Presented at Security BSides Boston on May 18 2013, “Build Your Own VMWare ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V lab at Home, Using Affordable and Efficient Hardware”

Having never been to a security user group event before, I initially felt like a bit of an outsider, but felt very welcome in a short while. What a friendly bunch of folks…I was quickly surprised by how incredibly engaged the audience was, and so full of great…

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Superguide: VMware vSphere

Here’s a collection of articles to help you build your own VMware vSphere lab. The focus is on simplicity, with ways of getting going with a very usable rig, quickly and effectively, using affordable commodity parts (see also Superguide: vZilla). This Superguide will be updated with the latest relevant articles, so be sure to come back and visit. As always, your comments left below the article are greatly appreciated.

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If you used Microsoft IntelliPoint drivers, and you upgraded from Windows 7 to 8 but have Bluetooth mouse issues, here’s a fix

If you used Microsoft IntelliPoint drivers under Windows 7 for your Bluetooth mouse, then upgraded to Windows 8 and have experienced some mouse issues, then this tip may help you. Issues I experienced included the Microsoft Bluetooth tranceiver not coming out of suspend mode properly…I’ve also experienced…

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Presented at Connecticut VMUG User Conference on May 14 2013, “Virtualization at home can be practical, affordable, and available, 24×7.”

This session was geared toward enthusiasts looking to get a taste for what virtualization can do in the home, through actual examples from the past 2 years of building and running my affordable and efficient Intel Core i7 based “vZilla” system. Discussion and live…

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Constantly high disk I/O with Windows Server 2012 Essentials, here’s one possible reason, and a fix

“A problem well stated is a problem half solved.” – Charles Kettering, inventor, engineer. Itay, a fellow enthusiast and TinkerTry follower, and currently the top commenter at TinkerTry (click Activity here), sent in this interesting story. Itay tells the tale of how he solved his mysterious high CPU utilization on Windows…

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Featured on “The Home Tech Podcast” Episode #115 “Laptops #2″

Being a guest on a podcast that uses Google Hangouts On Air is a lot of fun. Interested in seeing everything from Windows Millennium Edition booting on a 1995 ThinkPad 701 “Butterfly” to a Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13? The crew discuss a lot of laptop gear, come on over and check out the fun, and consider subscribing! Excerpt from the shownotes: Jim…

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Superguide: Antivirus Solutions for the Microsoft Windows Home Server Family

Usually, the server versions of Windows require a centrally managed antivirus solution. That also usually means the considerable cost that comes with such enterprise solutions. But what if you just want to find a basic antivirus solution that works on any of these 3 generations of products, Windows Home Server, Windows Home Server 2011, Windows Server 2012…

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Superguide: Lenovo ThinkPad USB 3.0 Dock, to affordably add 2 external monitors to Windows/Mac/Linux

If you want to learn more about the possibility of getting more monitors hooked up to your USB 3.0 equipped system, you’ve come to the right place. Should work with nearly any brand of recent vintage laptop or desktop that’s equipped with USB 3.0. Works with Windows, Mac, and Linux too.

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IDF 2013 Presentation: Intel Next Generation Microarchitecture Code Name Haswell

This technical deep-dive with video from an April 10 2013 presentation at IDF2013 (Intel Developer Forum) in Bejing, China is now available, with a brief virtualization mention 24 minutes in. “SPCS001 – Technology Insight: Intel® Next Generation Microarchitecture Code Name Haswell” – Per Hammarlund, Ronak Singhal, Hong Jiang.

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Should I try to upgrade my Intel Core i7 2600 (Sandybridge) past 32GB of RAM for juggling a lot of VMs, or plan to rebuild on Core i7 4770 (Haswell)?

So, it would seem I’m at a fork in the road. Trusty vZilla has now been alive for about 2 years, a Core i7 2600 CPU on a Z68 (Sandybridge) motherboard by ASRock, with 4 DIMM slots. Right now, I’m at 4 x 8GB, totaling 32GB, and I’m running pretty maxed out on memory…

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Use Windows Server 2012 Essentials Dashboard to quickly verify backups

On the Windows Server 2012 Essentials Dashboard, you can view the items in the DEVICES tab to quickly determine which of your overnight backups succeeded, and which failed. Despite how handy the Windows Server 2012 Essentials Health Report Add-in is, it doesn’t tell you how many backups finished. So while my demonstrated method isn’t automatic…

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VMware Purple Screens of Death can spring up from improper eSATA cabling

One my shortest, simplest articles ever, but of high value to the fellow home lab enthusiast that may be afflicted by the occasional PSOD. Alas, over the past 23 months of running vZilla, it hasn’t all been roses and sunshine. One vexing, intermittent problem had to do with eSATA cabling. You see, my affordable Mediasonic HFR2-SU3S2 External RAID5 enclosure…

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Is the new Cree LED bulb a good enough 60 watt replacement?

I’m a long-time fan of the Cree6 downlights in my family room, serving our family very natural, dimmable light since December of 2011. Recently, when a bedrooom’s old and dim 52 watt circular-tube florescent ceiling fixture gave out, I replaced it with an affordable, semi-flush 3 bulb ceiling fixture. So the hunt for the best affordable LED bulb was on! Having used…

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Thought about attending virtualization user groups? Here’s a virtual tour of some of my recent positive experiences.

When working at an IBM customer center from 1995-2005, I spent a lot of evenings helping host local user groups, something I thoroughly enjoyed. If you’ve been to this site before, you already know I like getting out, such as attending the Hyper-V Loadfest. The value I get out of these events is frankly not as much…

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vTagion.com “Virtualization is contagious” – a very new blog, already many good articles

Well, if you’re anything like me, a home lab virtualization enthusiast, then you may also find Brian’s strong selection of useful articles quite handy. I first came across “Automatically Disable SSL – VMware Converter” when doing a little VMware Converter research. Brian says “After doing WAY too many conversions with converter I decided I was sick of…

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Featured on “The Home Tech Podcast” Episode #110 “Travel Tech: What Do You Take on the Road?”

Being a guest on a podcast that uses Google Hangouts On Air is a lot of fun. It was kind of a last minute thing, so I grabbed some gear I used a lot when doing business travel, and held those devices up to the camera as props, as we talked a bit about preparedness. Come on over and check out the fun!

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