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Mini PC & Server
pfSense Mini PC Firewall for your Home Lab
pfSense is one of the most popular open-source firewall solutions you can download. It has a ton of enterprise features, even with the Community Editon (CE) pfSense installation. Many are pivoting to mini PCs for their home lab server hosts…
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VMware
How to Back Up and Restore VMware ESXi Host Configuration
When thinking about disaster recovery strategies for your virtualization environment, it is easy to miss one of the important aspects of disaster recovery in your VMware environment: your host configuration. Have you ever had an ESXi host crash and you…
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VMware
vSphere Distributed Switch Configuration and Best Practices Guide
VMware vSphere has many advanced networking features as part of the solution. These allow VIadmins to configure just about any setting they need for their network. By default, the vSphere Standard Switch is the default network configuration that comes “out…
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Mini PC & Server
Minisforum MS-A1: An MS-01 with an AMD Ryzen Processor
The Minisforum MS-01 has been my favorite mini PC for home lab environments since its introduction a few months back. I think it has an almost perfect combination of hardware and capabilities that make it a really great choice if…
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Containers
Docker Desktop Alternative: 5 Container Management Solutions Pros and Cons
If you are like me and using containers for more and more solutions, both self-hosting and DevOps processes, I am always on the lookout for better tools and alternatives. Docker Desktop is a solution that many use to run Docker…
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VMware
VMware vCenter Server VMSA-2024-0012 Critical Patch Update Steps
In case you haven’t heard as of yet, there is a new critical VMware vCenter Server critical patch advisory to be aware of that will require patching your vCenter Server. I have gone through the steps to patch vCenter Server…
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Proxmox
Proxmox Alternatives in 2024: Comparing 10 Hypervisors Pros and Cons
There is arguably not a more popular free virtualization platform than Proxmox VE (Proxmox Virtual Environment). Proxmox has taken the home lab community by storm, and now that the VMware buyout by Broadcom has been finalized, many are jumping ship…
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AI
Local LLM Model in Private AI server in WSL
We are in the age of AI and machine learning. It seems like everyone is using it. However, is the only real way to use AI tied to public services like OpenAI? No. We can run an LLM locally, which…
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Proxmox
BDRSuite 7.1 New Features with Proxmox Agentless Backup
We are starting to see most of the enterprise backup vendors giving attention to Proxmox VE Server since the shakeup with pricing and other details following the Broadcom buyout of VMware. BDRSuite is a backup solution I have been testing…
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Mini PC & Server
Geekom AE7 Mini PC Review as Home Server
Recently, Geekom reached out and wanted to send over a Geekom AE7 with the Ryzen 9 7940HS processor. I have had this one on the bench for a while now and want to give you guys my thoughts and review…
