Allgemein

Happy New Year 2024

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Last year I didn’t write such a Happy New Year blog post. I don’t know why. Maybe I didn’t had the time, or I just wasn’t in the mood. Or maybe a combination of both (and/or more factors).

Over the last two years I have had the joy and honor of celebrating some personal firsts:

  • I earned my first VMware VCP certification
  • I married my girlfriend
  • We built a house (we moved together earlier, but that wasn’t part of the past two years)
  • We became parents
  • We still have cats (ok, not a first, but the cats wanted to be mentioned here too…)
  • And some other things

To be honest, I don’t know why im listing these things here. Maybe these (and some other things) were more important than blogging. Well, I would even bet that they were for sure more important than blogging. I’m usually sharing only tech things here, mainly focusing on virtualization, and some times cloud, but rarely personal things and thoughts. So, that’s then a “personal first” too I think.

But anyway. Back to topic.

I hope that your wishes come true and that you find the courage to take new steps. For 2024, I wish you and your loved ones all the best. And I hope to see you soon!

Happy New Year!

My Top 10 Posts in 2023

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Another year is coming to an end, it’s 2023 and the beginning of another year. With this blog article, I’d like to present to you my Top 10 posts of 2023. Surprisingly, the Top 10 blog posts are not all from this or last year. Obviously, people are still searching for solutions for problems they have with some “old” stuff, 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. How to add a new host to a vSAN cluster

During late summer this year I did some vSAN experiments in my homelab. Three blog posts about vSAN made it into the top 10 of 2023. The linked blog post shows you how to add a new (an additional) ESXi host to your vSAN cluster.

https://www.driftar.ch/2023/08/15/how-to-add-a-new-host-to-a-vsan-cluster/

9. VMware – Clone a VM with snapshots (and consolidate it)

Some “vmkfstools” adventure to recover a VM that had a snapshot that wasn’t cleanly deleted.

https://www.driftar.ch/2018/09/03/vmware-clone-a-vm-with-snapshots-and-consolidate-it/

8. Backup and Restore vCenter Server Appliance

This blog post covers the backup and recovery of the vCenter server appliance. An easy-to-follow guide.

https://www.driftar.ch/2020/04/21/backup-and-restore-vcenter-server-appliance/

7. My homelab hardware gets its own rack

Well, at least the Tweet I published for this blog post has (as per December 2023) more than 24’000 impressions. It looks like people like hardware, and also DIY stuff.

https://www.driftar.ch/2020/09/26/my-homelab-hardware-gets-its-own-rack/

6. Changing FRU information on Supermicro servers

Probably worth a rewrite or at least an update. But back in the days I had an issue with one of my Supermicro servers. The information stored in the BIOS were not correct. This blog post shows you how to fix this by flashing the correct information into the BIOS.

https://www.driftar.ch/2021/10/08/changing-fru-information-on-supermicro-servers/

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. How to reset the ESXi root password?

It is sometimes necessary to reset the ESXi root password. The “officially” supported way to reset the ESXi root password is to reinstall the host from scratch. But the magic in this blog post is called “host profiles”.

https://www.driftar.ch/2022/08/17/how-to-reset-the-esxi-root-password/

3. How to shut down a vSAN cluster – and start it again

One of three blog posts related to vSAN made it to the third place of 2023. How to shut down the vSAN cluster and start it again, properly.

https://www.driftar.ch/2023/08/10/how-to-shut-down-a-vsan-cluster-and-start-it-again/

2. An easy way to quickly migrate a VMware VM to Synology VMM

On the second place of 2023, there is this post on how to quickly migrate a VMware VM to the Synology Virtual Machine Manager (VMM).

https://www.driftar.ch/2020/09/01/an-easy-way-to-quickly-migrate-a-vmware-vm-to-synology-vmm/

1. How to remove a host from a vSAN cluster

And the first place winner for my Top 10 blog posts in 2023 another vSAN blog post! It shows you how to remove a host from a vSAN cluster.

https://www.driftar.ch/2023/08/15/how-to-remove-a-host-from-a-vsan-cluster/

Happy New Year 2022

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The last two years were special, but I’m not going in too deep. It gave us all some new challenges, like Zoom/WebEx/Teams meeting marathons, no face-to-face contact with customers, and some challenging home office experiences. For me personally, some things changed. My better 51% (aka my girlfriend) and I are building a house! It should be finished by the beginning of 2022. And I already declared to be the CIO of this house 🙂 We will move all of our stuff, rearrange everything, and then there’s always the address change notification that you have to do with the postal service, all your online shops, car insurance, personal insurance, etc. Sending out letters soon because still not all can be done online. I did also some learning this year, like AWS courses and some VCP preparations. Certification exams are still pending… Dang it.

