The “HomeLAB” blog category is focused on providing practical knowledge and experiences in using VMware technologies in a home lab setting. This category is ideal for tech enthusiasts, IT professionals, and students who want to experiment with the latest VMware products and features in their own home environment.
21 ESXi advanced and kernel settings William Lam recommends for labs and consumer hardware, each with the exact esxcli command, the version it was written for, what changed since, and a deep link to the vDan ESXi settings explorer.
My NVIDIA Tesla P40 in ESXi passthrough suddenly vanished from the VM: nvidia-smi could not talk to the driver and a VM reboot did not help. What the logs show, why only a host reboot fixes it, and how to make a homelab P40 stable (KB 418517).
Use nConnect in ESXi 8.0 U1+ for several TCP connections per NFSv3 datastore: esxcli syntax, limits (4/8/256), runtime changes in 8.0 U2 and how to check.
vmss2core in 2026: where to download it, which .vmsn/.vmss/.vmem files it needs, -W/-W8/-N commands, WinDbg analysis and common errors.
Raspberry Pi 5 runs its external PCIe x1 link at Gen 2 by default. Enable Gen 3 with dtparam=pciex1_gen=3, verify with lspci LnkSta, know the risks.
Tesla P40 specs (24 GB GDDR5, 250 W, 10.5-inch dual slot, compute 6.1), cooling and ESXi passthrough setup, llama.cpp benchmarks, and CUDA 13 limits.
Convert a Dell H200A to an H200I so it fits the R610/R710 dedicated storage slot and frees a PCIe slot, e.g. for an NVIDIA Tesla P40.
How to install intelmas tool Common information about the disc S.M.A.R.T information Show all the SMART properties for the Intel® SSD at index 1 Disk firmware update
The Maxtang NX6412 loses its vDS uplink after an ESXi reboot with USB NICs. The /etc/rc.local.d/local.sh script that fixes it.
Intel is winding down Optane. What it means if you use Optane SSDs in a homelab (e.g. TrueNAS ZIL/L2ARC) or Optane with ESXi.
