Today I start my journey to obtain my VMware Certified Advanced Professional 5 - Data Center Design certification. I have been designing and supporting VMware products for a lot of years, so I thought it was about time I got my VCAP certifications!
Note: Let me just say I realise the VMware Certified Advance Professional 6 - Data Center Virtualization Design is currently in BETA and I will be taking this exam as well.
Ok so the bits and bobs have started to arrive and I have put together one of the hosts and after a little work, I now have one host up and running with he following:
The components in ESX-Host-1 are:-
- 1 x SuperMicro MBD-X11SH-LN4F-0 Motherboard (4 x 1GbE, 64GB, Socket 1151, M.2 PCIe, IMPI 2.0, 8 x SATA3)
I chose this motherboard for multiple reasons; a) the 4 x 1GbE network ports mean that I don’t need a separate card, b) IPMI means i can remote controller the server to build it once plugged in c) supports 64GB RAM, d) its MicroATX so i can build it into a small case!
Grant Orchard ( @grantorchard ) has just released a new version of the vRealise Automation 7 API reference documentation as a Docker container called Platypus !
For all those guys who, like me, don’t run a Mac laptop and cannot use the VMware’s AppCatalyst to run Photon, I thought I would write a quick post on how to get Platypus working within a Docker Container upon the Synology NAS (if you have one). Synology’s support for Docker can be found here and it contains a list of supported NAS devices.
I have finally taken the first steps in upgrading my home lab and over the next few posts I’ll go through what I have purchased. I have started with just a single host so I can check all the components, some of which are not the on the official VMware HCL, actually work.
At a high level this includes:
Compute
- 1 x Supermicro X11SSH-LN4F Motherboard
- 1 x Intel Xeon E3 1275 V5 “skylake” (4C/8T)
- 4 x 16GB Crucial DDR4 EUDIMM
- 1 x Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD (M.2)
- 1 x 400W Fanless PSU
- 1 x Micro ATX Cube Case
Networking
Welcome to thecloudxpert.net, a space for my many musings around my experience and journey in the world of technology, specifically looking at virtualisation, cloud automation and orchestration. Enjoy the ride!