Have not run into one yet.

As mentioned in the video, you'll need to supply basic services (AD, DNS, NTP, DHCP, etc.) whether you choose a Windows Server VM to supply these services or not is merely up to you. AD could be seen as optional, however I've found it to come in handy when testing different type of environments and preparing for my VCP. Hope this helps.

No issues that I recall with the Noctua fans, not sure on the other items. I didn't have this mobo very long. It was okay but I went with the ASRack Rock EPC621D8A as it had more features and flexibility.

@@vmexplorer thanks for your answer.

There are 2 interfaces on the RAS server. First I setup the VM and its guest OS, then I assign only the internal IP address, see Part 4A (@7:06). Then in Part 4B (@8:30) is where setup the RAS interface. Additionally, each IP address is documented in the diagram that I talk about usually at the start of each part. In this case the External RAS IP address is a IP subnet that is shared through my PC that is running Workstation. I hope this answers your question. Thanks.

I used Lucid Charts www.lucidchart.com/

What specifically is "not working for you"? Can you send more details?

It is pretty difficult at first to work with and its why I made this video to help others. Glad it helped you out.

Sharing VMs how exactly?

@@vmexplorer I currently have 3 Linux VMs hosted on my workstation. Is it possible to share the Linux VMs with 3 people on the same network?

@@alonzosmith6189 On your Workstation Host setup a pNIC on "the same network". Once this is done, in Workstation go to Edit > Virtual Network Editor, choose a VMnet##, and under VMnet Information set the 'Bridged to' to the pNIC. Next go to your Linux VM's and set their network adapter to the VMnet## you choose. Do a simple ping test and you should be good to go. Hope this helps.

@@vmexplorer Tk U will give this a try

Thanks for the question. To me its the right tool for the right job. I have seen and support some deployments where there are 3 vDS. 1 and 2 support 1 pNIC and 1 port group. This is done to support a specific type of VMs that require this. All other ports are on one vDS. There are others who like 1 VSS for their management items (ESXi, vSAN, and vmotion, etc.) and vDS for their VM port groups. As a general rule of thumb, I have no issues going with all vDS. Some shy away from total vDS as they recall some of the early issues with vDS and loosing their Management networks. So they stay with a mix of vSS and vDS. So in my opinion, all are okay it just really depends on what you want to or have to accomplish.

No I have not. There might be a post on my blog. What topics around nfs are you interested in.

@@vmexplorer setting it up as an additional option as well as iscsi

This entire series is about building a nested VMware Home lab using VMware Workstation. So installing on ESXi is out of the scope of this series. I hope this helps.

Thanks for the replies. Funny thing is I'm just starting to go down the VCF build path in my home lab too. Last time I tired with "bridging" VLANs between Workstation and Physical it didn't work. However, you maybe able to setup a Workstation Linux VM and put it in bridging mode. When in bridging mode the Linux VM should be able to keep track of both VM and the physical sides. Outside of workstation, I've done some work with this Linux bridging VM and it seemed to work pretty well. Hope this helps and let me know what you find.

Thanks so much for the post. It's been a great switch, in fact I bought a second one too!

Thanks for the comment. I might need a bit more information to better understand the issue you are having. First off - Does your Workstation Pro have its license key applied and what version of Workstation are you running? (Go to Help then about to get this info) If these are okay, when you click on Edit do you see an option Virtual network editor? If you do, open it and click Virtual Network Editor (See 4m 30sec into the video.) Hope this helps.

Glad it was helpful!

Thanks for your reply and I'm glad it helped out. I don't know virtualbox so I really can't comment. On the speed concerns, the only time I've noticed speed issues is when using a HDD. SDD I've run multiple VM's and they all preformed well.

Excellent and thanks for the feedback.

Thanks for the question. Do you want VLANS in the private Workstation networks or do you want to connect your Workstation VM's to an external network that has VLANS.

Thanks for the comment. I haven't researched the 5820 so I don't know if it will support u.2 disks. If you can't get them working you might just go with SSDs. Best of luck.

@@vmexplorer I can confirm, now that I have received a pair of U.2 disks, they are detected. The U.2 connectors on the mainboard only support NVMe (not SATA or SAS). I can also confirm that having removed the 'do not plug in' yellow sticker from one of the ports that was covered, both ports work fine. This was a limitation for non-Xeon 5820's.

Thanks for the comment. What I found with a black marker is, the information is still visible. I found using this torch technique I have a high rate of permanently removing the info.

Thanks for the comment. I would guess that Intel has a specific testing environment and software that tests their products accurately. I would suggest asking Intel how to properly test the performance of their devices.

​@@vmexplorerin consumer grade mobos, will my bios uefi see the u.2 drive inserted to the u.2 to m.2 adapter , but will most likely not be able to boot into the u.2?

