it was time for a change. - [I've Complied, I think.](https://vNinja.net/rant/ive-complied-i-think/) — - [Keynote: Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones - Simon Wardley](https://vNinja.net/awesometalks/crossing-river-feeling-stones/) — - [Alerting on "Bootbank cannot be found at path ‘/bootbank’" in vRealize Operations](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/bootbank-cannot-be-found-at-path/) — - [The Curious Case of the Intel Microcode Part #2 - It Gets Better — Then Worse](https://vNinja.net/news/curious-case-intel-microcode-part-2-gets-better-worse/) — - [The Curious Case of the Intel Microcode](https://vNinja.net/news/the-curious-case-of-the-intel-microcode/) — - [Evaluating 2017](https://vNinja.net/misc/evaluating-2017/) — - [Nordic VMUG Conference 2018](https://vNinja.net/news/nordic-vmug-conference-2018/) — - [Scott Hanselman - "It's not what you read, it's what you ignore"](https://vNinja.net/awesometalks/scott-hanselman-its-not-what-you-read-its-what-you-ignore/) — - [macOS: Vanilla](https://vNinja.net/osx/macos-vanilla/) — - [LISA17 - "Don't You Know Who I Am?!" The Danger of Celebrity in Tech](https://vNinja.net/awesometalks/lisa17-dont-you-know-who-i-am-the-danger-of-celebrity-in-tech/) — - [Webinar: Veeam integration with VMware vSAN, vSphere tags and SPBM policies](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/webinar-veeam-integration-with-vmware-vsan-vsphere-tags-and-spbm-policies/) — - [Mass Converting .svg to .png on macOS](https://vNinja.net/osx/mass-converting-svg-to-png-on-macos/) — - [Integrating Pocket with Todoist via IFTTT](https://vNinja.net/workflow/integrating-pocket-with-todoist-via-ifttt/) — - [How I use Todoist](https://vNinja.net/workflow/how-i-use-todoist/) — - [VeeamOn Tour Virtual 2017 - Reserve your spot!](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/veeamon-tour-virtual-2017-reserve-your-spot/) — - [Making Royal TSX Even More Awesome](https://vNinja.net/osx/making-royal-tsx-even-more-awesome/) — - [PSA: Protect Your Email with DMARC](https://vNinja.net/misc/psa-protect-your-email-with-dmarc/) — - [VMware vSAN 6.6 - What's New for Day 2 Operations?](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vmware-vsan-6-6-whats-new-for-day-2-operations/) — - [Cross vCenter VM Mobility Fling - macOS?](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/cross-vcenter-vm-mobility-fling-macos/) — - [In The Bag #13 - Week 11 2017](https://vNinja.net/inthebag/in-the-bag-13-week-11-2017/) — - [In The Bag #12 - Week 10 2017](https://vNinja.net/inthebag/in-the-bag-12-week-10-2017/) — - [In The Bag #11 - Week 9 2017](https://vNinja.net/inthebag/in-the-bag-11-week-9-2017/) — - [In The Bag #10 - Week 8 2017](https://vNinja.net/inthebag/in-the-bag-10-week-8-2017/) — - [VMware vSphere 6.5 PSOD: GP Exception 13](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/vmware-vsphere-6-5-psod-gp-exception-13/) — - [In The Bag #9 - Week 7 2017](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/in-the-bag-9-week-7-2017/) — - [In The Bag #8 - Week 6 2017](https://vNinja.net/inthebag/in-the-bag-8-week-6-2017/) — - [In The Bag #7 - Week 5 2017](https://vNinja.net/inthebag/in-the-bag-7-week-5-2017/) — - [ESXi Snapshot Problems: msg.snapshot.error-QUIESCINGERROR](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/esxi-snapshot-problems-msg-snapshot-error-quiescingerror/) — - [In The Bag #6 - Week 4 2017](https://vNinja.net/inthebag/in-the-bag-6-week-4-2017/) — - [2017 — You Better Deliver](https://vNinja.net/misc/2017-you-better-deliver/) — - [Evaluating 2016](https://vNinja.net/misc/evaluating-2016/) — - [In The Bag #5 - Week 48](https://vNinja.net/inthebag/in-the-bag-5-week-48/) — - [In The Bag #4 - Week 47](https://vNinja.net/inthebag/in-the-bag-4-week-47/) — - [macOS: Spectacle](https://vNinja.net/osx/macos-spectacle/) — - [Facelift](https://vNinja.net/news/facelift/) — - [Got VMware vRealize Log Insight?](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/got-vmware-vrealize-log-insight/) — - [VMware vSAN: 2016 Edition](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vmware-vsan-2016-edition/) — - [Cohesity: My Initial Impression](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/cohesity-my-initial-impression/) — - [Nordic VMUG UserCon 2016](https://vNinja.net/news/nordic-vmug-usercon-2016/) — - [In The Bag #3 - Week 46](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/in-the-bag-3-week-46/) — - [VMworld Dates 2017](https://vNinja.net/news/vmworld-dates-2017/) — - [Generating Random Data in Linux](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/generating-random-data-in-linux/) — - [In