Building a Nested VCF 9 Home Lab on a Budget
After passing the VCP-VCF exam and receiving a one-year VCF license, I wanted to deploy the full VCF stack in this nested environment. However, physical limitations… primarily available RAM on …
PowerCLI Script to Deploy Multiple VMs
In our customer environment, we use templates for VM deployments and sometimes leverage VMware PowerCLI to automate the creation of multiple VMs at once. This PowerShell script is tailored to our needs. It connects to …
Deploy vCenter on vDS Without a Standard Switch
When you deploy a vCenter Server in a vDS-only environment during Stage 1 of the VCSA upgrade, you won’t see any Standard Switch port group options on the network configuration page. That’s expected: in a vDS-only …
Secure Boot Certificate Expirations in VMware Virtual Machines
VMware ESXi 8.0 Update 3j (P09) is worth applying, especially if you run Secure Boot-enabled VMs. This patch, released on 27 May 2026 as ISO Build 25429389, includes a key fix that …
When Replacing a RAID Disk Breaks Your ESXi Boot
This was supposed to be boring. A classic hardware case: one faulty M.2 disk, a RAID-1 mirror, ESXi booting happily from a virtual disk. The kind of thing you expect …
How to Upgrade ESXi from 7 to 8 Using esxcli
This is a straightforward, step-by-step guide on how to upgrade ESXi from version 7.x to 8.x using esxcli.I used this method when one of the hosts in the cluster got …
ESXi upgrade fails from 7.x to 8.x due to unsupported TPM version
I ran into an interesting issue today while helping a customer upgrade their ESXi farm to the latest 8.x version (8.0.3, 24674464). One thing I had overlooked was the presence …
Rename vmdk without Storage vMotion
You probably know that changing a VM’s name in vCenter is easy, but that doesn’t actually rename its files or VMDKs. Normally, you’d use Storage vMotion to move and rename …
How to Reset a Locked Root Account in ESXi
This post is a straight-to-the-point guide on how to reset a locked root account in ESXi using the DCUI and shell access.Let’s jump right in. Step 1. Access the ESXi …
How to Reset a Lost ESXi Root Password
This one’s a quick tip on how to reset a lost ESXi root password using the vCenter Host Profiles. Step 1. Extract the Host Profile Start by logging into vCenter …