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Kevin Soltow
Kevin Soltow
Cloud and Virtualization Architect. Kevin focuses on VMware technologies and has vast expertise in cloud solutions, virtualization, storage, networking, and IT infrastructure administration.
Kevin Soltow
  • Kevin Soltow
  • June 25, 2019

ESXi 6.7 Quick Boot in a nutshell. How fast can you actually reboot ESXi?

Quick Boot is another cool feature introduced in vSphere 6.7. Why does it deserve own article? Because, with this feature in place, rebooting ESXi won’t lead to restarting a server itself. By optimizing the reboot path, Quick Boot enables to avoid time-consuming firmware and device initialization processes. Looks really handy when all you need is just applying small changes or doing some update quickly, doesn’t it? In this article, I discuss how to quick boot a server and share my experience of using that feature. How fast will ESXi reboot with that feature in place?
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Kevin Soltow
  • Kevin Soltow
  • June 17, 2019

VMware brought PMEM support to vSphere. How fast can your vSphere 6.7 VM potentially run on PMEM?

Some time ago, there was a post about new cool features brought to VMware vSphere 6.7 with Update 1. I forgot to mention one thing that appeared in VMware vSphere even before the update – PMEM support for your VMs. Well, I think it won’t be enough to write something like “Wow, it is good to see PMEM support in vSphere… it is very fast”. This innovation needs own article shedding light on what PMEM is and how fast your VMs can actually run on it. Unfortunately, I have no NVDIMM devices in my lab yet… but I still can simulate one using some host RAM!
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Kevin Soltow
  • Kevin Soltow
  • June 11, 2019

How to reset vCenter Server Appliance root password?

This post will be pretty handy for those who rely on their memory too much because it discusses how to reset vCenter Server Appliance root password.
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Kevin Soltow
  • Kevin Soltow
  • June 3, 2019

VMware vSphere Content Libraries in a Nutshell: Why use Them (or Why Not)

Some time ago, discussing how cool VMware vSphere 6.7 Update 1 is, I briefly mentioned content libraries. That article was just an overview, so I decided not to go into details, saying that some features need their own posts. In today’s article, I’d like to share my hands-on experience with content libraries and help you to decide whether this feature can make your life any easier.
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Kevin Soltow
  • Kevin Soltow
  • May 31, 2019

Closed for Maintenance: Things You Should Know About Maintenance Mode

Admins shut down their hosts for servicing from time to time. After closing for maintenance one node, vSAN cluster resources are to be re-distributed, and here Maintenance Mode comes into play. Today, I’d like to discuss the whole idea of maintenance mode and its options.
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Kevin Soltow
  • Kevin Soltow
  • May 8, 2019

How to shrink VMDK with a couple of PowerShell scripts?

While extending a VMDK file is a fairly easy task that can be performed right in Disk Manager, shrinking a virtual disk is a bit tricky. And, you need to be really careful because unless done properly, reducing virtual disk size may cause data loss! Sure, you can just use VMware Converter to make a VMDK smaller, but, for my money, it is always better to have a script at hand. In this article, I’ll discuss how to shrink virtual disks with 2 simple PowerShell scripts.
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Kevin Soltow
  • Kevin Soltow
  • April 30, 2019

How to build a home lab using your PC? Setting up VMware vSAN on nested ESXi hosts

Hi, guys, I finally managed to finish an article on deploying VMware vSAN on the nested ESXi hosts. Some had difficulties with setting up the networking for this scenario, so here’s a guide on this matter from me!
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Kevin Soltow
  • Kevin Soltow
  • April 22, 2019

Cool vSphere Command-Line Interface (ESXCLI) Commands that Helped Me a Lot

Today, I’d like to share some of cool ESXCLI commands for performing a good part of IT related routines. Sure, vSphere Client has a wonderful GUI allowing for carrying out most of daily tasks… but CLI is much more powerful tool once you master it! So, that’s actually why I share my “Swiss Army knife” commands here.
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Kevin Soltow
  • Kevin Soltow
  • April 12, 2019

Deep dive into VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 8.1. Part 2 – Creating a Disaster Recovery Site

Having a disaster recovery site is a must for any company. That’s why I wrote an article some time ago on how to set up Site Recovery Manager (SRM) so that it allows for creating a disaster recovery site. Today, I describe how you can actually create that site and migrate your VMs from the main site there.
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