The Bag #2 - Week 45](https://vNinja.net/inthebag/in-the-bag-2-week-45/) — - [VCSA - The default choice. Always.](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vcsa-the-default-choice-always/) — - [Using GitBook for Secrets](https://vNinja.net/misc/using-gitbook-for-secrets/) — - [My vCenter Web Client Customization](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/my-vcenter-web-client-customization/) — - [What's Really in the Bag?](https://vNinja.net/misc/whats-really-in-the-bag/) — - [In The Bag #1 - Week 44](https://vNinja.net/inthebag/in-the-bag-1-week-44/) — - [Adding Slack Notifications to phpipam](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/adding-slack-notifications-to-phpipam/) — - [Running telnetlogger on my home IP](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/running-telnetlogger-on-my-home-ip/) — - [VMworld Europe 2016 - My takeaways](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/vmworld-europe-2016-my-takeaways/) — - [Me too: VMware Cloud™ on AWS](https://vNinja.net/news/me-too-vmware-cloud-on-aws/) — - [macOS: Secure Pipes](https://vNinja.net/osx/macos-secure-pipes/) — - [Patch those Dell Servers easily!](https://vNinja.net/hardware/patch-those-dell-servers-easily/) — - [Logging SSH logins to Slack](https://vNinja.net/homelab/logging-ssh-logins-to-slack/) — - [HomeLabOps via Slack](https://vNinja.net/homelab/homelabops-via-slack/) — - [VMworld 2016 Europe](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vmworld-2016-europe/) — - [Goodbye PernixData FVP and Architect](https://vNinja.net/news/goodbye-fvp-and-architect/) — - [CloudFlare Dynamic DNS Update Script (cf-ddns.sh)](https://vNinja.net/homelab/cloudflare-dynamic-dns-update-script-cf-ddns-sh/) — - [Using CloudFlare for Dynamic DNS](https://vNinja.net/homelab/using-cloudflare-for-dynamic-dns/) — - [Dynamic DNS Requirements](https://vNinja.net/homelab/dynamic-dns-requirements/) — - [Veeam vCenter Migration Utility](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/veeam-vcenter-migration-utility/) — - [Taking IT too Far](https://vNinja.net/news/taking-it-to-far/) — - [Top vBlog 2016: Thank you!](https://vNinja.net/news/top-vblog-2016-thank-you/) — - [vSphere Platform Services Controller (PSC) topology and Omnigraffle](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vsphere-platform-services-controller-psc-topology-and-omnigraffle/) — - [Let's get the kids some RPi's!](https://vNinja.net/news/lets-get-the-kids-some-rpis/) — - [Top vBlog 2016](https://vNinja.net/network/top-vblog-2016/) — - [IT Architect: Foundation in the Art of Infrastructure Design: A Practical Guide for IT Architects](https://vNinja.net/news/it-architect-foundation-in-the-art-of-infrastructure-design-a-practical-guide-for-it-architects/) — - [My Contribution to the vSphere Design Pocketbook v3](https://vNinja.net/news/my-contribution-to-the-vsphere-design-pocketbook-v3/) — - [I'm honored. And a Bit Scared.](https://vNinja.net/network/im-honored-and-a-bit-scared/) — - [I Made Something Happen](https://vNinja.net/news/i-made-something-happen/) — - [Running a vSAN PoC - Customer reactions](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/running-a-vsan-poc-customer-reactions/) — - [vCenter Server Appliance Backups](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/vcenter-server-appliance-backups/) — - [Oh wow, it's already 2016.](https://vNinja.net/misc/oh-wow-its-already-2016/) — - [2015: The verdict](https://vNinja.net/misc/2015-the-verdict/) — - [Running Dockerflix on Ravello Systems](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/running-dockerflix-on-ravello-systems/) — - [Todoist: One year later](https://vNinja.net/workflow/todoist-one-year-later/) — - [YourDailyTech - Content Stealers](https://vNinja.net/news/yourdailytech-content-stealers/) — - [VMware VSAN - More than meets the eye.](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vmware-vsan-more-than-meets-the-eye/) — - [vCenter / SSO unable to retrieve AD-information | Error while extracting local SSO users](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vcenter-sso-unable-to-retrieve-ad-information-error-while-extracting-local-sso-users/) — - [Nordic VMUG UserCon Session](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/nordic-vmug-usercon-session/) — - [Relax and virtualize it!](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/relax-and-virtualize-it/) — - [What if it's Just Some Crazy Guy in a Clown Suit?](https://vNinja.net/news/what-if-its-just-some-crazy-guy-in-a-clown-suit/) — - [VMware Update Manager: Unsupported