Another year is coming to an end, it’s 2023 and the beginning of another year. With this blog article, I’d like to present to you my Top 10 posts of 2023. Surprisingly, the Top 10 blog posts are not all from this or last year. Obviously, people are still searching for solutions for problems they have with some “old” stuff, or they are looking for solutions to problems they have in their current infrastructure. I hope that my blog posts will help the people out there in the tech community solve their problems. I’ll do my best to keep on doing my work and sharing my knowledge.
10. How to add a new host to a vSAN cluster
During late summer this year I did some vSAN experiments in my homelab. Three blog posts about vSAN made it into the top 10 of 2023. The linked blog post shows you how to add a new (an additional) ESXi host to your vSAN cluster.
https://www.driftar.ch/2023/08/15/how-to-add-a-new-host-to-a-vsan-cluster/
9. VMware – Clone a VM with snapshots (and consolidate it)
Some “vmkfstools” adventure to recover a VM that had a snapshot that wasn’t cleanly deleted.
https://www.driftar.ch/2018/09/03/vmware-clone-a-vm-with-snapshots-and-consolidate-it/
8. Backup and Restore vCenter Server Appliance
This blog post covers the backup and recovery of the vCenter server appliance. An easy-to-follow guide.
https://www.driftar.ch/2020/04/21/backup-and-restore-vcenter-server-appliance/
7. My homelab hardware gets its own rack
Well, at least the Tweet I published for this blog post has (as per December 2023) more than 24’000 impressions. It looks like people like hardware, and also DIY stuff.
https://www.driftar.ch/2020/09/26/my-homelab-hardware-gets-its-own-rack/
6. Changing FRU information on Supermicro servers
Probably worth a rewrite or at least an update. But back in the days I had an issue with one of my Supermicro servers. The information stored in the BIOS were not correct. This blog post shows you how to fix this by flashing the correct information into the BIOS.
https://www.driftar.ch/2021/10/08/changing-fru-information-on-supermicro-servers/
5. “Starting drivers, please wait” – An HPE adventure story
This was one strange issue! Back in the day when I was working at a solution provider, a customer reported an issue. His ESXi hosts have lost connectivity to a storage system. It took some time to solve, and it was a good experience.
https://www.driftar.ch/2017/07/18/starting-drivers-please-wait-an-hpe-adventure-story/
4. How to reset the ESXi root password?
It is sometimes necessary to reset the ESXi root password. The “officially” supported way to reset the ESXi root password is to reinstall the host from scratch. But the magic in this blog post is called “host profiles”.
https://www.driftar.ch/2022/08/17/how-to-reset-the-esxi-root-password/
3. How to shut down a vSAN cluster – and start it again
One of three blog posts related to vSAN made it to the third place of 2023. How to shut down the vSAN cluster and start it again, properly.
https://www.driftar.ch/2023/08/10/how-to-shut-down-a-vsan-cluster-and-start-it-again/
2. An easy way to quickly migrate a VMware VM to Synology VMM
On the second place of 2023, there is this post on how to quickly migrate a VMware VM to the Synology Virtual Machine Manager (VMM).
https://www.driftar.ch/2020/09/01/an-easy-way-to-quickly-migrate-a-vmware-vm-to-synology-vmm/
1. How to remove a host from a vSAN cluster
And the first place winner for my Top 10 blog posts in 2023 another vSAN blog post! It shows you how to remove a host from a vSAN cluster.
https://www.driftar.ch/2023/08/15/how-to-remove-a-host-from-a-vsan-cluster/