A couple of months ago I installed a lab (a nested virtual lab running under VMware Workstation) with XCP-NG and Xen Orchestra. This virtualization solution should be familiar to you, for those of you who follow my blog sinca a long time. There are many reasons why many home labbers like me or other admins […]
Alpine Linux – Why I like it?
Hey folks, Vladan here from ESX Virtualization. If you’ve been following my blog since way back in 2008 (yeah, we’re that old-school), you know I love diving into lightweight, no-nonsense tools that actually make life easier in the homelab, especially when everything else feels bloated and over-engineered. Time to optimize my lab! With all the […]
StarWind HCI Appliances: Storage Virtualization, Synchronous Replication, and Bulletproof Support
If you’re like me and have spent years wrestling with traditional three-tier infrastructure in small-to-medium businesses or remote office/branch office (ROBO) setups, you know the pain. Separate servers for compute, dedicated SAN arrays for storage, complex networking layers, and the constant worry about single points of failure. Add in rising licensing costs from the big […]
DataCore Puls8 vs OpenEBS: Comparison for Kubernetes Persistent Storage
With DataCore Puls8 officially launched on January 26, 2026 (GA release notes dated January 21, 2026), the obvious question for anyone running OpenEBS is whether the commercial version justifies a subscription. The answer depends entirely on where you sit on the operational complexity spectrum – and how many stateful pods you’re managing in production. Quick Background Recap OpenEBS is a […]
A Community Study Guide VMware vSphere Foundation Administrator (VCP-VVF) – Free Download
Finally, I can announce the availability of our Study Guide as PDF. The VMware Certified Professional – VMware vSphere Foundation (VCP-VVF) Administrator exam (code 2V0-16.25) is the current certification for VVF, replacing the older 2V0-12.24 exam. You can learn and pass your exam with the help of our Community Study Guide – released as PDF at our […]
SysInternals Suite: Still the #1 Must-Have Toolkit for Every Windows (and Now macOS/Linux) IT Admin in 2026
SysInternals Suite – This is very old (and very popular) utility suite from Mark Russinovich got an update recently where you’ll find some new tools and also, you’ll be now able to download all tools in a single package. Hello everyone, Vladan here. If you’ve been reading ESX Virtualization since my very first 2008 posts on […]
Windows 11 Installation Assistant 25H2 – upgrade your W10 or W11 with the help of this new tool from Microsoft
If you still want to stay on Windows, there is a tool that facilitates the migrations. It’s just been released from Microsfot. And another good news, Microsfot will reduce some of the AI copilot bloat. In fact, the company is reducing Copilot’s presence in apps like Notepad, Snipping Tool, Photos, and Widgets, and removing it […]
ResOps in Action – Commvault’s Big Moves at RSAC 2026: Okta Support, Satori-Powered Risk Analysis, ThreatScan Evolution & Sentinel Automation
If you’ve been following my blog over the years, you know I write a lot about virtualisation and data protection, and also about recovery, cyber resilience, and especially how these things play out in real enterprise environments – whether it’s VMware, Hyper-V, cloud workloads, or now increasingly identity and AI-related systems. Today we’ll talk about […]
StarWind V2V / P2V Converter Version 9 (build 848) – Multi-VM Conversions, Full CLI Support, Hot Migrations, and Cloud Improvements Make This Free Tool a Datacenter Must-Have
If you’re a datacenter admin or architect still juggling VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, Proxmox, oVirt, or even Oracle VirtualBox workloads – or if you’re moving stuff to/from Azure and AWS – you already know how painful VM conversions can be. Manual exports, temporary storage bloat, downtime, and the constant fear of data corruption during format […]
Nakivo 11.2 With Proxmox 9.1 and VMware vSphere 9 Support Released
Hey folks, Vladan here. If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you know I’m always keeping an eye on backup and recovery solutions that make life easier for virtualization admins — especially those managing VMware vSphere, mixed environments, or even emerging hypervisors like Proxmox VE. NAKIVO Backup & Replication has been a […]