Bits, Bytes, & Radio Waves

A Journey Through Discovery

  • Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS)

    Note:This is a living page; the information may be confusing, incomplete, out of order, or possibly incorrect at this time. I am still learning and researching this technology. Background The Automatic Packet Reporting System, or APRS, was developed by Bob Bruninga (SK) for the US Navy back in the early 1980’s. Protocol AX.25 – https://www.tapr.org/pdf/AX25.2.2.pdf…

  • Amateur Radio License Journey

    I had some downtime recently with work and decided it would be a good time to get my amateur radio license. I started to look into the requirements with a serious focus. When I tell people I went from Technician Class (August 8, 2024) to Amateur Extra Class (September 17, 2024) in 40 days, naturally…

  • Bundle Transfer Utility (v 5.2)

    Introduction Here we go again with this utility…still a hot mess and not well documented. When you download the Bundle Transfer Utility from the Broadcom Support site, the filename will be lcm-tool-prod.tar.gz. When you actually use the tool (I am using Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS), it will present the name OBTU, which I assume is Offline…

  • VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle, VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), and VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer (ALB) (Avi)

    Overview So besides all the variations of product names in play, pre-Broadcom acquisition and post, there is something that has been baffling me for quite some time. How to create the globalenvironment in VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle using VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer (ALB) (Avi) as the load balancer. Installation Issues Things I am still…

  • iXsystems TrueNAS CORE and VMware

    Overview iXsystems publishes a White Paper, titled TrueNAS for VMware, which provides Best Practices for VMware. In this post, I am going to breakdown each of the best practices with an example. Hopefully this will help others, newcomers and experts, alike, at an optimally configured TrueNAS. For me, it will help ease the pain of…

  • Networking with Nested ESXi Hosts

    Overview I recently had to add an additional host to my lab as I was running out of compute (thank you VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and all the things…Aria Suite (specifically the clustered VMware Identity Manager), NSX, Avi Load Balancer). In addition to getting the additional host, I was fortunate enough to also upgrade the…

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