Hewlett Packard HyperConverged HC380 Fun

I’m 1600 miles away implementing a multi node cluster of these HC380s and have run into a few bugs. One is an absolute deal breaker and needed to share this in hopes it helps others in the same process. During implementation, you are asked to choose a username and password for the VirtualStore appliances that […]

VMware Tools Downgrade

I ran into a situation where I needed to test upgrading VMware tools using an alternative method other than directly through vCenter or auto update. To do this testing I had to roll back the most recent version of VMware Tools on a VM to an older one. Uninstall latest, reboot, install older, reboot. No […]

STARTTLS and OS X Mail

A change recently in OS X’s Mail application has caused an unusual problem of not sending mail on the regular SMTP or IMAP ports. I’m not sure if its El Capitan that initiated this change because I do not send mail often from my desktop mail client. After a message stuck in my outbox, I […]

Cloning and deploying ESXi

I’ve got a pile of MicroSD cards, a few racks worth of blades in different locations, and a hankering to deploy VMware in a stateful manner by simply plugging these SD cards in and booting up the blades or deploy blades with SD cards and perform remote installs with as little effort as possible.   […]

Trust is Everything.

We spend so much time working toward a goal, delivering on an expectation, that it becomes business as usual. People trust me to do my job, I trust others to do theirs. Together we make great teams, great divisions, and a great company for our customers. In the last two weeks, two major companies have […]