Blogging

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/

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 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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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/

Review – 10 most popular posts on my blog in 2017

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review

Call it a review or a look back. Or a time travel if you like to. I’d like to introduce you the 10 most popular posts on my blog of 2017. And a short reflection what happend in 2016.

Very much happened last year (you don’t say?). I had the opportunity to work on many interesting customer projects. Preparing and planning a huge cloud migration for one of my customers was and still is one of my favorite projects. But there were not only projects in my company and for customers but also many personal projects. I invested much effort, time and money to build a small vSphere homelab as preparation for my VMware VCP and Veeam VMCE-ADO exams (where i failed twice VCP in 2016, dang it, and i’m still learning for it). In 2017i attended also one great event in New Orleans, VeeamON.

This event was great. Exhausting. Interesting. I met so many cool people, had interesting chats with them. All about virtualization and data protection. I would like to mention the Veeam team, especially the people behind the Veeam VVanguard program, when i had the opportunity to meet them and have a good chat. Really cool guys there at Veeam, thank you!

The year before i really started with blogging. In the meantime i really like it and i was able to publish some good articles i think. Sometimes i don’t know what to write. I’m not a fashionista, or a foodie, that puts every bit on the internet. I’d like to provide content which hopefully help people to get their job done and i’d like to help solving a problem. Most of my blog posts are based on problems which i struggled with, and a solution i found for. Bang. Put that on my website. Because mostly you’re not alone with a specific IT problem. And if you find a solution here on my blog, you’re welcome. I’m here to help. Some other blog posts are based just on my personal interest in all kinds of IT belongings. Is there a new feature in Veeam or a new version? I’ll go out and test it. Bang. Blog post done.

But now let us focus on what happened on my blog last year. What are the 10 most popular blog posts of 2017? Here they are!

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