vExpert

My homelab got an upgrade – Intel Optane SSDs!

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I didn’t blog about it until yet because I didn’t have the time to install, test and troubleshoot. Also, I didn’t have much time for writing because I was busy with private and business things. But just recently I found time to do some homelabbing and test some things.

May I introduce you: Intel Optane SSDs!

A while ago, the vExpert community got the opportunity to apply for Intel Optane SSDs. I thought why not? They can always say no. So I applied for three Intel Optane SSDs. And I was one of the chosen ones. Sure, this sounds cheesy, but I don’t know how many vExperts finally got some disks.

Through the vExpert program, we had the possibility to choose between the 2.5″ U.2 P4800X 375 GB SSD or its PCIe counterpart. I applied for the U.2 disk. If only I had known what I was getting myself into…

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vExpert Applications are open – Why should you apply?

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The vExpert applications for 2022 are open now. Nice! But what is this?

Many vendors have special programs for the IT folks around the world. These programs are designed for ambassadors and evangelists. You may get early access to beta versions, marketing information, they help you promote your blog posts and many other great benefits. The VMware vExpert program is VMware’s global evangelism and advocacy program.

There is no certification exam for becoming a vExpert, no course requirement. It is kind of an award or an accreditation. You have to apply for the vExpert program, and a committee will review your application.

Do I have what it takes?

Yes! The vExpert program is about “giving back”. You work in your job, you do great things, and help your users and customers. You’ve got experience in IT technology and working for some years already in that area. You may work at VMware, at a partner, or you may be a VMware customer. Giving back means sharing your knowledge. Did you fix a problem? Blog about it! Did you set up a new solution for a customer? You may speak about it at VMworld! If you’re not a writer, then there are various groups on social media, or you can find forums like the VMTN (and many other non VMware related forums). There are a lot of users, both partners, and customers, asking for help. Help them with your experience and knowledge! You may have written a book about VMware solutions, or you’re focusing on a specific VMware product. Maybe you are a public speaker or a VMUG leader. You have the knowledge, you have experience, share it!

How can I apply?

It is very easy to apply. There are two applications per year. One is starting during the summertime, and one is starting in early December. Both application windows are open for 30 days. After this period, the committee will close the applications and start their voting. This may take up to 45 days. The results for the December applications will be announced in February, the summer application will be announced somewhen in August.

If you’re already a vExpert or even a VCDX, and for sure new applicants have to apply once per year. There are also vExpert sub-programs, like Application Modernization, HCX, Cloud Management, and many others, that you can apply for if you’ve been awarded a vExpert.

The December vExpert applications are open now, and the results will be announced in February 2022. And it might be one of the most eagerly awaited emails, at least if you read about it on some blogs, or see it popping up on Twitter.

Click here to apply for vExpert 2022!

Can I get help?

Yes! VMware announced the vExpert PRO program. There are more than 100 vExpert PROs around the world that are helping you. They can help you with mentoring, tell you what you have to do, and outline the process of the applications. Just reach out to the vExpert PRO close to your area!

What benefits can I get from the vExpert program?

If you check the list on the vExpert website, you can see that there are a lot of benefits. I’m not listing every point here, but I’d like to mention at least some of them.

You will be part of a global network of more than 2000 other vExperts. They are on social media, Twitter, active on blogs and forums. There is also a Slack channel for vExperts. You’ll get a certificate signed by the VMware CEO. One of my personal favorites is the access to 365 day eval licenses for most of the VMware products, like vSphere, vSAN, etc. Throughout the year, you got the opportunity to join private webinars with VMware partners. You will be featured on the vExpert Directory. Also before VMworld, there are pre-launch briefings for bloggers, which means that you may get a sneak peek at some products or announcements. Also, as soon as VMworld will be an in-person event again, there will be vExpert parties both at VMworld US and Europe. And I tell you, they are awesome!

My personal view

I’m working for about 20 years in IT now, including my apprenticeship. I learned many things, and I’m still learning. I had the chance to gain insights into different industries during my work. When I was awarded a vExpert for the first time, I felt honored. It meant a lot to me to be one of only a few hundred to receive such an award. It showed also that my efforts are worth it, and that they have been noticed. I was working on a partner level for many years, helped my customers to build their infrastructure, helped them with troubleshooting. Now, I’m working at a customer, fighting with daily business problems, architecting data centers, migrating workloads, and designing cloud concepts.

Some people kept smiling at my vExpert status because they didn’t believe in certifications, accreditations, etc. But that didn’t bother me. I did my thing. I wrote blog posts, and I still write (even if not as often or regularly as I want). I’m active in forums and help people with troubleshooting. And I’ve always stood up for one thing. I’m grateful for becoming a vExpert, it meant a lot to me, and it still does.

