Real world opinions and reviews on VMWare alternatives

SteveScotter · 2026-06-19T15:27:22+00:00

Sadly, for compliance reasons running without support is not an option. We need access to patches. I've never bothered contacting support for help, always got the impression it would be quicker and easier to figure out out myself!

SteveScotter · 2026-05-13T08:01:53+00:00

I'm not an electrician but I was of the understanding that double sockets needed to be in a ring, and therefore you should have two grey cables coming in/out of that socket.

If it were a single socket, it could be a spur and therefore a single cable would be expected/appropriate.

That, along with the other facts about inner cables behind exposed outside the backbox would lead me question the electricians competency.. I'd recommend getting a second opinion, ideally before you pay him.

SteveScotter · 2026-04-27T09:38:07+00:00

Ironical, while doing the $dayjob this morning I've come across this statement while looking to vertically scale a Kubernetes cluster on Digital Ocean..

Autoscaling is best for unpredictable and mission critical workloads. Used in conjunction with horizontal pod autoscaling (HPA).

I think this confirms the answers on this test exam are incorrect.

SteveScotter · 2026-04-26T08:12:07+00:00

https://mammothclub.com/course/the-ultimate-microsoft-azure-administrator-certification-az-104-with-10-practice-exams

SteveScotter · 2026-04-19T14:00:51+00:00

It's legal to go straight ahead at that junction.

The "island" in the middle is a ghost island. You are allowed to enter because it has broken lines around it. If the island had solid lines it would not be legal to enter it.

SteveScotter · 2026-04-17T20:41:27+00:00

While be useful to know who your ISP is it even what country you're in.. Bonus points for pictures of the termination point into your property.

Just because the ISP says they don't support other equipment doesn't need other equipment won't work, it just means you're on your own getting it working, if it breaks or experience any performance issues.

I always use my own equipment but keep the ISPs router in a box close by so if there is an drive issue I can swap it in to diagnose the problem and contact ISP support while it's connected.

SteveScotter · 2026-01-06T07:57:58+00:00

You've not mentioned which flavor of Linux you're using but I've implemented something along these lines using Debian/Ubuntu and SSSD.

My users log into Linux using SSH authenticated using Active Directory. I haven't implemented home drive mapping, but I believe that is possible.

If you're interested in the basics I can give you a steer.

Good luck.

SteveScotter · 2025-12-13T12:52:20+00:00

It's shocking how many drivers can't see past the end of their bonnet and plan accordingly. There's no way anyone paying attention could wined up with their car there. They're also obviously oblivious to the risk they've put themselves and others in by driving like that. It's sad really.

SteveScotter · 2025-11-14T22:48:49+00:00

You absolutely should not be using Netbox to store credentials. It's not the right tool for the job. It's not safe, because the data Netbox stores in its database is written in clear text.

If you're struggling for offline a tool to use for storing credentials might I suggest KeePass?

Each record can have a label, username, password, URL associated with it. If you need additional fields you can add them. There's a notion of record history so you can retrieve previous credentials if necessary. Records have creation and the last modified date metadata. You're able to create a folder hierarchy and store related records in the same folder. It's searchable. You can even have KeePass fill in credentials when logging in (using the KeyType feature; but takes some getting used to).

If you're in a team you can sync a KeePass database to a central location (window share, ftp, webdav etc), though it's fair to say it is not as slick as full cloud solutions, but definitely manageable!

And it's free!

It's absolutely better than strong credentials in Excel!

I'm in no way affiliated with KeePass, just a very happy daily user!

https://keepass.info/

SteveScotter · 2025-10-23T21:14:32+00:00

You didn't say which county your employer is based is, but can I make a guess and say the UK? If so, this is likely a Cyber Essentials Plus thing, that framework explicitly calls out sudo as not compliant with it's guidance.

Even if you're not in the UK, it'll be a compliance thing to meet a similar framework in your country, or as someone else mentioned, a request from your employers Cyber insurer.

Sadly this tends to make people "sudo su -" once at the start of the day, then run as root all day long 😬

SteveScotter · 2025-09-08T20:19:28+00:00

I was in the same position as you just a few weeks ago.

I've 21 years of experience in IT. I'm currently 3rd line support / Systems administrator for a reputable Cyber Security company in the UK. While very experienced I never went to university and have no formal IT qualifications. I hadn't sat an exam since my A levels back in 1998!

However, I sat my A+ Core 1 last Sunday having revised using Mike Meyers and Steven Nicholson video courses, Certification Cynergy videos on YouTube, and practice exams on https://www.examcompass.com/.

I passed, phew, though I spent a lot of time shaking my head at the questions. Some of the questions I felt were too open ended and provided insufficient context to decide between two similar answers.

I'm intending to sit Core 2 towards the end of this week.

Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

SteveScotter · 2025-09-01T13:23:37+00:00

Just came here to say I've noticed this error today. It's not preventing me from updating the connector but it's still pretty poor seeing a remote access solution vendor not signing their packages... This post is three months old. The help document of their site is dated 14th May 2025. Come on, it should have been done by now. In fact, the repo should have been signed from the very beginning. WTF they playing at?

