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April 2015

VMware Homelab in 2015 - Systems Revised with vSphere 6

hp-microserver-2.5-ssdIn the past three years I've presented several systems that can be used for VMware Homelabs. Servers for home use are typically not rack based. A good home server is inexpensive, silent and has a low power consumption. In this post I am going to revise the systems presented in previous posts to see how they work with ESXi 6.0:

  • HP Microserver N36L / N40L / N54L
  • HP Microserver Gen8
  • Intel Next Unit of Computing (NUC)
  • Gigabyte BRIX
  • VMware Workstation

Read More »VMware Homelab in 2015 - Systems Revised with vSphere 6

How to identify that Linux is running as a Virtual Machine?

tuxFor troubleshooting or in scripts you might want to identify if you Linux is running as a Virtual Machine. If you work with puppet you might be familiar with facter which provides the facts "is_virtual" (true or false) and "virtual" (Virtualization type).

There is another handy tool called virt-what that is available in Fedora (13+), Red Hat Enterprise Linux (5.7+ and 6.1+), Debian, Ubuntu, ArchLinux and Gentoo, and it can be compiled from source on just about any Linux.

Read More »How to identify that Linux is running as a Virtual Machine?

Basic Commands for VMware Photon and Docker

photon-logoThis post is a quick collection of commands used to configure VMwares recently released Photon OS, and to get started with Docker.

Photon is a technology preview of a minimal Linux container host. It is designed to have a small footprint and boot extremely quickly on VMware platforms. Photon is intended to invite collaboration around running containerized applications in a virtualized environment.

To get started with Photon, check this post.

Read More »Basic Commands for VMware Photon and Docker

ESXi 6.0 Image for Gigabyte BRIX

The ESXi 6.0 base image provided by VMware does not work with Gigabyte BRIX out of the box. This post explains how to create a customized ESXi 6 ISO for your Gigabyte BRIX. These images can be used to do a fresh install or upgrade a BRIX to VMware ESXi 6.0.brix-pro

The Image works for the following BRIX:

  • GB-BXi3-4010: Intel Core i3-4010U (2x 1.7GHz)
  • GB-BXi5-4200: Intel Core i5-4200U (2x 2.6GHz)
  • GB-BXi7-4500: Intel Core i7-4500U (2x 3.0GHz)
  • GB-BXi3H-4010: Intel Core i3-4010U (2x 1.7GHz)
  • GB-BXi5H-4200: Intel Core i5-4200U (2x 2.6GHz)
  • GB-BXi7H-4500: Intel Core i7-4500U (2x 3.0GHz)
  • GB-BXi5-4570R: Intel Core i5-4570R (4x 3.20 GHz)
  • GB-BXi7-4770R: Intel Core i7-4770R (4x 3.90 GHz)

Read More »ESXi 6.0 Image for Gigabyte BRIX

Guide to Install Photon in VMware Workstation and Deploy a Container

photon-logoOn April 20th, 2015, VMware announced Photon, its own container-friendly Linux distribution. Photon is a technology preview of a small footprint Linux container host. It has been released as open source software and is available at GitHub.

This post explains how to install Photon in VMware Workstation, do some basic configuration and implement the first container.

Read More »Guide to Install Photon in VMware Workstation and Deploy a Container

Which vSphere 6.0 Features are available in Editions?

VMware vSphere 6 has been released to the market 4 weeks ago. There are many new features and enhancements, but as you know there are different pricing and licensing models. It is available as a la carte licensing priced on a per CPU basis or in packs of 25 VMs and for small deployments as Kits. This post takes a look on the availability of new vSphere features in different vSphere editions.

  • VMware vSphere Standard (A la carte licensing on a per CPU basis)
  • VMware vSphere Enterprise (A la carte licensing on a per CPU basis)
  • VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus (A la carte licensing on a per CPU basis)
  • VMware vSphere Remote Office Branch Office Standard (Priced in packs of 25 VMs)
  • VMware vSphere Remote Office Branch Office Advanced (Priced in packs of 25 VMs)
  • VMware vSphere Essentials Kit (All-in-one solutions for up to three physical servers)
  • VMware vSphere Essentials Plus Kit (All-in-one solutions for up to three physical servers)

Read More »Which vSphere 6.0 Features are available in Editions?