Bits, Bytes, & Radio Waves

A Journey Through Discovery

  • MyLab: VMware App Volumes

    Overview I am opting to install VMware App Volumes 2303.1 (current at the time of writing) on Window Server 2022. I am choosing to install VMware App Volumes to separate applications from the desktop to keep the golden image as lean as possible.

  • MyLab: The Timekeeper

    Overview I like to keep accurate time in my lab for various reasons. The main reasons are for authentication and that I will be using Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificates. Other reasons are that I think it’s the right thing to do and it is simply my compulsion to keep accurate time. For this service,…

  • VMware, Synology, iSCSI, and Multipath I/O (MPIO)

    Prerequisites Here is a good article from VMware docs that explains this. https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc/GUID-DD2FFAA7-796E-414C-84CE-1FCC14474D5B.html The Gist There is more than one physical adapter connected on separate subnets. Each subnet provides a path to the iSCSI target. How I configured the ESXi host with the vSphere Client I created two VMkernel adapters, one for iSCSI-A and one…

  • OpenSSL Commands

    Prerequisites Access a Computer with OpenSSL Copy the file(s) to a system that has OpenSSL. If you are on a Windows machine, the easiest way to do this is to use Git for Windows (https://git-scm.com/download/win). Once installed, you can run Git Bash and will have access to OpenSSL. Linux and macOS will likely already have…

  • Ports, Protocols, and Services (PPS)

    Introduction This is my attempt to keep track of various ports, protocols, and services for successful deployments of solutions. Active Directory Port Number TCP/UDP IANA Service Name IANA Description Common Use 135 TCP epmap DCE endpoint resolution RPC Endpoint Mapper 389 TCP/UDP ldap Lightweight Directory Access Protocol LDAP 636 TCP ldaps ldap protocol over TLS/SSL…

  • Building a Nested ESXi Lab for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) (updated 2023-Dec)

    Introduction The following post is very long and will contain updates as the technology changes and I figure out better ways to accomplish these tasks. VMware Cloud Foundation, or VCF, requires at least four nodes for the Management Domain. Unfortunately, I do not have hundreds of thousands of dollars for physical hardware to test and…

This is how it all started…

I started this site with the intent to aggregate as much information as possible in one place. I use this to record lessons learned or frustrating configurations I have experienced on the job or just tinkering (learning) and just couldn’t find a better resource available. I have tried to be as thorough and accurate as possible, but technology is rapidly evolving and every environment is different. I may miss things along the way and my setup most likely differs compared to yours.

I hope you find this site has some value to you.

Welcome to Bits, Bytes, and Radio Waves! 

If you have any questions or comments (or just want to give me a shout-out), please feel free to contact me!

Aaron Rombaut

Writer & Technologist