Personally, I have the feeling that, especially in contact with technical support, it enables a different level of communication if the other person recognizes my status as vExpert. A problem may escalate upwards faster, and you may have faster access to 3rd level support. Things like this. But also during projects, when I’m in contact with internal customers and external consultants, they recognize my status and see that I’m not just any IT technician. I know some stuff, I’m experienced, and someone voted for me so I could become a vExpert. As mentioned, it’s not a certification exam you can learn for. It is the personal commitment that shines through here.

My homelab hardware gets its own rack

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This project started a long time ago. When I planned the hardware needs for my homelab, I also thought of getting a rack. I had a real IT rack in mind, as you know it from your daily business, maybe back in the days when at least some stuff was on-premises and not everything in the cloud. I wanted to get a small rack with enough space to mount my whole homelab hardware into it, to have a proper cabling solution, and to have flexibility in case my homelab gets an extension.

But that wasn’t easy. There are various flavors of racks. The normal 42 unit IT rack, half-hight racks, and also various wall-mountable racks for patch panels, switches, and smaller devices. I was thinking and tinkering, looking for specs. But in the end, nothing satisfied me. Well, at least not from a price perspective, of being not able to transport it. And then, there was something going on on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/widmerkarl/status/1175392396974145542

Thanks to my colleague Michael Schroeder I’ve found something. He mentioned his IKEA rack, and that made me curious. Earlier in June, my colleague Fred Hofer announced that he moved his hardware into a bigger rack and that it was easier as when he moved from an IKEA Lack rack to the small rack:

https://twitter.com/Fred_vBrain/status/1267580223727550470

And that was the trigger! Why not building my own rack and tailor it to my needs? I don’t have to spend much money on a real IT rack, and I can do something handcrafted. The rack didn’t have to be anything special, there was not much in my personal specification book.

That’s the specifications planned:

  • Small (not full 42 rack units)
  • It should be lightweight
  • Enough space for at least three servers, some switches, and a NAS (or two)
  • Enough space for future homelab upgrades
  • Extensible, if needed
  • Should withstand some weight
  • Wheels!

The idea of building my own IKEA Lack Rack was born.

This whole homelab IKEA Lack Rack story will be covered in a small blog series. This blog post will start the series with some planning stuff, the first pictures, and the BOM, as far as I can provide it already. At least the BOM will be updated if there is a reason for it.

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My website just got an update – speed and design

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“A long long time ago, I can still remember how…”

You all know that song. It’s now two years ago when I moved my website the last time from one provider to another. And no, this blog post doesn’t talk about another move. It’s just a small update on how my website is performing and what I did the last few days and weeks to make it perform and look better.

Back in April 2018, I published a blog post about my website now being serverless. The reason why I wanted to go serverless was website performance. I stumbled across some Tweets, talking about the search functionality on a website, not using a word or tag cloud, etc. All of this has led to the fact that I have dealt with the topic more intensively and at that time moved my website to a new hosting provider. In the end, I decided to go serverless with my website. But that wasn’t easy. I love WordPress as a blog tool or publishing platform, or whatever you would call it. It is easy, flexible, and you can do so many things with WordPress.

But WordPress is based on PHP for the frontend and MySQL as the backend database. And that’s all dynamic content. Each blog post you read, every function on the website will be executed or rendered dynamically. That’s not speaking for high performance directly. There are some techniques, such as caching plugins, or other tweaking tools, to make the website performing better. But it’s still dynamic content in the end.

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Working with templates in vSphere 7

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One new great feature in vSphere 7 is template versioning. You heard that maybe already somewhere, or read it on various blog posts shortly after the announcement of vSphere 7.

I recently had to restore some of my Windows templates because something went wrong. Then I said, why not try out the new template versioning? Well, it’s easier said than done. I’ve found out that working with templates in vSphere 7 isn’t much of a difference than it is in vSphere 6.x. It’s also not a big difference when working with content libraries. But there are still some differences and maybe even limitations. I’ll update this post when I find out more about this. Maybe I’m just doing it wrong, or it is a bug like the one where VMs and Templates view doesn’t show folders after two levels in vSphere client (KB 78693).

What is vSphere template versioning?

First, it’s a great feature! With vSphere 7, you can now have multiple versions of a template. For example, you create your base template, then there’s the next version when you install patches and updates, and so on. If there’s something wrong, you can revert to the previous version of your template. Also, if you’ve got a huge template chain already, you can delete the oldest versions of your template. In my humble opinion, there is some space for improvement when working with templates and versioning. But I’ll show you later what that means.

How to work with the new versioning?

As far as I have tested it, you can’t convert existing templates to a template with versioning enabled. I mean there is no button like “convert that template”. It’s a manual task. That counts for templates that are stored somewhere on a datastore connected to your ESXi host as well as for templates that are stored in the content library. But as I already mentioned, maybe I’m just doing it wrong (hopefully not). And in case this should work, I’ll find it out and update this post.

How to work with template versioning then? It’s pretty easy. You set up your virtual machine and do everything you need to prepare it as your VM template. Michael White has some great posts about creating VM templates. Let’s assume that you’ve got your VM ready for the next steps.

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