2026 VCF 9 Lab Update

After spending a bit of time tidying up cables in my rack, I figured I’d take the opportunity to write about my current setup. Here it is in all its glory: Not the greatest picture. From top to bottom: Here’s a diagram of how it’s all connected together. Not in the diagram is a UniFi … Read more

A quick look at HCX+ part 2 – configuring Site Pairing and deploying a Service Mesh

Following on from my previous post on HCX+, I’ll now cover the next stage in the process. Apologies for the delay, I’ve been enjoying some time off work! As a very quick recap, so far both our on-prem and SDDC HSM appliances have been deployed and activated. If we use the UI to try and … Read more

A quick look at HCX+ part 1 – onboarding your SDDC and on-prem sites

HCX+ Initial Availability has recently launched and it is part of Project Northstar, which is essentially SaaS delivered multi-cloud Networking and Security. Rather than paraphrasing what HCX Product Manager Gabe Rosas has already written about HCX+, I’ll quote his words here: On a foundation of true & tested workload VMware mobility technologies, HCX+ provides a … Read more

My homelab – 2023 Update Part 1

Although I have previously documented my homelab, there have been some changes as well as a housemove. This is part 1 of my 2023 update. This is how it was around a week ago, and as you can see it’s a bit of a mess. The Lack ‘Rack’ was only tempoary and I’ve had it … Read more

HCX Bulk Migration for Single vCenter Server Topologies

Part way through the HCX 4.5 release notes it mentions the above with the following note: “In HCX 4.5, HCX can be deployed within a single vCenter Server to enable the Bulk migration. This is useful for cluster-to-cluster migrations in environments where the vendor compatibility or other requirements for cluster-to-cluster vMotion cannot be satisfied“ This, … Read more

Untangle an IPSEC issue – traffic selectors unacceptable

For my home firewall I’ve recently switched from using a UniFi USG Pro to a virtual Untangle Next Generation Firewall (Untangle NG Firewall) appliance. The USG has served me well, however with no future developments for USG firmware, it’s starting to show its age somewhat. More advanced VPN support is lacking, there’s no 10 Gbps … Read more

Deploying NSX part 2 – Cluster deployment, Host preparation and Logical Switch setup

Now that the NSX manager appliance is installed and set up with vCenter, it’s time to deploy the control cluster and prepare the hosts. But before we do this, we need to define IP Pools for the Controller cluster and hosts to use. Head over to Groups and Tags from within the Networking and Security … Read more