Configuration](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/vmware-update-manager-unsupported-configuration/) — - [Update ESXi Embedded Host Client Fling](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/update-esxi-embedded-host-client-fling/) — - [ESXi5.5 to 6.0 Upgrade From Local HTTP Daemon](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/esxi5-5-to-6-0-upgrade-from-local-http-daemon/) — - [HP Proliant DL380p Gen8 "Decompressed MD5" error](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/hp-proliant-dl380p-gen8-decompressed-md5-error/) — - [ESXi Embedded Host Client](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/esxi-embedded-host-client/) — - [Veeam Vanguard 2015](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/veeam-vanguard-2015/) — - [It's Time to End the Add on Insanity](https://vNinja.net/rant/time-add-insanity/) — - [Ravello Offers Free Lab Service for all 2015 vExperts](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/ravello/) — - [The "vCommunity"](https://vNinja.net/rant/vcommunity/) — - [VMware Software Manager - Changing Download Directory](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vmware-software-manager-changing-download-directory/) — - [vVotemageddon 2015](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vvotemageddon-2015/) — - [Starting a VMUG](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/starting-vmug/) — - [Do you ChangeLog?](https://vNinja.net/workflow/changelog/) — - [The Real Value of the VCDX Certification](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/real-vcdx-certification/) — - [The vSphere 6.0 Launch and The Misinformation Effect](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/vsphere-6-0-launch-misinformation-effect/) — - [Dude, where is my VAIO?](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/dude-vaio/) — - [A great disturbance in the Force](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/great-disturbance-force/) — - [Veeam Backup & Replication 8: RPC error:Access is denied Fix](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/veeam-backup-replication-8-rpc-erroraccess-denied-fix/) — - [2015: Let's DOS IT!](https://vNinja.net/misc/2015-dos-it/) — - [Markdown All the Things!](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/markdown-things/) — - [Importing vCloud Air SSL Certificate on the vCenter Server Appliance 5.x](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/importing-vcloud-air-ssl-certificate-vcenter-server-appliance-5-x/) — - [Combining Todoist and Evernote, because awesome](https://vNinja.net/workflow/combining-todoist-evernote-awesome/) — - [EVO:RAIL: Doing the methmath.](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/hyperconvergence-meth-math/) — - [Nordic VMUG Conference 2014](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/nordic-vmug-conference-2014/) — - [Building an Ubuntu 14.04 Appliance with VMware Studio 2.6](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/building-ubuntu-14-04-appliance-vmware-studio-2-6/) — - [Is Hyperconverged the be-all, end-all? No.](https://vNinja.net/rant/hyperconverged-be-all-end-all-no/) — - [Need the vSphere Client? VMware Has You Covered.](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/vsphere-client-vmware-covered/) — - [My VCAP-DCA 550 Experience](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/vcap-dca-550-experience/) — - [VMworld US is over. Now what?](https://vNinja.net/rant/vmworld-over-what/) — - [It's official EVO:RAIL it is](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/official-evorail/) — - [#AdviceForVMworld](https://vNinja.net/rant/adviceforvmworld/) — - [It's EVOlution Baby!](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/evolution-baby/) — - [Problems connecting HP Insight Control Storage Module to StoreServ 7200 (3Par)](https://vNinja.net/storage-2/problems-connecting-hp-insight-control-storage-module-storeserv-7200-3par/) — - [Marvin Related VMworld Sessions?](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/marvin-related-vmworld-sessions/) — - [PernixData vSphere Pocketbook Blog Edition](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/pernixdata-vsphere-pocketbook-blog-edition/) — - [This Week in Virtualization](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/week-virtualization/) — - [Root Cause of Invalid memory setting: memory reservation (sched.mem.min) should be equal to memsize (memsize)](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/root-invalid-memory-setting-memory-reservation-sched-mem-min-equal-memsize-memsize/) — - [Disaster Recovery using VMware vSphere Replication