Monthly Archives: May 2020

Home Lab – The Beginning

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Home Labs are a fantastic way to do all manor of things from the comfort of your home. Ranging from home automation, file storage, home media streaming, learning how to build a website, learning a new operating system or exploring new technologies. My lab is mainly an VMware testing and learning lab.

Home Labs can come in many forms and sizes. From Raspberry PI’s to a full rack setup with a horrible electricity bill! Home Labs are the sort of thing that start small, but grow and evolve over time as your thirst for knowledge does.

In this Home lab blog I will be sharing my Home Lab journey in the hope it inspires others to begin their own journeys.

Like many others, my humble lab began with an Original Raspberry Pi many years ago until recently, in the last 6 months, I have invested in various bits of additional kit. The hardware has ranged from a late 2013 MacBook Pro that I use when I’m mobile (not so much at the minute!) to rack mount servers with both physical and virtual firewalls and switches, to tie it all together.

There are endless combinations of hardware, software, resources and subscriptions out there to suit each individuals goals.

Over the course of a series of posts in the Home Lab blog, I will share with you my Home Lab including hardware, software, subscriptions and learning resources I have used to to get me to the point I am at today.

I’d like to end this introduction post sharing with you, possibly, my most valued tool: My VMUG Advantage Subscription. This subscription provides you with access to online events and communities, money off training/exams and VMWorld tickets but, most importantly, access to non-production VMware licences!

As a VMUG Advantage member you get access to loads of VMware products to use in your Home Lab. Among the titles are vSphere, vCenter, vSAN, NSX, VCF and also the latest vSphere 7! This does how ever come at a cost… $200.

There is often a prompt for 10% off (code ADVNOW) which meant my subscription cost roughly £140 for 365 days of labbing! Now I appreciate not everyone may be able to afford this, in which case it is worth trying to ask your employer if they can cover the costs as a professional subscription?

This, without a doubt, has been one of the BEST resources I have had access to. Whether you are just wanting to get familiar with a new technology, dig deeper into a technology you already use, or prepare for a VMware certification, this is really an invaluable resource to have! Do take note, this cannot be used in a production environment!

Interested? Head over to the VMUG membership page to learn more!

Thanks for reading, I hope this has been useful. In the next post I will cover the equipment and software that makes up my Home Lab. See you then!

Installing PowerCLI using Install-Module

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I was asked recently ‘Do we have PowerCLI downloaded?’.  Yes, we may, but it could be anywhere and it is likely an outdated version.

There is no need to download the installer! You can install PowerCLI using the Install-Module cmdlet in Windows PowerShell. (Providing you have an internet connection!) Below we will look at the steps required to install the latest version of PowerCLI on your system.

From an elevated PowerShell prompt run the following –

Install-Module VMware.PowerCLI.

If you don’t already have it installed, you will be prompted to install the NuGet Provider. Type ‘y’ and enter to continue.

You will get a further prompt to confirm you are happy to install a module from the ‘PSGallery’. Again, ‘y’ and enter to continue.

The PowerCLI Module will then begin to install. It will cycle through installing multiple dependent packages which will take a few minutes. Sit back and wait…

Once returned to the prompt, you can confirm the installation by running – 

Get-Module VMware.PowerCLI -List Available | FL

You have now installed PowerCLI version 12.0.0.15947286. You will likely end up installing a later version.

Last step, load the module for use – 

Import-Module VMware.PowerCLI

You’re ready to go! But…

Not every system you need to use this module on will have internet access. In this, case the ‘Save-Module’ cmdlet is your friend.

Save-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI -Path <Path to directory>

The module will then proceed to be downloaded into the directory you have specified and will look like this –

On your target server, you will need to confirm your module paths. You can do this by using the following command. You may have more than one path.

$env:PSModulePath

Now copy the directory that contains the module you have saved, to a module path on the target server. Likely ‘C:\Programfiles\WindowsPowerShell\Modules’ on a Windows System.

Now the Module is on your system, all that’s left is to import the module as above – 

Import-Module VMware.PowerCLI

Thanks for reading! Hope this has been of use and catch you in the next post.