A collection of nerdy things done in nerdy ways to break, fix, and learn technology
Perhaps you’ve heard some buzz about Wavefront but don’t quite know what it is or how it can be used. I was in the same boat for a while, but then I saw a demo that blew my mind. Imagine a platform that could ingest time series data (or metrics) from various sources, retain all data…
Picture yourself in front of a rack of VxRail appliances. Ah, the bright shine of freshly racked and cabled new gear! The network team has VLANs ready. The operations team has picked out naming conventions for host names and virtual machines. Storage capacity will be more than enough to support growth efforts for the next…
A recent discussion with a friend inspired this post. Whether you are a workaholic, forced to work overtime each week, or never take work home, when is the last time you stopped to reflect on career? It seems to be something many of us consistently overlook. Working on career progression through an iterative, routine process…
Imagine having just configured some LUNs on your new PowerVault MD3820i. Encryption key management has been configured, and 20 SEDs (self-encrypting drives) are spinning and ready for use with vSphere. There are 4 SSDs in the PowerVault to use for caching that just need to be configured. “What do you mean these cache disks aren’t…
Regardless of your field, if you aren’t a member of a professional networking group / community, I hope 2018 will be the year you choose to get involved. There are powerful benefits to your career for participating. I’m the kind of guy who participates in IT communities and happen to be the co-leader of the…
Excitement was in the air for the technology team of Beast Mode, Inc. After months of planning, some shiny new vSAN ReadyNodes finally arrived at the datacenter. The implementation team gathered to rack and cable the new cluster and all other necessary equipment. Even though ESXi was installed on the hosts with basic network settings configured,…
When is the last time you remember having a dream of some sort of achievement? Maybe it was what you wanted to be when you grew up as of Kindergarten graduation, or perhaps it was something else. Are the young the only ones who dream? Are they the only ones who would pursue a dream? …
August 29, 2017 – I was there the day they stopped whispering. It was the day episode 140 was recorded at a podcast booth on the VMworld show floor. In my mind, this had all the makings of a great athlete retiring and would bring about the end of an era. I was fortunate enough…
I remember attending the VMUG UserCon in Dallas / Fort Worth for the first time back in 2013 and hearing Damian Karlson speak about vBrownBag. At the time I had never heard of vBrownBag, but one thing that really hit me was his mention of community. When he said “the community” he meant the virtualization…
This year I was blessed to present a session on Shadow IT at Spiceworld 2017, and I have to say it was an amazing experience. The best part about it was getting the attendees involved. I expected questions during the presentation, but I was very grateful for all the audience members who were willing to…