Updated vSphere Login UI customizations for vSphere 7.x & 8.x
It has been more than a decade since the vSphere UI has transition to an HTML-based interface and while not officially supported, users do have the ability to customize the login screen for a variety...
View ArticleQuick Tip - Auditing ESXi boot firmware type
I had a customer that recently reached out asking how they could easily audit their entire ESXi infrastructure to determine which hosts was still booting using the legacy BIOS firmware, which has been...
View ArticleSetup HTTPS for OIDC endpoint with Authentik and Keycloak for vCenter Server...
If you have been following my recent adventures in playing with both Authentik and Keycloak as an OAuth/OIDC Identity Provider (IdP) for use with vCenter Server or VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)...
View Article128GB memory mini PCs is now a reality with 64GB DDR5 SODIMM
The long awaited 64GB DDR5 SODIMM memory modules from Crucial was just released this week! 😁 I was so excited about the news, I quickly splurged on a pair of these brand new modules, which are...
View ArticleQuick Tip - Audit vCenter Server Role & Permission Usage
vCenter Server ships out of the box a number of system and custom roles, which can be used or users can create their own custom roles containing the required privileges. If you wanted to understand...
View ArticleEnhancements to VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) & vSphere Automated Lab...
Simplicity is something I try to strive for when creating automation, whether that is for myself or for our customers. When I develop a script, I try to keep everything within a single file, so that it...
View ArticleQuick Tip - Listing all vSphere Privilege Definitions
By design, the vSphere platform (includes vCenter Server and ESXi) is highly extensible and additional vSphere Events and Privileges can added by 2nd and 3rd party solutions. Similiar to vSphere...
View ArticleESXi on GMKtec EVO-X1 with AMD Ryzen AI Pro 300 Series (formally Strix Point)
My experiences with small form factor (SFF) systems and Mini PCs over the years have primarily involved Intel-based systems, as they have been the most capable and compatible with the VMware ESXi...
View ArticleEnable TRIM/UNMAP from Nested vSAN OSA/ESA to physical vSAN OSA
If you are running Nested vSAN Original Storage Architecture (OSA) or vSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA) workloads on top of a physical vSAN OSA setup, you may want to enable the Guest TRIM/UNAMP...
View ArticleQuick Tip - VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Bringup fails without persistent...
You will never run into this problem if you follow current recommended practices to install the ESX-OSData volume on a persistent storage device that could either be dedicated and/or co-located your...
View ArticleESXi on GMKtec NucBox K11
The GMKtec NucBox has been growing in popularity amongst the VMware community as a modern AMD Ryzen-based alternative to the Intel/ASUS NUC, offering many of the same advantages while avoiding some of...
View ArticleAutomating bulk OPNsense Unbound DNS host overrides
I recently deployed OPNsense in my homelab, which I will be using it to setup my VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) environment. A critical part infrastructure service that is often miss-configured is DNS...
View ArticleQuick Tip - Which vCenter Server Key Provider (KMS) is a VM using?
vCenter Server requires a Key Management Service (KMS) for enabling VM Encryption, vTPM, or vSAN Encryption. Users have the choice of configuring the embedded Native Key Provider (NKP) built into...
View ArticlevCenter Server Identity Federation with Synology SSO
I recently found another cool use case for my Synology NAS, which is using the Synology SSO application to setup vCenter Server Identity Federation. I had not considered looking at Synology, but I was...
View ArticlevCenter Server Identity Federation with Pocket ID
Having explored various OIDC identity providers, including Authentik, KeyCloak and Synology SSO, I recently came across Pocket ID, a super basic OIDC provider. Instead of using traditional username and...
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