vHojan.nl - Bearded VDI Junkie

At ITQ, we like to experiment with technology and push the limits of what’s possible. If we present sessions about the Art of the Possible, in our case it’s also actually based on what we have built. We have a passion for technology and the combination of that passion and the drive to always get the most out of a solution, product or technology sometimes has amazing results. The F1 simulator we built last year was such a project. Something that doesn’t make any sense (because why would anyone run an F1 simulator in a virtual desktop), but it does…

February 20, 2019February 20, 2019

Low-noise vGPU and vSAN Homelab optimizations

Last week you might have read that I have been working on a new homelab, based on vSphere 6.7u1 including Horizon 7.7, NVIDIA vGPU, VMware vSAN, and 10 GbE. All based on hardware that has low power consumption. The Xeon D architecture on Supermicro motherboards was the ideal match for my homelab requirements. There was one more challenge to overcome though, making it even quieter. My lab has three hosts: Management host: Supermicro E300-8D This host runs all of my management VMs including the vSAN witness. vSAN node 1: A Supermicro X10SDV-4C-TLN4F running a Tesla P4, and two flash devices….

February 13, 2019February 13, 2019

Building a low-power vSAN & vGPU Homelab

For the past couple of months, I have been experimenting with different setups of lab equipment because I wanted to take my homelab to the next level. The primary reason being that my old lab was a noisy and power consuming system. It performed pretty well and satisfied all my needs (like building the F1 Racing Simulator with VMware Horizon, Blast Extreme, and NVIDIA vGPU), but for future requirements (I want to play around with vSAN, more vGPU stuff for AI/DL and VDI and easily extend the lab with more hosts), the lab wasn’t sufficient anymore. In this post I…

January 29, 2019January 29, 2019

The Year of VDI: The survey results are out!

To be The Year of VDI or not to be The Year of VDI, that’s the question. Well, to be honest, I don’t think it’s even a question. Yes, I do believe that VDI has deserved all of the attention it got through this initiative and everything that came out of it. Today (during the VDI Performance Summit in Amsterdam), Brian Madden delivered the keynote and I believe the initiative got mentioned on 4 or 5 slides. This much attention (next to this blog post he dedicated to explaining why no year ever should be dedicated to VDI) was more…

December 12, 2018

How useful is a Digital Workspace without VDI?

The initiative to declare 2019 as the true Year of VDI continues. As you may have read in my previous blog post, I believe the main reason for the declaration is that the technology has matured to a level where it can become a mainstream technology. Of course, this is the case in certain industries and when you are facing tons of traditional applications. By the way, if you haven’t filled out the VDI survey yet, I would like to ask for 5 minutes of your time to help me gather as much information as possible about VDI usage! Last…

November 28, 2018November 30, 2018

Will 2019 finally be the Year of VDI?

Many people joke about it and mock with the fact that it has been The Year of VDI for many years. But, is it finally here? Will 2019 finally be The Year of VDI? And what does that mean? Does that mean we could see VDI being a mainstream technology? Have hyper-converged stacks and automatic deployments made the technology a commodity and might this be a reason why 2019 finally is The Year of VDI? Let me first start with a little disclaimer. This blog post contains my opinion and my opinion only. No rights can be derived from this information. What…

November 8, 2018November 20, 2018

Review of VMworld 2018 in Barcelona

While waiting at the airport in Barcelona for my wife to arrive, I’m trying to channel everything that happened in the last 5 days. VMworld 2018 in Barcelona just ended and since the very first VMware event I visited (Partner Exchange 2012, PEX, in Las Vegas), the way I experience those events is changing. Visiting PEX 2012 had a primary goal; I was solely there to learn about new technologies (such as the first version of the vCenter Appliance). 6 years later, at VMworld 2018, that primary focus towards education has shifted. In this post, I like to explain how I…

November 7, 2018November 20, 2018

Designing a VDI, the VCDX way

Thanks for checking out my session on either the VMworld VMTN theater, the vBrownbag channel or a local VMUG. You can find the slides I used in the session here: If you have any questions, you can find me on twitter!

October 30, 2018October 30, 2018

Brian Madden’s VMware EUC Community event at VMworld

In less than a week, Barcelona will be the virtualization capital of the world. People from all over the planet will travel towards the Catalan city to enjoy all that VMworld and the city of Barcelona have to offer. A lot of events are happening as well and in this blog post, I would like to highlight one; The VMware EUC Community Event, hosted by Brian Madden. About half a year ago a Dutch VMware EUC event called VMware EUC TechCon took place and Brian Madden was one of our keynote speakers. When talking to him about some of the things…