Similar Posts
How to Add Login Banner to vSphere Web Client
If you have the pleasure or meeting certain audits or security compliance then having a login banner message on your systems is a pretty common requirement. Sometime ago I detailed how to add a login banner message to ESXi hosts, below I’ll show how easy it is to do the same with your VMware vSphere web client or HTML5 client using vSphere 6.0 Update 2 or better.
How to install and configure vRealize Operations Manager 6.0.1
vRealize Operations Manager is the successor of vCenter Operation Manager which consists of much more then a simple name change, but several changes in the product over all. Just one of the new changes is that vRealize Operation Manager can now be deployed as a single virtual appliance, or on a Windows or Linux machine.
This post we’ll walk through installing and configuring vRealize Operations Manager 6.0.1 step by step.
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How to easily add an ESXi SSH login message banner
Preparing for some upcoming audits, I noticed one of the checkpoints was to ensure each ESXi host was configured with a warning banner stating the machine is being monitored and audited when someone logs into the ESXi host via SSH. This type of message is something you see on most any company or government computer before you login.
There are two message types that can be used to achieve this, the first being login banner (/etc/issue) and MOTD (/etc/motd). The difference between the two are where they are shown. The login banner is shown between the username and password inputs during login, while the MOTD is displayed after a user has successfully logged into SSH.
Read More “How to easily add an ESXi SSH login message banner”
How to Reset VMware vCenter Server Appliance Root Password
Have you ever forgotten the root password on your VMware vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) or let the password expire before changing it?
This is exactly what happened to me in one of my lab environments and in this post I’ll show how to quickly and easily reset the VCSA root password.
Read More “How to Reset VMware vCenter Server Appliance Root Password”

My VMware ESXi Home Lab Upgrade
Although the focus in my career right now is certainly more cloud focused in Amazon Web Services and Azure, I still use my home lab a lot.
For the last 5+ years my home lab had consisted of using 3x Intel NUC’s (i5 DC53427HYE), a Synology NAS for shared storage and an HP ProCurve switch. This setup served me well for most of those years. It has allowed me to get many of the certifications I have, progress in my career and have fun as well.
At the start of this year I decided it was time to give the home lab an overhaul. At first I looked at the newest generation of Intel NUC’s but really wasn’t looking forward to dropping over $1,300 on just partial compute (I’d still need to be RAM for each of the 3 NUC’s). I also wanted something that just worked, no more fooling around with network adapter drivers or doing this tweak or that tweak.
I also no longer needed to be concerned about something that had a tiny footprint. I also questioned if I really needed multiple physical ESXi hosts. My home lab isn’t running anything mission critical and if I really wanted I could always build additional nested VMware ESXi hosts on one powerful machine if I needed.
So in the end, the below is what I settled on. Replacing all of my compute, most of my networking and adding more storage!
How to shadow a VMware Horizon View desktop
Ever work on a View 5.x Desktop issue and needed access to the desktop it self while in use? While not a feature that is easily enabled say via the vmTools or the View Administrator console – it can however be easily enabled via Group Policy, similar to some other settings that I mention in the Windows 7 Optimization Guide.
Enable PCoIP Shadowing
- Import the pcoip.adm GPO Template.
- Navigate to: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Classic Administrative Templates (ADM) > PCoIP Session Variables.
- Enable “Enable access to PCoIP session from a vSphere console”.
- Link the GPO to the OU where your View Desktops reside.