and vCenter Site Recovery Manager eBook Winners](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/disaster-recovery-vmware-vsphere-replication-vcenter-site-recovery-manager-ebook-winners/) — - [Win a eBook Copy of Disaster Recovery using VMware vSphere Replication and vCenter Site Recovery Manager](https://vNinja.net/news/win-ebook-copy-disaster-recovery-vmware-vsphere-replication-vcenter-site-recovery-manager/) — - [Learning Veeam Backup & Replication for VMware vSphere Book Winners](https://vNinja.net/news/learning-veeam-backup-replication-vmware-vsphere-book-winners/) — - [Is Marvin an Acronym?](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/marvin-acronym/) — - [NSX for vSphere 6.0.4 - Documentation and Download?](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/nsx-vsphere-6-0-4-documentation-download/) — - [Win Free e-copies of Learning Veeam® Backup & Replication for VMware vSphere](https://vNinja.net/book/win-free-e-copies-learning-veeam-backup-replication-vmware-vsphere/) — - [Some more Marvin Speculation](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/marvin-speculation/) — - [What is VMware's Mystic Marvin Project?](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/vmwares-mystic-marvin-project/) — - [And the Chromecast Winner is ...](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/chromecast-winner/) — - [VMware vShield Manager Upgrade - Password Issues](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/vmware-vshield-manager-upgrade-password-issues/) — - [Want to Win a Google Chromecast?](https://vNinja.net/news/win-google-chromecast/) — - [2014 Top vBlog Results ](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/2014-top-vblog-results/) — Eric Siebert has yet again pulled through, and organized his annual top VMware & virtualization blogs vote, and the … - [VSAN - The Unspoken Future](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vsan-unspoken-future/) — - [It's All Fun and Games Until...](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/fun-games-until/) — - [VMware Certified Professional Recertification](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/vmware-certified-professional-recertification/) — - [Rock the Vote 2014](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/rock-vote-2014/) — - [Configuring VSAN on a Dell PowerEdge VRTX](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/configuring-vsan-dell-poweredge-vrtx/) — - [Automatically Name Datastores in vSphere?](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/automatically-datastores-vsphere/) — - [Random VCDX Tips and Quotes?](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/random-vcdx-tips-quotes/) — - [VCDX? Give me a Quote!](https://vNinja.net/news/vcdx-give-quote/) — - [Fixing "Could not create vFlash cache" error when powering on a VM](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/fixing-could-create-vflash-cache-error-powering-vm/) — - [Importing SSL Certificates to Raspberry Pi Thin Client](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/importing-ssl-certificates-raspberry-pi-thin-client/) — - [Nordic VMUG Conference - My Thoughts](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/nordic-vmug-conference-thoughts/) — - [Sometimes You Simply Get What You Pay For](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/simply-pay/) — - [VMware VCAP-DCD Boot Camp](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vmware-vcap-dcd-boot-camp/) — - [Can Microsoft really be Fair and Balanced?](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/microsoft-fair-balanced/) — - [Brace Yourselves: Top vBlog 2014 edition is coming](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/brace-yourselves-top-vblog-2014-edition-coming/) — - [Check for OS X Updates Automatically](https://vNinja.net/osx/check-os-updates-automatically/) — - [VMworld Europe 2013 - Here I Come](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vmworld-europe-2013/) — - [Social Media, Karma and Being a Dick](https://vNinja.net/rant/social-media-karma-dick/) — - [vPostgres Database Backup in vCSA 5.5](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vpostgres-database-backup-vcsa-5-5/) — - [Upgrading vSphere vCenter Appliance 5.1 to 5.5](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/upgrading-vsphere-vcenter-appliance-5-1-5-5/) — - [Can you combine vSphere Host Cache and vFlash on a single SSD?](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/combine-vsphere-host-cache-vflash-single-ssd/) — - [VMware vCenter Server Appliance Error: VPXD must be stopped to perform this