Archive for the ‘ExpertsExchange’ Category

A list of all my @ExpertsExchange articles and videos can be found at The CodHeadClub

Monday, August 21st, 2023

A list of all my Experts Exchange articles and videos can be found here – at the  – CodHeadClub – To copy and paste! 

https://github.com/CodheadClub/AwesomeResources/blob/master/Virtualisation.md#andrewhancock

This is an Awesome List of Computer Science, Technology, Programming and Educational resources for the benefit of all who care to use it.

The list was originally created by Closebracket.

I’ve now written over 140 articles and created 40 hours of tutorial VMware vSphere videos on vSphere 7.0 and 8.0. and today published Part 50 – VMware vSphere videos on vSphere 7.0.

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HOW TO: Perform storage performance tests on VMware vSphere vSAN, using the VMware Hyper-converged Infrastructure Benchmark fling (HCIBench)

Monday, August 14th, 2023

In this video presentation which is part of the Hancock’s VMware Half Hour HOW TO Video Series I will show you HOW TO:  Perform storage performance tests on VMware vSphere vSAN, using the VMware Hyper-converged Infrastructure Benchmark fling (HCIBench).

HCIBench is a storage performance testing automation tool that simplifies and accelerates customer Proof of Concept (POC) performance testing in a consistent and controlled way. VMware vSAN Community Forum provides support for HCIBench.

HCIBench

The storage devices we are using in this video are the Intel® Optane™ SSD DC P4800X Series 375GB, 2.5in PCIe x4, 3D XPoint™, but this procedure can be use to add any compatible storage devices in ESXi to a vSAN datastore.

This video follows on from the follow video in this series

Part 36: HOW TO: Select an inexpensive HCL Certified 10GBe network interfaces for vSphere ESXi 7.0 and vSphere ESXi 8.0 for VMware vSphere vSAN

Part 37: HOW TO: Change the LBA sector size of storage media to make it compatible with VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi 7.0 and ESXi 8.0.

Part 39: HOW TO: Create a VMware vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS) for use with VMware vSphere vSAN for the VMware vSphere vSAN Cluster.

If you are creating a design for VMware vSphere vSAN for a Production environment, please ensure you read the  VMware Cloud Foundation Design Guide 01 JUN 2023 – this should be regarded as The Bible!

References

HOW TO: FIX the Warning System logs on host are stored on non-persistent storage, Move system logs to NFS shared storage.

WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH INTEL OPTANE? – Mr vSAN – Simon Todd

Matt Mancini blog

VMware vSAN 8.0 U1 Express Storage Architecture Deep Dive

VMware vSAN 7.0 U3 Deep Dive Paperback – 5 May 2022

The results generated from this video are available here in these PDFs for download

FIO Benchmarks

4K/70%Read/100%Random

4K/100%Read100%Random

8K/50%Read/100%Random

256K/100%Write/100%Sequential

VDBENCH Benchmarks

4K/70%Read/100%Random
4K/100%Read100%Random
8K/50%Read/100%Random
256K/100%Write/100%Sequential

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#intel #optane demo units as part of the @vExpert program

Saturday, July 1st, 2023

I was able to take part in the fantastic offer of free #intel #optane demo units as part of the vExpert Program to create a #vSAN #homelab project which I will document here on this blog. It has taken me a while to obtain all the parts for the #homelab BOM, so here goes….. the #homelab will be based on VMware vSphere 7.0 and 8.0 vSAN.

So one of the many benefits of the vExpert Program , so if you have an interest in VMware Products, reach out to me as a vExpert Pro, for help with applying to the program!

So many Thanks to fellow #vExperts –  Mr vSAN, and Matt Mancini, vCommunity Guy for organising this. 

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Trials and Tribulations of My Amazon Echo aka Saga of Andy’s Amazon Echo Part 2

Wednesday, January 11th, 2017

Previosuly on Andysworld! – Part 1

So 48 hours later, no email from Amazon, telling me that my US profile, had been migrated to a UK profile.

I decided to get Amazon to call me again this afternoon at 4pm, and what surprised me is that there are NO call records of previous discussions, no service request number notes, and it was lucky I had a photo of the box with serial number, because they have no record of that either!

After giving them the serial number again, for the up-tenth time, it was confirmed that the Echo had been registered from the original Experts Exchange purchaser.

So why was it still not working, after long 1 hour discussions with Customer Support, Kiera went away to ask an Echo Specialist Engineer, and it would appear, I’d been given the run around, and given some bull sh1t!

She confirmed, what needed to be done was as follows:-

1. Add my UK Amazon account, to US Market place.

2. Start Alexa App, and setup Echo.

3. Once completed, then Migrate my US profile (which would then exist) to a UK profile.

She then proceeded to Add my account to US Market place, which she sometimes takes 3-4 hours, but mine, went through immediately…she asked me to uninstall and re-install the Alexa App from Google Play Store, and login again with my account and password and proceed….

Amazon Echo Connected!

Amazon Echo Connected!

