Cisco Champion 2021

I’d like to take a few moments and recognize those that helped make this happen for the 3rd year in a row. I am truly honored to be included as a Cisco Champion for 2021 and none of this is possible without Cisco, Lauren Friedman, Brett Shore, Tech Field Day, and fellow Cisco Champions. If you’re interested in learning more...

Creating A Zerto Virtual Protection Group

The purpose of this blog post is to provide the guidance and the steps needed to create a Virtual Protection Group (VPG) in Zerto. The purpose of a VPG is to protect virtual machines (VMs) and additional VMs can be added to a VPG at any time. Log into the Zerto Manager Web Client with...

How to Create a VMware Datacenter

The purpose of this blog post is to provide the guidance and the steps needed to create a new VMware Datacenter. Log into your vSphere web client, right-click your vCenter Server name and then select New Datacenter. When prompted to do so, please provide a name for the new Datacenter. For this guide, I called...

How to Install Zerto’s Virtual Replication Package (v8.5U3P1) for VMware

The purpose of this blog post is to provide the guidance and the steps needed to install Zerto’s Virtual Replication Package (v8.5U3P1) for VMware. This application can be found and downloaded from the Zerto site. Please keep in mind you will need a Zerto account (free) to access this software. Double click the installer and...

How to Recover a VMware Virtual Machine (VM) with a Synology DS920+

The purpose of this blog post is to provide the guidance and the steps needed to recover a VMware Virtual Machine (VM) using Active Backup for Business on my Synology DS920+. This VM is currently found on a physical server (Dell PowerEdge R720). To demonstrate the recovery process, the VM was previously deleted from vSphere. As you can see from...

How to Backup a VMware Virtual Machine (VM) with a Synology DS920+

The purpose of this blog post is to provide the guidance and the steps needed to backup a VMware Virtual Machine (VM) using Active Backup for Business on my Synology DS920+. This VM is currently found on a physical server (Dell PowerEdge R720). The Active for Business software can be installed from the Synology Package...

Creating a Windows 11 Virtual Machine with vSphere7

The purpose of this blog post is to provide the guidance and the steps needed to configure and install a Windows 11 virtual machine with VMware vSphere 7. This VM will be configured on a physical server (Dell PowerEdge R720) which includes the following hardware: 384GB RAM2 x e5-2620 v2Dual SD module w\ 16GB SD...

How to Convert a Physical PC into a Virtual Machine (P2V)

The purpose of this blog post is to provide the guidance and the steps needed to convert a physical computer into a virtual machine using VMware’s P2V Virtual Machine Converter. This converter can be found and downloaded from the VMware vCenter Converter site. Please keep in mind you’ll need a VMware account (free) to access...

How to install the Runecast Analyzer on vSphere7

The purpose of this blog post is to provide the guidance and the steps needed to configure the Runecast Analyzer on vSphere 7. The Runecast OVA can be found and downloaded from the Runecast site. This VM will be configured on a physical server (Dell PowerEdge R720) which includes the following hardware: 384GB RAM2 x...

Synology DS920+ (Installing NVMe Drives)

The purpose of this blog post (the fifth in my Synology series) is to provide the guidance and the steps needed to install two Synology SNV3400-800G NVMe drives for the Synology DS920+. - I powered OFF the Synology DS920+ and removed the covers from the bottom of the unit. Next, I installed the two Synology SNV3400-800G NVMe...