operation](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/vmware-vcenter-server-appliance-error-vpxd-stopped-perform-operation/) — - [Quick and Dirty ESXi 5.5 Upgrade](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/quick-dirty-esxi-5-5-upgrade/) — - [Podcasting for Cancer](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/podcasting-cancer/) — - [vSphere 5.5 Availability and VSAN Public Beta](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/vsphere-5-5-availability-vsan-public-beta/) — - [Veeam Webinar & NFR Licenses](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/veeam-webinar-nfr-licenses/) — - [My Slate Setup](https://vNinja.net/osx/slate-setup/) — - [Monitoring the ESXi Upgrade Process](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/monitoring-esxi-upgrade-process/) — - [Centrally Disable NAT in VMware Workstation](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/centrally-disable-nat-vmware-workstation/) — - [Virtual Connect FlexFabric and Direct-Attach FC 3Par Caveat](https://vNinja.net/storage-2/virtual-connect-flexfabric-direct-attach-fc-3par-caveat/) — - [Quick and Dirty HTTP Based Deployment](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/quick-and-dirty-http-based-deployment/) — - [Quick and Dirty ESXi 5.1U1 Upgrade](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/quick-dirty-esxi-5-1u1-upgrade/) — - [Adding a secondary NIC to the vCenter 5.1 Appliance (VCSA)](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/adding-secondary-nic-vcenter-5-1-appliance-vcsa/) — - [Installing Dell Equallogic Multipathing Extension Module (MEM) in vSphere 5.1](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/installing-dell-equallogic-multipathing-extension-module-mem-vsphere-5-1/) — - [It's Not Your Average Data it's vOpenData](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/its-average-data-its-vopendata/) — - [Brilliant idea: VMware Hosted Beta](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/brilliant-idea-vmware-hosted-beta/) — - [Backing up vCenter DB with Veeam B&R 6.5](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/backing-up-vcenter-db-with-veeam-br-6-5/) — - [Preserve your Veeam B&R Backups Jobs when Moving vCenter](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/preserve-veeam-br-backups-jobs-moving-vcenter/) — - [Autolab goes Cloudy with a Chance of Free Credits ](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/autolab-meets-cloud/) — - [Keep Calm And ...](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/calm/) — - [Want a Free Pass to TechEd 2013?](https://vNinja.net/news/free-pass-teched-2013/) — - [Trainsignal: Training as a Service (TaaS)](https://vNinja.net/news/trainsignal-training-service-taas/) — - [New Fling from VMware Labs: Makyo](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/fling-vmware-labs-makyo/) — - [Voting Open for the 2013 Top VMware & Virtualization Blogs ](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/voting-open-2013-top-vmware-virtualization-blogs/) — - [Unsupported Network Configurations in Virtual Appliances](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/unsupported-network-configurations-virtual-appliances/) — - [Purging the vCenter Operations Manager 5.x Database](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/purging-vcenter-operations-manager-5-x-database/) — - [Goodbye Mr. Herrod](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/goodbye-mr-herrod/) — - [vCenter Operations Manager and vCenter Deployment Dependency](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/vcenter-operations-manager-vcenter-deployment-dependency/) — - [Dell (VKernel) vOPS Server Explorer 6.3 Released](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/dell-vkernel-vops-server-explorer-6-3-released/) — - [Want a VMware Workstation License?](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vmware-workstation-license/) — - [Fun and Games with VDR and Snapshots](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/fun-games-vdr-snapshots/) — - [VMware Hands-on Lab Online Public Beta Review](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/vmware-hands-on-lab-online-review/) — - [VMware vSphere Health Check - What´s in it for You?](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/vmware-vsphere-health-checks-wha/) — - [VMware vCenter Operations Manager 5.6 Available](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vmware-vcenter-operations-manager-5-6/) — - [Exporting vCenter Events with PowerCLI](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/exporting-vcenter-events-powercli/) — - [VIP VCP