Category Archives: Lab Infrastructure

Reviving an Old ESXi Host: USB to Local Disk Migration

I have an older Intel NUC in my lab, and although its aging, it still serves a purpose, and I plan to hang on to it for a little while longer. This post will outline some issues I encountered while … Continue reading

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vCenter Server 7 to 8 Upgrade: Avoiding Pitfalls with Skyline Health Diagnostics

I recently upgraded a vCenter Server instance in a lab from version 7 to 8. In this post I’ll walk through some issues encountered and lessons learned during the process. Pre-Checks with Skyline Health Diagnostics In Skyline Health Diagnostics, there … Continue reading

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Automated Deployment of Storage Server

In this post, I’ll walk through the process of automating the deployment of a storage server using Aria Automation. Specifically, I’ll show how to add an option to deploy a storage server dynamically in your lab environment and troubleshoot an … Continue reading

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How to Set Up a Minimal NFS and iSCSI Storage Solution Using Ubuntu 24.04

In my lab, I often need different types of storage to test various scenarios. For example, just last week someone asked about using New-Datastore with a specific version of VMFS and I needed to quickly perform a quick syntax check. … Continue reading

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Extending Aria Automation with Custom Resources and Actions for IP Address Management

In my lab, I leverage Aria Automation to deploy Linux, Windows, and nested ESXi VMs. This is my primary interface for requesting new systems and covers most of the common resources I need for testing. However, I sometimes deploy one … Continue reading

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