Thanks for the comment. Yes your mobo should come with a pre-installed back plate. This video I made might help with the install as it's the same cooler I used for supermicro and asrock rack. Don't be fooled by how it starts out as I show step by step. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rs5kjZmW09Kqn58.htmlsi=0Csh2gFOR6vyY6uX

@@vmexplorer thank you I figured it out eventually. I had to remove the backplate.

Thanks for the comment! I'm not totally familiar with this system but if it works for your needs then I would say get it. However, I would say for my needs it would fall short. The main issue for me would be lack of flexibility or the ability to expand it for my constantly changing home lab needs. Check out my Home Lab Guide and recordings where I compare and contrast several different areas of home lab (including these smaller devices). vmexplorer.com/home-labs-a-definitive-guide/ I hope this answers your question, but if not please do reach out. Thanks!

Hey Jason, U.2 connector "should" work with SAS. However, I have never tested this out nor do I have plans to. Not sure what your use case is BUT it may be easier to use the 7820s 5.25" bay with a SAS carrier like this one. Best of luck! www.amazon.com/ICY-DOCK-Backplane-Comparable-Tray-less/dp/B00V5JHOXQ/

Thank you!! If by Dell precision case you mean the Dell T7820 case, then I think you'd spend too much time trying to get it to work that you'd end up frustrated with it. Custom cases like the Dell T7820 rarely work out when trying to use "white box" style components.

Thanks for the comment! In my Workstation Lab the underlying OS (Win 11) is reporting 62GB in use. That is for all 3x Nested ESXi Hosts, 2016 AD Controller, and VCSA VM. No other VM's were running and the cluster was idle. VCSA reporting that each ESXi is using 42GB RAM, of that the cluster is reporting each host using 22GB for vSAN ESA. To be clear, this information in no way should be used when making considerations for a production ESA deployment. Hope this helps.

I haven't run into that before but when I run into a double stack label I use the torch to black / heat up the top label and it usually peels right off. I then roll it up and destroy it. Then I blacken the 2nd label. If you don't want to blacken the label I've heard of folks using a towel and iron to heat up the label to be removed. Hope this helps.

Yes, I'm just starting to deploy them this week. I might do a quick overview video as this workstation series covers most of the setup.

You are very welcome and I'm glad to hear it worked out for you!

Glad you enjoyed it!

thanks for the comment. Last time I did esxi 7, I needed to do some esxcli stoage commands for vsan to work properly. I'll post them up if you are interested?

@@vmexplorer Yes that would be great! thanks

Its been awhile since I nested ESXi 7 with Workstation. Most of this issues are tagging the disk correctly and enabling fake scsi reservations. At this point I don't know if they are still needed with newer versions of Workstation but here are the two you'll need to look into. 1) For each vSAN host via Shell add this command to each physical ESXi host to support vSAN on vSAN nesting via DCUI esxcli system settings advanced set -o /VSAN/FakeSCSIReservations -i 1' 2) Enable virtual SSD in the vmx file for each flash disk. In the vmx file for the selected ESXi hosts set the virturalSSD flag. 1 for SSD, 0 for HDD scsi0:0.virtualSSD = "0" << 128GB HDD on SCSI Controller 0 scsi1:0.virtualSSD = "1" << 225GB SSD on SCSI Controller 1

I assume you're asking about the inet connection to the AD controller? if so, yes wireless will work with workstation.

Thank you for the comment. Just this week, I was talking with someone around this topic and I'm actually now planning to do a section just on setting up vDS. It's gonna be a few weeks but I'll get something posted soon.

@@vmexplorer please upload the configuration of the networking part. Thank you so much for this wonderful series.

@@bReAkEr1007 Thanks its a work in progress I'll post it soon. Are there any specific topics in the networking area you are interested in?

Sorry for the delay, but just today I posted Part 8b: More on Networking. Let me know if this is helpful and thanks for all the comments.

@@vmexplorer 8b was the one we needed. thank you so much for your videos

Thanks for the comment!

i downloaded it with my Visual Studio membership.

@@vmexplorer Thanks. I had been looking at that pricing myself.

Not sure I don't have the hardware you are talking about. I would check the dell guides.

Hey thanks for the comment! I would recommend checking with noctua on that.

Thank you for the comment, I really appreciate the question. Some of the behavior's with the Rename Network option are, it only allows you to rename networks that you renamed while you are creating the network, and it doesn't allow you to rename default networks (ie. vmnet1), and it doesn't allow you to rename networks that you created with a default name (ie. vmnet8). It can work but its not perfect. I should have been more clear in my statements and I'm hoping to work with the VMware Workstation team to make this functionality better.