Club 2012](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/vip-vcp-club-2012/) — - [Why Did the HP BL460c G8 Lose It's Datastore?](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/hp-bl460c-g8-lose-its-datastore/) — - [Want Access to the VMworld 2012 Sessions?](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/access-vmworld-2012-sessions/) — - [vShield Endpoint Entitlement, not just for vSphere 5.1](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/vshield-endpoint-entitlement-vsphere-5-1/) — - [Getting It Right: VMware Training and Certification](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/right-vmware-training-certification/) — - [VMware ESXi 4 vs ESXi 5 Log File Locations](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vmware-esxi-4-vs-esxi-5-log-file-locations/) — - [Verifying VMware Downloads](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/verifying-vmware-downloads/) — - [... and All I Asked for Was a Pin](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/all-i-asked-for-was-a-pin/) — - [The Personal Value of Certification](https://vNinja.net/rant/personal-certification/) — - [Shanghai... we have a problem...](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/shanghai-problem/) — - [VMware launches Public vCloud "Test-Drive"](https://vNinja.net/news/vmware-launches-public-vcloud-test-driv/) — - [Building End-User Computing Solutions with VMware View Book Available](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/building-end-user-computing-solutions-vmware-view-book/) — - [Applescript, Desktop Wallpaper and Growl. Automagically.](https://vNinja.net/osx/applescript-desktop-wallpaper-growl-automatically/) — - [10 minute lightning Tech Talk at VMworld?](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/techtalks-at-vmworld2012/) — - [vSphere 5: Creating a Hardware Version 4 VM](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vsphere-5-creating-hardware-version-4-vm/) — - [VMworld Session Reject Club](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vmworld-session-reject-club/) — - [Thinapped vSphere Client Updated to V5.0](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/thinapped-vsphere-client-updated-v5-0/) — - [VMware Forum 2012 Oslo](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vmware-forum-2012-oslo/) — - [VCDX Wannabe goes live](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vcdx-wannabe-live/) — - [vCenter Client Download URLs](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/vcenter-client-download-urls/) — - [My VCP 5 exam experience](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vcp-5-exam-experience/) — - [Being Neil Armstrong](https://vNinja.net/rant/neil-armstrong/) — - [VMware Virtual Customer Labs](https://vNinja.net/news/vmware-virtual-customer-labs/) — - [VCP 5 Certification Requirements Clarification](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/vcp-5-certification-requirement-clarification/) — - [Vote for the Top VMware & Virtualization Blogs ](https://vNinja.net/news/vote-top-vmware-virtualization-blogs/) — - [Iomega IX2 and Time Machine Support](https://vNinja.net/osx/iomega-ix2-time-machine-support/) — - [Creating and Using a Virtual Floppy in vSphere](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/creating-virtual-floppy-vsphere/) — - [Building The Ultimate vSphere Lab Series](https://vNinja.net/news/building-ultimate-vsphere-lab-series/) — - [Goodbye 2011, you were great](https://vNinja.net/news/goodbye-2011-you-were-great/) — - [Auto Installation and Configuring of vSphere ESXi 5](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/auto-installation-and-configuring-of-vsphere-esxi-5/) — - [DaaS or Having Fun with ThinApp](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/daas-or-having-fun-with-thinapp/) — - [Blatant Self Promotion](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/blatant-self-promotion/) — - [Testing VMware vSphere 5 Swap to Host Cache](https://vNinja.net/vmware-2/testing-vmware-vsphere-5-swap-to-host-cache/) — - [VMware Horizon Application Manager Now and Beyond](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vmware-horizon-application-manager-now-and-beyond/) — - [VMTN Subscription](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vmtn-subscription/) — - [Why Can't I Syslog my VMware ESXi Installation?](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/why-cant-i-syslog-my-vmware-esxi-installation/) — - [My Personal vMotion](https://vNinja.net/news/my-personal-vmotion/) — - [Moving On](https://vNinja.net/news/moving-on/) — - [Network Simulation in VMware Workstation 