Success, I’ve never got this far before in the setup, so this was the issue. I then proceeded with the setup, but for some reasons it did not like the Office WiFi, so returned home, to continue setup, and now have a working US Echo!

Okay, so it’s on US at present, but I’ll get it switched later….

So what have we learnt…

1. Be Patient with Amazon Customer Support!

2. If someone does purchase an Amazon Echo for you, make sure they Mark it As a Gift!

(I did discuss this with Amazon, and said Amazon should make this clearer with the purchase of Amazon Hardware, I spoke to many people in my office, that regularly order from Amazon, and they only consider a Gift, as something you send somebody direct from Amazon, and maybe Gift wrapped! e.g. would you mark an item as a Gift, for someone in your household, or would you just order, and give it to them yourself, maybe Gift wrap yourself!!!! Food for thought here!)

or Ask them to Deregister it, and this could be easier to find.

3. If you do have a non-Country version, which does not match your Country of residence, Ask Amazon to add your Account to that market place.

4. Ask Amazon then to migrate you.

Now I can get on with Home Automation coming soon….

Coming soon TP-Link KASA!

Coming soon TP-Link KASA!

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Trials and Tribulations of My Amazon Echo aka Saga of Andy’s Amazon Echo Part 1

Tuesday, January 10th, 2017

The Saga of Andy’s Amazon Echo!

This is the Saga of Andy’s Amazon Echo – it started just before Christmas 2016, when I received an email from Gene Richardson, Chief Operations Officer at Experts Exchange, telling me I had won an Amazon Echo, see this blog – I won an Amazon Echo – Thanks @ExpertsExchange.

I’ve been so excited waiting for the day it would arrive….So I’ve been eagerly tracking it from the US via the USPS website…

Captured on 10th Jan - still in transit?

Captured on 10th Jan - still in transit?

it all started going “Pete Tong”, when it had arrived in London, UK, but then departed on another flight to it’s destination…. I don’t live that far from London to justify a flight..(as of 10 January, time of writing this blog, it’s still in transit!). But at least it had cross the pond I thought.

On Saturday 7th January, whilst I was washing, polishing my car and new alloy wheels outside my house, the Postman pasted me, and I said hello, I later found he had secretly deposited a Charges Card through my letterbox!

UK Customs Charges

UK Customs Charges

Damn it, the Local Sorting Office is now not open until Monday morning, I’ve got to wait all weekend, until I can get my hands on my Echo, and pay £28.77 GBP Customs Charge!

There is an option on the card to pay by plastic online, but unfortunately that would trigger a re-delivery and I would not be at home to receive it, so the only option was to go to the Sorting Office on Monday I thought using my mobile phone, pay the charges (at the Sorting Office door) online via plastic, and collect the parcel – NO that’s not an option, because the Sorting Office does not get notified that quickly by office mice or something, so it’s very slow.

Sorting Office does not accept plastic, only cash and postage stamps!!! So I ran round to the Post Office, purchased £28.77 GBP of postage stamps to stick onto the card, via plastic! and then returned to the Sorting Office, handed the card, got the package, but needed a receipt!

Box from Experts Exchange with Customs Duty stickers!

Box from Experts Exchange with Customs Duty stickers!

20 minutes later……I’m on the road again to the office….now very keen to open the box, and get it setup!

Amazon Echo open box

Amazon Echo open box

So excited I can taste the Amazon Echo (I must admit, the build, box is of very high quality – Impressive!), and here it is

and the first issue, it has an American Plug, not a problem I thought it’s bound to use a micro-USB, and I’ve got plenty of them – NO it uses a standard jack type plug, but not a problem, I’ve got variable voltage supplies, with correct adapters, but that didn’t work, because the power socket is recessed under the body, and it would not fit. So I immediately ordered a UK replacement PSU from Amazon.

Amazon Echo

Amazon Echo

But good news, I’l order a US-UK converter from Argos UK, some luck we had some in the stock cupboard…..Best News all day, at least I can power it on, I did check the PSU supplied was 100-220v AC.

So Google Nexus 4 in hand, Alexa App is already installed, turn on Amazon Echo, Alexa greets us, we are in Setup Mode, start the Alexa App,

Android Alexa App

Android Alexa App

hit the connect WiFi button on the App, Amazon Echo goes bong, and responds with You’ve Connected to Echo, now use your App to setup Echo…..wait….wait…..wait…..wait….long wait….

Android App not working ?

Android App not working ?

with the Echo orange light circling around, and eventually it will time out, and sayh WiFi not setup, and display a nice purple ring.

The same happens with a Nexus 4, Nexus 10, and Windows 8.1 laptop. So time to call Amazon support! (first call!). In fact it was a Live Chat, which was not resolved, so they phoned me.

After lots of discussion, it was suggested that the device was locked to the Amazon Account, that purchased the device, and Amazon could not tell me the email address of the person, and I had a guess it was @experts-exchange.com, and they told me that bit, and said I would need to contact the person, so they could Deregister it from their Amazon account, it would not work with my account, unless this was done.

