31 03, 2015

Useful Links for NTP Configuration in vSphere Environments

By |2016-12-11T15:25:01+00:00March 31st, 2015|ESX, vCenter, Virtualization, VMware, vSphere, Windows|0 Comments

A few months ago, I was helping out a customer with a time configuration issue on their vSphere environment. For one specific question, I investigated and wrote the post: ESXi Time Configuration: Don’t point it towards the Windows Domain name However, while doing the investigations, I went through various documents produced by VMware. As NTP [...]

16 12, 2014

ESXi Time Configuration: Don’t point it towards the Windows Domain name

By |2016-12-11T15:25:02+00:00December 16th, 2014|ESX, vCenter, Virtual Lab, Virtualization, VMware, vSphere|2 Comments

A client asked me what happens if ESXi servers are pointed towards the Windows domain name in “Time Configuration” and one or more domain controllers are not contactable. While I had a theory, I realised I have never tested what actually happens and what is the failure process. I have seen many environments where using [...]

14 04, 2014

Book Review: Networking for VMware Administrators

By |2016-12-11T15:25:03+00:00April 14th, 2014|Book Review, ESX, NIOC, vCenter, Virtualization, VMware, vSphere|2 Comments

I always wondered why there is no book that specifically focusses on VMware networking, given its importance when it comes to deployment and maintenance of a stable virtual platform.  No need for me to think that any more as "Networking for VMware Administrators" by Chris Wahl (@ChrisWahl) and Steve Pantol (@StevePantol) is available for purchase [...]

4 02, 2014

Why enabling NIOC (Network I/O Control) in a home lab is a good idea?

By |2016-12-11T15:25:06+00:00February 4th, 2014|ESX, NIOC, vCenter, View, Virtual Lab, Virtualization, VMware, vSphere, Workstation|4 Comments

We all know that Network I/O Control is your friend when it comes to production deployments of vSphere in general.  Today, I quickly wanted to make a point that NIOC is also great when it comes to home labs and why we should have it enabled, if possible. A few days back, I was deploying [...]

27 01, 2014

Missing vmnics from ESXi after installation

By |2016-12-11T15:25:06+00:00January 27th, 2014|ESX, vCenter, Virtual Lab, Virtualization, VMware, vSphere|0 Comments

Recently, I was building a nested ESXi environment in my lab, based on vSphere 5.5. Regular readers will remember that I generally use VMware Workstation (version 10, in this case) to run my virtual environment.  I usually have my ESXi hosts configured with 8 NICs, which is pretty handy when I have to play with [...]

19 11, 2013

VMware Capacity Planner: Connect to Perfmon Failed

By |2016-12-11T15:25:06+00:00November 19th, 2013|Capacity Planner, ESX, How To, vCenter, Virtualization, VMware, vSphere, Windows|3 Comments

These days, I am working on a project involving VMware Capacity Planner.  Part of its deployment means that one has to troubleshoot access issues, in order to get successful inventory and performance scans.  I am planning to write a couple of posts to document tips that one generally doesn't find in documentation.  In the meantime, [...]

30 09, 2013

How to create shared iSCSI storage for ESXi using StarWind’s iSCSI SAN Software

By |2016-12-11T15:25:06+00:00September 30th, 2013|Cloud, ESX, How To, SRM, StarWind, vCenter, VDI, Virtual Lab, Virtualization, VMware, vSphere, Windows, Workstation|3 Comments

In my previous post, I mentioned that I use StarWind Software's iSCSI SAN software to provide iSCSI LUNs for my home lab.  In this post, I'll document the process to create a simple shared iSCSI LUN setup.  Using that, one can provide as many LUNs as required to an ESXi setup, possibly with multipathing - [...]

12 08, 2013

StarWind Software’s iSCSI SAN: Shared Storage for my VMware Workstation Powered Lab

By |2016-12-11T15:25:06+00:00August 12th, 2013|ESX, Review, StarWind, vCenter, Virtual Lab, Virtualization, VMware, Windows, Workstation|1 Comment

Like all VMware techies, I have also installed shared storage in different ways, to experiment with high-availability solutions.  One thing that has always bugged me is that virtual appliances providing shared storage, need to have the virtual environment running as a prerequisite.  In a home lab, one might not have an external NAS box so [...]

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