8](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/network-simulation-in-vmware-workstation-8/) — - [Installing Windows 8 Developer Preview in VMware Workstation 8](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/installing-windows-8-developer-preview-in-vmware-workstation-8/) — - [Backup Academy - Do You Know Your VM backups?](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/backup-academy-do-you-know-your-vm-backups/) — - [VMware Workstation 8 - What's new?](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vmware-workstation-8-whats-new/) — - [VMworld Hands-on Labs going public in 2012](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vmworld-hands-on-labs-going-public-in-2012/) — - [SCCM 2007 Not a Virtualization Candidate?](https://vNinja.net/microsoft-2/sccm-2007-not-a-virtualization-candidate/) — - [Poor Man's WSUS](https://vNinja.net/microsoft-2/poor-mans-wsus/) — - [vSphere 5: ESXi Installation Video](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vsphere-5-esxi-installation-video/) — - [VMFS-5: Block Size Me](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vmfs-5-block-size-me/) — - [Dear John](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/dear-john/) — - [SMB Shared Storage Smackdown - Part 1 NFS Performance](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/smb-shared-storage-smackdown-part-1-nfs-performance/) — - [vSphere 5 and new licensing - Good or bad?](https://vNinja.net/news/vsphere-5-and-new-licensing-good-or-bad/) — - [Online Event: Raising the Bar, Part V](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/online-event-raising-the-bar-part-v/) — - [Setting Up Automated ESXi Deployments](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/setting-up-automated-esxi-deployments/) — - [Exchange 2010 SP1 and KB2393802 or How to Have an Interesting Afternoon at the Office](https://vNinja.net/microsoft-2/exchange-2010-sp1-and-kb2393802-or-how-to-have-an-interesting-afternoon-at-the-office/) — - [vExpert 2011](https://vNinja.net/news/vexpert-2011/) — - [Zerto: Or What I Learned at Tech Field Day #6!](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/zerto-or-what-i-learned-at-tfd-6/) — - [7 Expert Tips for Managing Your Remote vSphere Infrastructure](https://vNinja.net/news/7-expert-tips-for-managing-your-remote-vsphere-infrastructure/) — - [Multi-Hypervisor Management and the Future](https://vNinja.net/news/multi-hypervisor-management-and-the-future/) — - [vCenter Integration Mantra](https://vNinja.net/news/vcenter-integration-mantra/) — - [Tech Field Day #6 - Arriving in Boston](https://vNinja.net/news/tech-field-day-6-arriving-in-boston/) — - [vSoup and Tech Field Day #6](https://vNinja.net/news/vsoup-and-tech-field-day-6/) — - [Tech Field Day #6 - Delegate I Am](https://vNinja.net/news/tech-field-day-6-delegate-i-am/) — - [VMworld 2011 Session Voting](https://vNinja.net/news/vmworld-2011-session-voting/) — - [vCenter Update Manager - A Feature Request](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vcenter-update-manager-a-feature-request/) — - [Installing and running VMware Compliance Checker for vSphere](https://vNinja.net/news/installing-and-running-vmware-compliance-checker-for-vsphere/) — - [vNinja enables HA](https://vNinja.net/news/vninja-enables-h/) — - [VMware Forum 2011 Oslo ](https://vNinja.net/news/vmware-forum-2011-oslo/) — - [Digital Ship Magazine April 2011](https://vNinja.net/news/digital-ship-magazine-april-2011/) — - [vSoup Episode #7 and VMware Podcast Directory](https://vNinja.net/news/vsoup-episode-7-and-vmware-podcast-directory/) — - [vNinja.net available also on vNinja.com](https://vNinja.net/news/vninja-net-available-also-on-vninja-com/) — - [Installing and configuring VMware vCenter Operations](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/installing-and-configuring-vmware-vcenter-operations/) — - [vSphere iPad Client](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vsphere-ipad-client/) — - [Custom Dictionary Syncronization with Dropbox](https://vNinja.net/howto/custom-dictionary-syncronization-with-dropbox/) — - [Using rsync to Distribute Patches to a Remote vMA ](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/using-rsync-to-distribute-patches-to-remote-a-vma/) — - [Using vMA as a local vSphere Patch Repository](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/using-vma-as-a-local-vsphere-patch-repository/) — - [Installing vSphere Management Assistant (vMA)](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/installing-vsphere-management-assistant-vma/) — - [Passion in IT](https://vNinja.net/rant/passion-in-modern-it-organizations/) — - [vSoup