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VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) on Minisforum MS-A2

06.25.2025 by William Lam // 6 Comments

Since launching the MS-01 in 2024, Minisforum has steadily gained popularity for its unique design that sets it apart from established players in the small form factor (SFF) market. Following the successful launch of the MS-01, an Intel-based system, Minisforum had also released an AMD variant in the same form factor called the MS-A1.

Unlike the MS-01 which was fully compatible with VMware ESXi and widely used by the VMware community to deploy the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) platform, the MS-A1 was less ideal due to its use of Realtek-based network adapters, which are not compatible with ESXi.


When Minisforum announced the MS-A2 earlier this year at CES 2025, a proper successor to the MS-01, it generated a lot of excitement within the VMware community, especially for those looking to refresh their lab in preparation for the latest VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) release!

After several months of waiting, the MS-A2 has finally arrived! I have been spending countless hours experimenting with the MS-A2 using different configurations to understand whether it would be an ideal kit for running our newest VCF 9.0 release 😎

ProTip: Orders directly from Minisforum may have a longer lead time than with Amazon (this MS-A2 7945HX Barebones kit is currently showing a delivery of next week!)

[Read more...]

Categories // ESXi, VMware Cloud Foundation Tags // ESXi 8.0, ESXi 9.0, VCF 9.0

ESXi on Protectli Vault Pro 6650/6670

05.20.2024 by William Lam // 4 Comments

I always love hearing about new and interesting hardware vendors from our VMware community, which is exactly how I came to learn about Protectli back in 2021 from fellow vExpert Trevor Smith. It was in 2021 where Trevor had shared with the vExpert Community that Protectli was developing a 10GbE hardware kit, which was really interesting since there was not many options for small form factor systems at that time that included 10GbE connectivity.

After following up with Protectcli in 2021, they confirmed a 10GbE kit was in the works but it was still in early design and development, so there was nothing to evaluate at the time. Fast forward to April 2024, I received a follow-up email asking if I would be interested in kicking the tires on their first 10GbE kits with their new Protectli Vault Pro 6600 series.


So here is your first look at the ESXi running on the new Protectli 10G Vault Pro!

[Read more...]

Categories // ESXi, Home Lab, VMware Cloud Foundation, VSAN, vSphere, vSphere 7.0, vSphere 8.0 Tags // ESXi 8.0, homelab, Protectli

Creating a custom VIB for ESXi 8.x

07.25.2023 by William Lam // 21 Comments

Back in 2012, a VMware Fling was released called VIB Author, which allowed users to create their own custom vSphere Infrastructure Bundles (VIB) that typically would include configuration changes that was not possible when using the vSphere API such as enabling custom ESXi firewall ports or even bundling up custom utilities that could run within the ESXi Shell.

The VIB Author tool was eventually deprecated and removed due to the lack of support from Engineering, after all, it was released as a Fling. While the need for opening non-standard ESXi firewall port has greatly improved over the years, with the majority of 2nd and 3rd party solutions simply incorporating that into their solution offering, there are still use cases for requiring a custom VIB.

Even with the VIB Author Fling being deprecated, many in the community was still able to construct custom VIBs which were still compatible with later ESXi 5.x to 7.x releases. In fact, I even use the VIB Author to make it easier to distribute and install the popular ghettoVCB solution which can be installed using either a VIB or an Offline Bundle, another format the VIB Author tool supports creating.

[Read more...]

Categories // Automation, ESXi, vSphere 8.0 Tags // ESXi 8.0, vib

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William is Distinguished Platform Engineering Architect in the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Division at Broadcom. His primary focus is helping customers and partners build, run and operate a modern Private Cloud using the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) platform.

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Recent

  • Ultimate Lab Resource for VCF 9.0 06/25/2025
  • VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) on ASUS NUC 15 Pro (Cyber Canyon) 06/25/2025
  • VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) on Minisforum MS-A2 06/25/2025
  • VCF 9.0 Offline Depot using Synology 06/25/2025
  • Deploying VCF 9.0 on a single ESXi host? 06/24/2025

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