
Today I start my journey to obtain my VMware Certified Advanced Professional 5 - Data Center Design certification. I have been designing and supporting VMware products for a lot of years, so I thought it was about time I got my VCAP certifications! Note: Let me just say I realise the VMware Certified Advance Professional 6 - Data Center Virtualization Design is currently in BETA and I will be taking this exam as well.
Written by Christopher Lewis on February 14, 2016 .
Ok so the bits and bobs have started to arrive and I have put together one of the hosts and after a little work, I now have one host up and running with he following: The components in ESX-Host-1 are:- 1 x SuperMicro MBD-X11SH-LN4F-0 Motherboard (4 x 1GbE, 64GB, Socket 1151, M.2 PCIe, IMPI 2.0, 8 x SATA3) I chose this motherboard for multiple reasons; a) the 4 x 1GbE network ports mean that I don’t need a separate card, b) IPMI means i can remote controller the server to build it once plugged in c) supports 64GB RAM, d) its MicroATX so i can build it into a small case!
Written by Christopher Lewis on February 9, 2016 .

Grant Orchard ( @grantorchard ) has just released a new version of the vRealise Automation 7 API reference documentation as a Docker container called Platypus ! For all those guys who, like me, don’t run a Mac laptop and cannot use the VMware’s AppCatalyst to run Photon, I thought I would write a quick post on how to get Platypus working within a Docker Container upon the Synology NAS (if you have one).
Written by Christopher Lewis on February 4, 2016 .
I have finally taken the first steps in upgrading my home lab and over the next few posts I’ll go through what I have purchased. I have started with just a single host so I can check all the components, some of which are not the on the official VMware HCL, actually work. At a high level this includes: Compute 1 x Supermicro X11SSH-LN4F Motherboard 1 x Intel Xeon E3 1275 V5 “skylake” (4C/8T) 4 x 16GB Crucial DDR4 EUDIMM 1 x Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD (M.
Written by Christopher Lewis on January 29, 2016 .
Welcome to thecloudxpert.net, a space for my many musings around my experience and journey in the world of technology, specifically looking at virtualisation, cloud automation and orchestration. Enjoy the ride!
Written by Christopher Lewis on January 29, 2016 .
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