ISP routers from Verizon (FIOS), and Comcast are often lacking traditional features of off-the-shelf routers, but can easily be replaced. Note that Verizon will tell you using their router is “required”, and you will lose support, but things are so much easier when you have a device that actually works and is documented. In this article we are looking at the Ubiqity “Unifi” line of … Continue reading Replacing your ISP Router/Wifi with Unifi
This post documents fixing pfSense + OpenVPN to work with Ubuntu 20.04. After years of upgrades to both systems and some configuration drift this stopped working after a laptop replacement and the following was required to get the connection working again. The main symptom was the client would connect to OpenVPN with no errors and no traffic would be passed over the connection. No traffic … Continue reading pfSense OpenVPN Ubuntu 20.04 client setup
Review and Installation This review of installing Ubuntu 20.04 on a generic Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen9 unit. My particular unit was a refurbished X1 Carbon G9 model with Windows 10 pre-installed. This unit is also available from Lenovo store with Fedora and Ubuntu pre-installed, but this review shows that Ubuntu seems to run fine on the generic Laptop ordered from the store. Specs Lenovo Type: … Continue reading Thinkpad X1 Carbon G9 – Ubuntu 20.04 – LVM full Encryption install
With the number of physical hosts not having CDROMs, along with newer laptops not having burners, I figure it’s time to move away from installing ESX from CDROM in my lab or Customer site. I had tried VMware’s instructions and failed, and found this method: ESXi 6.7 USB install setup from Linux Recently I noticed that a new USB multi-boot program called Ventoy. However it … Continue reading Booting ESX ISO installer unmodified from USB with Ventoy
Just upgraded some of my Lab hardware, now to install 6.7 on a newer Dell R630 without a CDROM we need to copy the installer to USB stick. I prefer using Linux, and the default instructions at VMware fail to work on Ubuntu 18.04, so here is the solution I found for Ubuntu 18.04 Install Syslinux 3.86 on your Ubuntu ( latest version of Syslinux … Continue reading ESXi 6.7 USB install setup from Linux
I’m in the process of moving my ZFS pool of 6 x 4TB disks to a new server, so taking a moment to re-design. Design ZFS supports redundant data by the concept of a ‘vDEV’. Each vDEV is a redundant combination of 2 or more disks. vDEV’s can then be connected together for larger capacity. vDEV Mirror 2 disks written with identical information. Can … Continue reading ZFS Pool design
See Main article 2020 FreeNAS upgrade. Moving a ZFS pool of disks to a new storage server is supported and easy. A few notes: ZFS formatted disks contain a GUID to identify them. The order physical order they are installed or how they are connected makes no difference. It is important to write Disk serial numbers down by their install slot as this makes it much … Continue reading Moving ZFS pool devices
See main article FreeNAS 2020 Build The process of setting up the hardware ran into a few snags. FreeNAS crash When inserting my first HDD into a front-panel slot on the SuperMicro box, FreeNAS immediately started to crash on boot as shown. The key info is: GEOM_RAID: SiI-070610140534: Force array start due to timeout. FreeNAS forums document that drives previously used with Software RAID or … Continue reading 2020 FreeNAS HBA setup
This is a link to my First FreeNAS build back in 2014. FreeNAS SAN with 10TB storage on Dell 2950 for vSphere. While VMware vSAN is very interesting it does require 3 or 4 hosts minimum , with SSD’s in each host. For a home lab and use for Plex Media a found that I can keep power consumption down by using a FreeNAS server … Continue reading 2014 FreeNAS Build
See Main article 2020 FreeNAS upgrade. To support FreeNAS, the following upgrades were added to the base SuperMicro 2U chassis. The approximate Ebay prices are shown. SuperMicro AOC-SLG3-2M2 M.2 adapter card ( $41 ) 2 x M.2 NVMe to U.2 (SFF-8639) cable ( $35 each ) Intel 400GB DC-PC3700 NVMe U.2 drive ( $99 ) rated 10DWPD for Slog Intel 1.2 TB DC-P3600 NVMe U.2 … Continue reading 2020 FreeNAS component upgrades
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