Mike Tabor

Create a custom VPC with private and public subnets on AWS

March 15, 2017March 15, 2017 AWS

In my free time I’ve been working through the AWS Certified Solutions Architect by Ryan Kroonenburg from ACloud.guru. Ryan really drives home the importance of knowing how to create a custom VPC within AWS as part of the exam. For me I learn best by not only doing it but writing it down.

So if for nothing else but my own benefit, this post is going to show step by step how to create a custom VPC in AWS without using the AWS wizard.

Fix VMware VCSA /storage/log filesystem out of disk space

February 8, 2017 VMware

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This morning I ran into an issue where users were reporting the production VCSA 6.0 was not allowing them to connect into the web or thick client. Another administrator rebooted the VCSA which seemed to work only briefly. I then logged into the VCSA web management (https://<VCENTER_IP>:5480) and noticed the following health status right away:

The /storage/log filesystem is out of disk space or inodes

How to enable SSH auto login on Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X

January 31, 2017February 3, 2017 Home Lab

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SSH key authentication not only provides a more convenient way to logging into your EdgeRouter X, but is also more secure because the private key replaces the need of a password and thus is typically more difficult to brute force.

The below steps will show how to generate a SSH key, add it to the router, and then disable password authentication so that only the key-pair can be used to login.

How to perform Instant File Recovery using NAKIVO Backup

December 19, 2016December 16, 2016 Home Lab

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NAKIVO Backup has been a great addition in my home lab and just a few months ago I wrote about my first impressions of NAKIVO Backup. Now I have a few posts lined up to highlight some individual features of NAKIVO Backup, starting with Instant File Recovery.

If you haven’t already guessed it, Instant File Recovery allows you to recover files or folders directly from a previous backup job. This is a great alternative to performing a full restore of a VM when all you might need is a single or even a couple of files and/or folders.

Use Pi-Hole to block ads on all devices in your network

December 9, 2016 Home Lab

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Sure ad blockers have been around for a long while now, but those are typically only available for your web browsers and not ever device allows you to install them such as cell phones, media players, smart TV’s, etc. I came across a neat project that allows you to block web ads on every device in your network, called Pi-Hole.

In a nutshell Pi-Hole was developed to run on a Raspberry Pi, but will run on most any Debian based distro, and will act as a DNS server to which you point your devices or router to use as the DNS server so that all requests are filtered through Pi-Hole. Pi-Hole then blocks 100’s of thousands ad domains. All without having to use a single browser extension and for FREE!

Easy upgrade ESXi 6.5 via command line

November 22, 2016June 5, 2017 VMware

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VMware has recently released ESXi 6.5 and last week I posted on how to Install VCSA 6.5 as well as how to upgrade VCSA 6.0 to 6.5, now we’re going to look at how to easily and quickly perform an ESXi 6.5 upgrade via command line.

Upgrade vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 to 6.5

November 18, 2016June 5, 2017 VMware

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VMware vSphere 6.5 has been released as general available and earlier this week I posted about Installing VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 as a new install, this post will walk through upgrading an existing vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 to 6.5!

Similar to a fresh VCSA 6.5 install, the VCSA 6.5 upgrade is also broken up into two stages. The first stage is deploying a new vCenter Server Appliance and the second stage is copying data from the 6.0 VCSA to the newly deployed 6.5 VCSA.

Installing VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.5

November 17, 2016November 18, 2016 VMware

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VMware has announced that VMware vSphere 6.5 has gone general available this week. Now installing VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 (VCSA) is even easier as the requirement for the client integration plugin has been removed and now the VCSA appliance is delivered via an ISO image with an installation wizard that’s been broken up into two stages.

The VCSA 6.5 ISO offers two types of installation methods, CLI and GUI install – both availalbe for Windows, Mac and Linux machines. In this guide I’ll walk through the steps of installing VCSA 6.5 using the Windows GUI install.

Who wants to win a sweet home lab?

October 13, 2016July 9, 2020 Other

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Turbonomic TurboStack homelab

I’m pretty darn happy with my current home lab, but certainly wouldn’t mind winning the sweet home lab Turbonomic is giving away for FREE!

The Turbonomic TurboStack home lab giveaway consists of an Intel NUC6i5SYK NUC with an Intel Core i5-6260U, 16GB total RAM using HyperX DDR4 memory. For storage the TurboStack home lab includes a Synology DS916+ NAS along with a Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD and two WD 1TB 7200 RPM SATA drives. In addition, a Cisco SG300 10-Port Gigabit Managed Switch – they even give you three Ethernet cables!

Synology DSM 6.0.2-8451 Update 2

October 11, 2016March 6, 2017 Synology

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Synology has just released DSM 6.0.2-8451 Update 2 which offers almost a dozen fixes as well as patches multiple vulnerabilities found throughout OpenSSL and curl. If you haven’t already, it would be highly recommended to go ahead and do so now. Below is a list of fixes in DSM 6.0.2-8451 Update 2.