Episode #4 now available](https://vNinja.net/news/vsoup-episode-4-now-available/) — - [vSoup Episode #3 now available](https://vNinja.net/news/vsoup-episode-3-now-available/) — - [Remote Desktop Connection Manager (RDCMan) + Powershell = Win](https://vNinja.net/howto/remote-desktop-connection-manager-rdcman-powershell-win/) — - [Powershell: Scripting Best Practices Analyzer remotely](https://vNinja.net/windows/powershell-scripting-best-practices-analyzer-remotely/) — - [vSoup Episode #2 now available](https://vNinja.net/news/vsoup-episode-2-now-available/) — - [Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT) article](https://vNinja.net/news/volume-activation-management-tool-vamt-article/) — - [Migrating from Watchguard Firebox X to XTM Series Firewalls](https://vNinja.net/network/migrating-from-watchguard-firebox-x-to-xtm-series-firewalls/) — - [So, what is this vSoup thing?](https://vNinja.net/news/so-what-is-this-vsoup-thing/) — - [State of the vNinja: 2010](https://vNinja.net/news/state-of-the-vninja-2010/) — - [Installing and Configuring WANem Virtual Appliance](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/installing-and-configuring-wanem-virtual-appliance/) — - [vNinja used by VMware](https://vNinja.net/news/vninja-used-by-vmware/) — - [Virtual Admins - Virtual Pirates?](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/virtual-admins-virtual-pirates/) — - [Developer meets PowerCLI - awesomeness ensues](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/developer-meets-powercli-awesomeness-ensues/) — - [VMworld.next - a couple of suggestions](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vmworld-next-a-couple-of-suggestions/) — - [VMworld Europe 2010 – The aftermath](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vmworld-europe-2010the-aftermath/) — - [Extending VMworld Labs](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/extending-vmworld-labs/) — - [VMworld Europe 2010 Contest Over](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vmworld-europe-2010-contest-over/) — - [VMworld Europe 2010 Pictures](https://vNinja.net/news/vmworld-europe-2010-pictures/) — - [VMworld Europe 2010](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vmworld-europe-2010/) — - [vCenter 4.1 Database Recovery Model Defaults](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vcenter-4-1-database-recovery-model-defaults/) — - [Going to VMworld Europe 2010 Contest: Where is Christian?](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/going-to-vmworld-europe-2010-contest-where-is-christian/) — - [VMware vSphere Hypervisor Licensing and Cost](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vmware-vsphere-hypervisor-licensing-and-cost/) — - [P2V a Domain Controller? Why would you?](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/p2v-a-domain-controller-why-would-you/) — - [Redesigning the vCenter Client?](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/redesigning-the-vcenter-client/) — - [HP ProLiant MicroServer - Not Quite There Yet?](https://vNinja.net/news/hp-proliant-microserver-not-quite-there-yet/) — - [Using the WANem WAN Emulator Virtual Appliance](https://vNinja.net/network/using-the-wanem-wan-emulator-virtual-appliance/) — - [SolarWinds VM Console](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/solarwinds-vm-console/) — - [vCenter Update Manager to lose it's fat](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vcenter-update-manager-to-lose-its-fat/) — - [vCenter Server 4.1 Performance and Best Practices](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/vcenter-server-4-1-performance-and-best-practices/) — - [Where in the world is VMware Server?](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/where-in-the-world-is-vmware-server/) — - [Using USB Pass-through in vSphere 4.1](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/using-usb-pass-through-in-vsphere-4-1/) — - [Scheduling vCenter Backups](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/scheduling-vcenter-backups/) — - [Migrating your vCenter from 32bit to 64bit](https://vNinja.net/virtualization/migrating-your-vcenter-from-32bit-to-64bit/) — - [Welcome to vNinja!](https://vNinja.net/news/welcome-to-vninja/) — ## Pages - [Home Lab: DNS Resolution](https://vNinja.net/homelab/dns/) - [Home Lab: Physical Network Diagram](https://vNinja.net/homelab/physical-network/) - [Home Lab: Services & Software](https://vNinja.net/homelab/services/) - [Christians Home Lab Setup](https://vNinja.net/homelab/) - [Home Lab: Lab Isolated Networks](https://vNinja.net/homelab/labnetwork/)