There are very few certainties in the world. The old idiom would have you believe that it’s just death and taxes… but I would like to add “running out of disk space” to the list 🤣 I’m always upgrading the homelab, sometimes it’s the network, the physical footprint, or my connection to the cloud. This… Read More »
I wanted to setup a VPN connection between my homelab (which is now running a Ubiquiti Networks – Unfi Security Gateway), but there wasn’t a lot of good information on the how-to of said endeavor out there. So… fodder for a new article! Phase 1 – Create a new test VPC with a VPN I’m… Read More »
Something that I had been meaning to do for a long time was to create a VPN connection between my home lab (a VMware based nested ESXi environment in my basement) to one of my AWS VPCs. Overview – As this is a simple setup, we’re going to go with a single VPN connection scenario:… Read More »
Hi All! So this post has been a long time coming and I’ve spent the last week banging away at my environment to get it up to spec. I’m going to approach this article like I would a standard design engagement: list my requirements, risks, assumptions & constraints create a conceptual, logical and physical design… Read More »
So the quarter rack came in, and it’s exactly as advertised. Good machining, the front and sides are both vented and removable. The removable hinges feel solid and not easily breakable. The front locking mechanism isn’t *great*, but that’s not a concern in my environment. It came with casters & leveling feet which were very… Read More »
So I’m working on beefing up the home lab a little bit and I realized that I didn’t have a great place to put everything.  Ok, full disclosure, I’ve known for a while now that I’ve needed a place, but I’ve been too cheap to spend the $400+ for a quarter rack.  I’ve been getting… Read More »
Confession time: Despite my best intentions (and all of the time I’ve spent studying for AWS certifications), I still *stink* at Linux! I mean I can get around, edit things, start/stop services, but I don’t understand it in the fundamental way that I understand windows. I have been meaning to get better at it (honest!)…… Read More »
In my previous article I described how to establish a VPN connection between an AWS VPC and an on-premises datacenter. The next logical step is moving workloads up to the VPC! In this article we’re going to use AWS native SMS service to do just that. Pre-requisites for a VMware based environment here’s the tl;dr:… Read More »
My old Linksys E4200 has served me well for almost a decade… but it’s time to retire the old girl and get something made after 2010. Every vExpert that I’ve talked to and most of my pro services friends & consultants have all said that Ubiquiti is the way to go… so this article is… Read More »
Recently I’ve been playing with containers a little bit in my lab. Today I’m going to show you how to get a Docker engine running on a CentOS 7 VM running on an ESXi host. It’s surprisingly easy! First, what is Docker? It’s an engine that lays on top of an existing host OS and… Read More »