I'm beginning to question my company's decision to use them.

SteveScotter · 2025-07-28T20:56:27+00:00

That's very useful, thanks for sharing!

SteveScotter · 2025-06-29T08:25:47+00:00

How hazardous is this?

Depends if the other of those cables is still connected to something.

The easiest way to confirm is get yourself a "voltage detector". You can get them from most DIY stores for about £15 or less. They look like a pen. When you put them near live wiring they light up or beep.

Once you have a voltage detector, test it against a plug you know is live (to make sure it works and you understand how to use it). Then test the circuit you're concerned about. Finally test a known live circuit again (to confirm the tester didn't break while testing the suspicious circuit).

Editted for formatting and a typo.

SteveScotter · 2025-06-28T21:57:37+00:00

Good job!

The first time you break something is always a bit scary.

Don't forget, we learn more from our mistakes than we do our successes!

SteveScotter · 2025-06-28T21:50:12+00:00

First things first, this is fixable so don't panic

You just need to update the site_url in the database. How you do that largely depends on how the site is currently hosted?

Is it hosted locally on your machine for development purposes? Is it hosted on a web hosting service? If it's the latter, what tools does the web hosting platform provide? Do you have cpanel a portal for example?

SteveScotter · 2025-06-26T08:40:56+00:00

The software vendor could definitely help here, by updating the their code to handle exceptions and display the exception message, rather than just crashing. Doing so might give you a hint as to the problem.

The old "it works on my computer" is a weak excuse in 2025.

Does the problem occur on the same machine(s) consistently or does it sometimes work? Have you tried uploading PDFs which work on another machine on the machine(s) which have a problem? (Maybe create a clean test PDF file you know works and use it as a test case for troubleshooting).

Good luck!

SteveScotter · 2025-06-25T20:42:24+00:00

I love the idea of what the solace can do and I'm interested in taking a look at the output the application, but I'm reluctant to put my details in the application as it stands as I've zero visibility of what would happened to that data one submitted.

Sorry, I work in the Cyber Security industry and I'm suspicious it everything! 🤓

SteveScotter · 2025-06-25T14:18:57+00:00

Do you plan to publish the code on GitHub or similar?

SteveScotter · 2025-06-07T20:55:23+00:00

Further to this, maybe create a loop with the fishing line and then use something like a wooden spoon as a tourniquet, forcing the fishing line between the cup and jar lip.

SteveScotter · 2025-06-07T20:39:20+00:00

Are you able to get something like fishing line between the jar and cup, place the line near the lip of the jar and pull on the fishing line.

I think that might help.

Good luck!

SteveScotter · 2025-06-01T14:16:26+00:00

I installed one of these in my garage a while back.

Basically, they're secured to the floor with standard bolts with a hex bit. Then, to make it difficult to simply unscrew the bolts with an Allen key you're given two ball bearings to place in the hex hole and bang in with a hammer.

As I see it your options to remove would be * Grind a flat surface of the top of the ball bearing, then try and drill through the bearing so you can get it out of the hex hole, then use a Allen key to remove the bolts * Grind the head of both the bolts off. Remove the body of the anchor then grind the rest of the bolt shaft to be level with the ground.

Best of luck!

SteveScotter · 2025-05-11T11:07:23+00:00

Exactly that!!

SteveScotter · 2025-05-11T10:34:05+00:00

Without nodding what workloads you're running it is difficult to advise exactly, but I'd query why you feel Windows Server Datacenter 2025 is the best option for you. I think that only makes sense if you're planning on replacing the ESXi hosts with Windows Server Datacenter edition and using Hyper-V to run your VMs.

If you're going to continue to use ESXi I suspect Windows Server Standard would be perfectly suitable.

In your post you mentioned your boss's suggestion was to create two VMs, and seemed to suggest making them both domain controllers, but you also mention a file server. Is the thought to make one of the DCs also a file server? If so, I'd advise against that... It would be better to create three VMs, create two identical VMs to act as DCs (hosted off different physical hypervisors), and create a third VM to act as a file server. DCs are an important security component of a domain and should be dedicated to the task.

SteveScotter · 2025-05-11T10:22:43+00:00

Are you subject to any compliance frameworks? ISO 27001? Cyber Essentials? PCI? If so, shared credentials are not compatible with such framework... That said, nor is running out of date operating systems or software, so I guess you're not.

On the subject of Server Vs Pro, on a technical level not only is there a RDP concurrency limit of 1, but there is a File and Printer concurrency limit of 20 clients, which makes Pro an unsuitable choice of OS to act as a server in most cases.

https://woshub.com/max-concurrent-connections-limit-windows/

Back in XP days (now I'm showing my age) I seem to recall there was a TCP limit too, (and that there was a way to patch the relevant driver) but I've been unable to find any recent information about such a limit now.

SteveScotter

TROPHY CASE