So we played guess the email account with Amazon, listing the many employees names I know at Epxerts Exchange, it was not any of them! So I have up on this and pinged an email off to Experts Exchange….

later that evening at my home, I tried a different Android device, iPad and iPhone, Windows 10 PC, exactly the same issue, so it’s nothing to do with the environment in the office!

Another few discussions with Amazon….it’s getting late now … and I’ve been at this all day, and still no working Echo….

An Amazon Technical report specialist stated that it needed to be Reset to Factory defaults, and he would monitor his screen, whilst I did it, to see if the Registered User – disappeared when I did it – I had a discussions with him, as to how is that going to happen, because how can the Echo communicate with anything to do this, but he swore blind, it would do it…..

After a Factory Reset – no change to the registered user – what a surprise, he then told me, it sometimes does it…..by random.

I asked if they could let me know the Registered user, so I could contact them, Amazon then revealed they do not know, and all they have in the control panel was b**********@experts-exchange.com, later an email from EE, stated they had no record of it, and then it appeared against the Finance Controller’s Amazon account, which he had Registered…

Very late last night….I thought brilliant now I can get to use it….. but still I get….

Android App not working ?

Android App not working ?

So back on the phone to Amazon, and this time a Smart Person informed me that the Echo I had was a US model,which has a US Profile, and this has to be migrated to the UK Profile (EMEA)…..I’m still not sure how this CLOUD setting works with my Echo which at present has not and connect connect to the internet, because as of yet, it’s not been configured for WiFi, but I was told that the Amazon App, which is connected to my Account, would not be able to connect to a US Echo….

So how does my Echo get a UK Profile?

So I’m still here 22.43 still waiting for a communication from Amazon, this US to UK migration has been completed…….

Anyway for shits and giggles this evening, trying to prove something, if this Echo is really working, and is a US Model, what if I was to use the US Amazon Alexia App for iOS and Android….so sideload APK onto my Anrdoid phone, and some black-magic with iTunes, grab a Amazon.com account…

I’ve got both Amazon Alexa Apps from US, on Android phone

this should work right ???

Umm.. WRONG it does not!

and guess what THE SAME!

The SAGA continues…….here Part 2

22.49 Jan 10 2017 Still not working!

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I won an Amazon Echo – Thanks @ExpertsExchange

Tuesday, January 10th, 2017

In December I was notified by Experts Exchange, that I had won an Amazon Echo in the Contribute on Experts Exchange and Win competition for this Experts Exchange Article

HOW TO: Perform a Physical to Virtual (P2V) Conversion the easy way from a computer backup (image).

I actually think this is the Best Golden Nugget for FREE in years! (The Echo and Veeam Endpoint)

Thanks Experts Exchange and to readers of the article.

Box from Experts Exchange with Customs Duty stickers!

Box from Experts Exchange with Customs Duty stickers!

Amazon Echo sealed box

Amazon Echo sealed box

Amazon Echo sealed box

Amazon Echo sealed box

Amazon Echo open box

Amazon Echo open box

As for it’s setup, the Amazon Echo Saga continues…

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HOW TO: Install AsterixNOW PBX in a Virtual Machine hosted by VMware Workstation

Wednesday, May 11th, 2016

A very quick video, which shows HOW TO: Install AsterixNOW PBX in a Virtual Machine hosted by VMware Workstation.

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Mystery box from Experts Exchange?

Wednesday, April 20th, 2016

This morning I had a delivery from Experts Exchange.

What's in the box ?

This is what's in the box!

The reason for so many shirts, I give them to friends, staff colleagues, and students! If you want a shirt just ping me an email!

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Experts Exchange sponsor me to go to VMworld Europe 2015 in October

Friday, February 6th, 2015

For being awarded Top Contributor 2014 at Experts Exchange, my prize, not only the usual T-shirts, and trophies, but also an all expensive paid trip to VMworld Europe 2015!

So it’s not all about T-Shirts!

vmworld-20151

This is the email from Melanie Spatola, Community Manager at Experts Exchange.

vmworld-2015-letter1

There’s an article here written by  Brian Clausen, CEO, Experts Exchange – How to Get the Most Career Value From Social Networking, and here The Benefit of a Global, Online Peer Network, which are interesting reading!

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3 Awards in 2015 – VMware vExpert 2015, Microsoft IT Pro New Year’s Honours List 2015 and Experts Exchange Top Contribution Award 2014

Friday, February 6th, 2015

So in 2015, I’ve been Awarded

VMware vExpert 2015 (again, fifth year this year, 2011-2015)

vexpert

Experts Exchange Top Contribution Award 2014 (this is a new award, but it’s like a supercharged Expert of the Year 2014, or MEGA Expert of the Year 2014, so again four years in a row, 2014-2011)

topcontributor

Microsoft IT Pro New Year’s Honours List 2015

Now you are all probably thinking, oh no not more T-Shirts, my prize and award for being the Top Contributor 2014 at Experts Exchange, is an all expensive paid, sponsored trip to VMworld Europe 2015 in Barcelona.

vmworld-2015

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