Another year is over, it’s 2021 and the beginning of another year. With this blog article, I’d like to present to you my Top 10 posts of 2021. Surprisingly, the Top 10 blog posts are not all from 2020. Obviously, people are still searching for solutions for problems they have with some “old” stuff like Windows Server 2012 R2, or they are looking for solutions to problems they have in their current infrastructure. I hope that my blog posts will help the people out there in the tech community solve their problems. I’ll do my best to keep on doing my work and sharing my knowledge.
10. SHARP printers – Remote administration with VNC viewer
Back in 2016 when I was working as an IT administrator in customer support, I found out that you can control a printer with the VNC viewer. I was astonished!
https://www.driftar.ch/2016/09/06/remote-administration-sharp-printers-vnc-viewer/
9. VMware vSAN cache disk failed and how to recover from it
When you break things in your homelab, then it’s most likely your fault. I will never, and I repeat, I will never blame any vendor if my lab blows up because of my fault.
https://www.driftar.ch/2018/08/18/vmware-vsan-cache-disk-failed-and-how-to-recover-from-it/
8. Veeam – Backup Copy “Block is not initialized. Failed to download disk.”
When I was working at a Veeam Platinum Partner in Switzerland, I had many customers running Veeam Backup & Replication. This is another troubleshooting blog post. I had to use some tools the first time and I was able to fix some backup copy issues.
7. Expand your logical drive to extend a VMFS datastore
It was like open-heart surgery. There was no possibility of a backup, no safety rope. But I had to do this task because a quick solution was needed.
https://www.driftar.ch/2019/07/24/expand-your-logical-drive-to-extend-a-vmfs-datastore/
6. VMware – Clone a VM with snapshots (and consolidate it)
Who doesn’t know snapshots and their sometimes weird behavior? This was a pretty strange candidate!
https://www.driftar.ch/2018/09/03/vmware-clone-a-vm-with-snapshots-and-consolidate-it/
5. “Starting drivers, please wait” – An HPE adventure story
This was one strange issue! Back in the day when I was working at a solution provider, a customer reported an issue. His ESXi hosts have lost connectivity to a storage system. It took some time to solve, and it was a good experience.
https://www.driftar.ch/2017/07/18/starting-drivers-please-wait-an-hpe-adventure-story/
4. Setting up Visual Studio Code for WSL 2
I’ve started learning some automation stuff, like doing things with Ansible. And I had to set up a suitable solution for me to write things, play around and test stuff.
https://www.driftar.ch/2021/01/27/setting-up-visual-studio-code-for-wsl-2/
3. An easy way to quickly migrate a VMware VM to Synology VMM
In the third place of 2021, there is this post about migrating a VMware VM to Synology Virtual Machine Manager.
https://www.driftar.ch/2020/09/01/an-easy-way-to-quickly-migrate-a-vmware-vm-to-synology-vmm/
2. Backup and Restore vCenter Server Appliance
In the second place of 2021, there is this post about how to backup and restore your vCenter Server Appliance.
https://www.driftar.ch/2020/04/21/backup-and-restore-vcenter-server-appliance/
1. Microsoft Active Directory – Desktop Shortcuts with Group Policy
And the first place winner for my Top 10 blog posts in 2021 is an old one back from 2016. But obviously, people still search for solutions like this. With Active Directory Group Policies you can do so many things. One of them is also creating desktop shortcuts.