So, I rebuilt my home lab, re-installed my ESXi servers, set up vSAN, vMotion, and so on. 100Gb QSFP28 Speed Test Between ESXi Hosts I have been waiting so long to discover the actual performance with 100Gb NICs. William Lam told me that iPerf3 is included with ESXi. I just enabled SSH on each host….
Tag: Home Lab
Low Price DAC 100G QSFP28 and Cat6 Copper Trunk Cables – Phase 1
100G QSFP28 Passive Direct Attach Copper Twinax (DAC) Many enterprise switches and NICs can only use certified DAC/AOC and transceivers. Mostly they are very expensive. A good place to look for them is FS.com. They can provide cables for known brands like Cisco, Dell, HP, IBM, Juniper, Arista, Mellanox, and so on. They can even…
HP Mellanox CX455A 100GbE QSFP28 Network Controller PCIe x16- Phase 1
I was keeping an eye on different NICs when the right wave came. I managed to buy a CX455A. I bought 3 NICs because I have three servers where I can use them. One NIC was dead, and it got replaced very quickly with another. So, thank you to the eBay seller who sent me…
100GbE QSFP28 Switch Dell S4112T-ON (Phase 1)
I had been looking for a 100GbE switch for a long time, and I like that the switch has the exact number of ports for my home lab. Many 100GbE switches have more than 28 ports, but I don’t need as many. I need only three. The 100GbE QSFP28 is 2nd Generation and 4 x…
The Story of Buying 100GbE Port Switches – Phase 1
I have been monitoring 100GbE port switches on eBay for more than a year. Shopping on eBay is like surfing and trying to catch the big waves, looking for the right moments and being prepared. On eBay, sometimes it is possible to get a good price because data centers or companies start to replace their…
Home Lab 100Gbe Topology – Phase 1
Before setting up anything, I planned everything out on paper. Every single port was pre-planned before purchase. Many people have asked what software I used to make this topology and requested an editable copy of the topology picture. I use PowerPoint, Excel, and Word very often for simple design and brainstorming tools. I feel MS…
100GbE Network Upgrade for My Home Lab (Home Micro Datacenter): Upgrade – Phase 1
When I built a TrueNAS storage device and started copying files over at 1GbE speed, I realized how slow it was. I started understanding what the 1GbE means and began looking for ways to increase the connection speed and consider other possible bottlenecks. To get a maximum speed, you have to consider everything: What is…
Important lessons I learned by silencing and cooling my small server
I was looking for a small, low power and silent server for my home lab. I found Supermicro A2SDV-16C-TLN5 with 16 cores, and it fit perfectly in the Supermicro chassis CSE-E300.
The chassis included one fan. I thought this was the perfect home lab server; I could have 256GB RAM as max.
I thought the server didn’t need extra cooling, but I was very wrong.
Virtualization environment is your Shaolin Temple, where you train your IT skills
Are you wondering how to become a master or expert on something in IT?
It is actually very simple. You have to practice and practice until you master it.
When we look at dancers, singers, athletes, or even chess players, they practice every day. When we look at pro gamers, they practice, record their games, and watch other players’ games to learn and develop their skills. Sadly, we don’t see the same thing in the IT field.The common path for people is going to a training workshop or school and doing it at once by following the curriculum of the the day, getting certified, and suddenly an expert has been born .
Imagine if we started providing certification for dancers, singers, athletes, or even pro gamers because they danced one dance, sang a song once, ran 100 meters, or once played a game. After that, we start calling them professionals. You see how silly it is.
For those people who are serious and want to become experts, home labbing is a must.
vSphere/Workstation Pro is like a Lego suitable for all ages
I think everyone knows what Lego is and doesn’t need an explanation. Still, I’m sure you are very confused why I’m saying vSphere/Workstation Pro is like a Lego suitable for everyone.
We have all seen or even experienced how fun and engaging it is playing with Lego bricks. It’s an exciting opportunity to tinker and be creative. Only your imagination limits what you can build and how you play. It’s so engaging that time flies, and every day, you can create something fun without worrying about doing something wrong or even breaking what you made. It’s not a big deal. At any moment, you can build something newer and even better. Each time you build and break, build and break, you get better and better. Your skills develop rapidly. Hands-on learning opens the door to becoming a successful person.