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High-end Dell Precision 7770 & 7670 laptops with 128GB memory for ESXi

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I have been following the progress on the new Compression Attached Memory Module (CAMM), which was announced earlier this year and is a new laptop memory standard that has been created by Dell. Dell intends to replace the aging SODIMM memory module, which are typically found in laptops and small form factor systems like the popular Intel NUC.

Image from StorageReview

This StorageReview article by Charles Jefferies provides a nice summary of the new CAMM technology and the benefits over the 25 year old SODIMM modules. While the CAMM technology is currently proprietary, Dell has been working with Intel on this standard and have also submitted their design to the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) for CAMM to become a new industry standard for laptop memory.

My biggest interests with CAMM is the capacity of their modules which can reach up to 128GB for a single CAMM module! For SODIMM, we have been limited to 32GB for a single module for a number of years and this will not be changing any time soon. Just imagine the popular 4x4 Intel NUC with 128GB memory! 🤤

Given CAMM was just announced earlier this year, I was not expecting to see any systems that a consumer could purchase for quite some time. I was actually pleasantly surprise to learn recently, that two new high-end Dell workstation laptops can now be purchased with CAMM memory and also configured with up to 128GB of memory. 😲

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How to configure VMware Compatibility Guide (VCG) database for vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) in an air-gapped environment?

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I was setting up another vSphere 8 environment in my homelab using my handy Automated vSphere & vSAN 8 Lab Deployment Script and I was reminded of another vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) question that I had received during VMware Explore Barcelona 2022.

The question was about configuring vCenter Server that would include full vLCM functionality in an air-gapped environment, where internet connectivity would not be available directly or in-directly through the use of a network proxy. Today, the VMware Compatibility Guide (VCG) database that is integrated with vLCM can only be synchronized when when your vCenter Server is connected to VMware's online repository when VMware's Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) is enabled.


To synchronize the VCG database using the vSphere UI, navigate to the vLCM administrator page and under Actions, select the Sync HCL operation, which will download the latest VCG database from VMware's online repo. You can also automate this using the vLCM REST API with the Update Compatibility Data Task API.

Here is a quick PowerCLI snippet performing the same operation but using the API instead:

Connect-CiSServer -Server vcsa.primp-industries.local -user administrator[at]vsphere[dot]local -Password VMware1!
$hclCompatDataService = Get-CisService -Name com.vmware.esx.hcl.compatibility_data
$hclLastUpdateOnline = $hclCompatDataService.get().updated_at

$hclCompatDataService.'update$task'()

However, for environments that can not connect to VMware's online repo, this poses a big operational challenge, especially for those looking to transition from vSphere Update Manager (VUM) to vLCM. For the vSAN HCL, we already provide a solution for air-gapped environments by providing an offline copy of the vSAN HCL database which detailed in VMware KB 2145116.

If a connected vCenter Server can download the VCG that vLCM uses, I figure it should also be possible to replicate that behavior for an air-gapped environment? 🤔

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Heads Up - Unable to open VIB archive in streaming mode using Export-EsxImageProfile with PowerCLI 13.0

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An issue that I ran into after upgrading to the latest PowerCLI 13.0 release after it GA'ed was attempting to export an ESXi image profile that I had created to an ISO file using the Export-EsxImageProfile cmdlet and immediately hit the following error:

Export-EsxImageProfile: Error retrieving file for VIB 'VMware_bootbank_esx-update_8.0.0-1.0.20513097': ('vib20/esx-update/VMware_bootbank_esx-update_8.0.0-1.0.20513097.vib', "Unable to open VIB archive in streaming mode: '_SharedFile' object has no attribute 'writing'").

I am an avid use of this cmdlet and have never ran into this issue before and I was not sure if this could be related to the porting of the Image Builder and Auto Deploy cmdlets to PowerShell Core, which was new with the PowerCLI 13.0 release. I have already filed an internal bug and the PowerCLI Engineering team have not had a chance to look at it, but over the past week, I have noticed a number of reports on my blog, VMTN community forums, Reddit and Twitter that other users were also hitting this issue.

As I have already responded in a few of these channels already, a bug has been filed and there is currently not a work around that I am aware of. As I have any updates, I will update this article with more details.

UPDATE - Several readers have informed me that if you update to Python 3.7.9 or greater, the issue should go away.

The options right now is to either use the vSphere Image Builder UI OR vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) UI or the new vLCM PowerCLI cmdlets, both of which requiring a vCenter Server running vSphere 8.0.