I hope that your wishes come true and that you find the courage to take new steps. For 2022, I wish you and your loved ones all the best. And I hope to see you soon!

Happy New Year!

My Top 10 Posts in 2021

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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.

https://www.driftar.ch/index.php/2017/06/05/veeam-backup-copy-block-not-initialized-failed-download-disk/

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.

https://www.driftar.ch/index.php/2016/11/12/microsoft-active-directory-desktop-shortcuts-with-group-policy/

My Top 10 Posts in 2019

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Another year is over, it’s 2020 and the beginning of a new decade. With this blog article, I’d like to present to you my Top 10 posts of 2019. Surprisingly, the Top 10 blog posts are not all from 2019. 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 solving their problems. I’ll do my best to keep on doing my work and sharing my knowledge.

10. VMware Workstation – Unable to connect to the MKS: Login incorrect

I was trying to connect to my vCenter with VMware Workstation and had some issues. This post shows how I’ve been able to solve it.

https://www.driftar.ch/index.php/2017/03/20/vmware-workstation-unable-to-connect-to-the-mks-login-incorrect/

9. Upgrade VCSA through CLI Installer

At my employer, I had the task to upgrade our vCenter to the most recent version. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as easy as it sounds. The vCenter was running on a IaaS solution and with no root or administrative access, you can’t just upgrade. This blog post shows how it was done.

https://www.driftar.ch/index.php/2019/08/02/upgrade-vcsa-through-cli-installer/

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.

https://www.driftar.ch/index.php/2017/06/05/veeam-backup-copy-block-not-initialized-failed-download-disk/

7. Active Directory – Replication issues after promoting new 2012 R2 DC

Back in the days when I was working at a solution provider, I was tasked to set up a Windows Server 2012 R2 domain controller. After setting up the DC, I had to solve some replication issues.

https://www.driftar.ch/index.php/2017/02/04/active-directory-replication-issues-after-promoting-new-2012-r2-dc/

6. VMware vSAN cache disk failed and how to recover from it

There was a time when I had three DELL PowerEdge servers in use for one of my first homelab versions. I had an issue with the capacity disks and thankfully, I was able to recover from it.

https://www.driftar.ch/index.php/2018/08/18/vmware-vsan-cache-disk-failed-and-how-to-recover-from-it/

5. Synology now with backup for Office 365

Synology got a huge portfolio with NAS systems for all kinds of scenarios. Small home devices or big and high-performance NAS systems for enterprise with SSDs. But all NAS devices have one thing in common. Synology Diskstation Manager (DSM), which is their operating system and management tool. With the more recent DSM versions, you can now add your Office 365 accounts to it for backing it up.

https://www.driftar.ch/index.php/2018/06/24/synology-now-with-backup-for-office-365/

4. “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/index.php/2017/07/18/starting-drivers-please-wait-an-hpe-adventure-story/

3. VMware – Clone a VM with snapshots (and consolidate it)

On the third place of 2019, there’s a post about VM snapshots. Most of the time, a VM snapshot is very useful. If it’s to see if the software update is working, or if it is used by your backup solution. But sometimes, snapshots can be a real nightmare.

https://www.driftar.ch/index.php/2018/09/03/vmware-clone-a-vm-with-snapshots-and-consolidate-it/

2. New homelab hardware arrived!

On the second place of 2019, there’s a post about my new homelab hardware. I recently announced that I’ve got new homelab hardware. That’s the first post out of a small blog series. Enjoy!

https://www.driftar.ch/index.php/2019/12/21/new-homelab-hardware-arrived/

1. Microsoft Active Directory – Desktop Shortcuts with Group Policy

And the winner on the first place for my Top 10 blog posts in 2019 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.

https://www.driftar.ch/index.php/2016/11/12/microsoft-active-directory-desktop-shortcuts-with-group-policy/