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Two methods to network boot Raspberry Pi 4

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My Raspberry Pi 4 (8GB) model just came last week and after completing my RADIO (VMware's R&D Innovation Offsite) session recording, I wanted to setup my new rPI so I can start playing with it when I had some spare time. I also have the 4GB model but it was running quite hot as I was using the default case (do not recommend) and decided to put that aside for now. I ended up purchasing the 8GB model from Canakit which includes additional heatsinks and nice built-in fan with their custom case.

After spending some time setting up the rPI OS and applying the various updates, I was not too keen on using the SD Card, especially as some folks on forums mentioned that it can easily be worn out depending on the type of workload. While researching online and some references pointed out by colleagues, I came to learn that in addition to booting from USB which is now possible with rPI, you can also network boot the rPI without an SD Card or any storage for that matter! This immediately resonated with me, especially as I am a huge fan of scripted installations such as Kickstart/Jumpstart.

Here are all the resources that I had used that provided all the heavy lifting. I have optimized some of the commands to make it easy for anyone to simply copy and past who is new to setting up an rPI. The authors below did a fantastic job in outlining all the details, so I highly recommend a read if you would like to get more information. I also will be going over an alternative method at the end for booting the rPI over the network which is not really talked about.

One really cool thing that I came to learn while setting up the infrastructure to network boot an rPI was the use of dnsmasq, which I have used in the past but I did not realize it could do so much more. I may have spent more time playing with dnsmasq than with the rPI itself and I will probably cover this in another blog post on how you can easily setup a PXE/gPXE/iPXE system to enable automated OS installation (e.g. Kickstart) that can be used with ESXi or any other OS for that support network installations via BIOS/UEFI.

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Five of my favorite enhancements in vSphere 7

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It is very easy to focus on the speeds and feeds of a new major vSphere release such as vSphere 7 which also includes a TON of new and exciting capabilities. However, often times it is the tiny improvements that has the most significant impact to our end users, especially when it comes to usability and operations. In fact, this was further reinforced by Frank Denneman's post on the Reddit with similiar observations.

I have been using vSphere 7 since it was released back in April and I have been discovering a number of new vSphere UI enhancements that has really delighted my overall user experience. I had been sharing these enhancements on Twitter, but figured it was worth a blog post given most of these features were not well known.

Do you have a favorite new feature in vSphere 7 that might not be well known? If so, share by leaving a comment below.

1. Enhanced VM Summary

2. Update and Patch Notifications

3. ESXi Firmware and Driver View

4. ESXi Installation Date + Software Package Details

5. Terminate "stuck" VM

Here are two additional non-UI features that I came to learn about in vSphere 7 that you might also be interested in: Support for HTTPS using wget on ESXi and Guest Customization support for Instant Clones.

How to patch Intel NUC 10 with latest ESXi 7.0 update?

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vSphere 7.0b was just released last week and one of the important fixes was to resolve an issue where Nested ESXi VMs were crashing upon powering on an inner-guest VM. This looks to have also affect newer generations of CPUs including Intel's 10th Gen Comet Lake which is also found in the latest 10th Gen Intel NUCs (Frost Canyon).

A number of folks quickly found that if you simply applied the ESXi 7.0b patch, an unexpected behavior occurred on the 10th Gen Intel NUCs and the onboard networking was lost upon a reboot. This occurs as the original ne1000 driver which had been replaced with a newer version found within ESXi 7.0b no longer recognizes the onboard Intel NIC. The solution is quite simple, create a new Image Profile that contains the Intel NUC NIC Driver.

Several of you have asked for instructions and although this is a pretty common vSphere workflow, I have documented the two supported options using the vSphere Image Builder utility but there are definitely other methods which will have the same results. If you have access to a vCenter Server 6.7 or newer, I recommend using the Image Builder UI. If vCenter Server access is not available, then you can use Image Builder with PowerCLI, however you will need to have access to a Windows machine as the Image Builder cmdlet is not supported with PowerCLI Core.

Note: There is currently a known bug with the Image Builder UI when using vSphere 7 which will prevent you from authoring a new Image Profile. A workaround would be to deploy a VCSA 6.7 which does not have this issue when looking to use the Image Builder UI.

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