# James Kilby — VMware, Homelab & Cloud Infrastructure Notes

> Technical blog by James Kilby — VMware vExpert and Cloud / Infrastructure Architect. In-depth guides on VMware vSphere, VMware Cloud on AWS, homelab infrastructure, self-hosted AI, Cloudflare, Ansible, and storage.

All posts are also available as raw markdown under `https://jameskilby.co.uk/markdown/posts/<slug>.md` and as JSON under `https://jameskilby.co.uk/api/posts/<slug>.json`.

The full content corpus (every post inlined) is available at [https://jameskilby.co.uk/llms-full.txt](https://jameskilby.co.uk/llms-full.txt).

## Recent posts

- [Unleashing the Beast](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/06/ubiquiti-udm-beast/): I retired my 7-year-old WatchGuard M200 for the UniFi UDM Beast — the spec, my iperf and WAN tests, the BGP/FRR setup, and what I consolidated onto it.
- [Automating vSphere Golden Images with Packer and GitHub Actions](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/packer-vsphere-golden-images/): Automate your Packer vSphere golden-image pipeline: build 6 Ubuntu LTS templates (22.04, 24.04, 26.04) server & desktop flavours with GitHub Actions.
- [Automating vSphere Power Management driven by Ansible and SemaphoreUI](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/vsphere-power-management-driven-by-ansible/): Learn how to automate vSphere power management using Ansible and SemaphoreUI, scheduling ESXi host shutdowns based on Octopus Agile energy tariffs to cut costs.
- [Automated VCF 9 Offline Depot](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/automated-vcf-9-offline-depot/): One Bash script turns a fresh Ubuntu VM into a VCF 9 Offline Depot: Traefik, Nginx, basic auth, and Let's Encrypt wildcard certs via Cloudflare DNS.
- [My Self-Hosted AI Stack: Infrastructure Deep Dive (Part 2)](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/my-self-hosted-ai-stack-infrastructure-deep-dive-part-2/): Part 2 of my self-hosted AI stack series. I cover container resource sizing, dual-network isolation via Traefik and Cloudflare Tunnels, and every database
- [New VMware Cloud on AWS Host: i7i.metal-24xl](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/new-vmc-host-i7i-metal-24xl/): We’ve expanded the VMC fleet with the new i7i (i7i.
- [My Self-Hosted AI Stack: Architecture Overview (Part 1)](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/03/my-self-hosted-ai-stack-a-technical-deep-dive/): How I built a fully self-hosted AI stack with Ollama, Open WebUI, n8n, ComfyUI, Qdrant and SearxNG on Docker Compose. Configs, costs, observability.
- [Free Octopus Agile Battery & Solar Calculator: 5 Batteries Tested](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/03/octopus-agile-battery-solar-calculator/): I am quite a heavy consumer of electricity at home.
- [Automating the Deployment of my Homelab AI Infrastructure](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/02/automating-the-deployment-of-my-ai-homelab-and-other-improvements/): How I automated my homelab AI infrastructure with Ansible — NVIDIA vGPU passthrough, Docker, Traefik, and Semaphore for end-to-end deployment.
- [Using Content Libraries in VMC to deploy software faster](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/01/using-content-libraries-in-vmc-to-deploy-software-faster/): Using VMware Cloud on AWS Content Libraries to deploy ISOs and OVAs to new SDDCs in minutes instead of hours. Setup, layout, and a working example.
- [Blog Performance & SEO Improvements: Cloudflare, Privacy & More](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/01/web-development-improvements/): I have spent the Christmas break making some improvements to this blog.
- [How to Expand Ubuntu Disk Space: LVM pvresize Step-by-Step](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2025/12/ubuntu-disk-expansion-steps/): Step-by-step Ubuntu disk expansion with LVM: pvresize, vgextend, lvextend, resize2fs. Works after resizing the VM disk in vSphere/Hyper-V/KVM.

## AWS

- [AWS Solution Architect – Associate](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2019/12/aws-solution-architect-associate/): I renewed my AWS Solution Architect certification.
- [AWS Status Page – Monitoring Included](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2018/05/aws-status-page-monitoring-included/): AWS Status Page – Enhancements The tool I deployed lambstatus supports pulling metrics from AWS Cloudwatch and displaying them.
- [AWS For Beginners: IAM Setup, Root Security & Billing Alerts](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2018/03/aws-for-beginners1/): AWS for Beginners Part 1 I am hoping to get back into doing some AWS stuff over the next couple of months.

## Ansible

- [Automating vSphere Power Management driven by Ansible and SemaphoreUI](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/vsphere-power-management-driven-by-ansible/): Learn how to automate vSphere power management using Ansible and SemaphoreUI, scheduling ESXi host shutdowns based on Octopus Agile energy tariffs to cut costs.
- [Automated VCF 9 Offline Depot](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/automated-vcf-9-offline-depot/): One Bash script turns a fresh Ubuntu VM into a VCF 9 Offline Depot: Traefik, Nginx, basic auth, and Let's Encrypt wildcard certs via Cloudflare DNS.
- [Automating the Deployment of my Homelab AI Infrastructure](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/02/automating-the-deployment-of-my-ai-homelab-and-other-improvements/): How I automated my homelab AI infrastructure with Ansible — NVIDIA vGPU passthrough, Docker, Traefik, and Semaphore for end-to-end deployment.
- [Managing my Homelab with SemaphoreUI](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2025/09/managing-my-homelab-with-semaphoreui/): How I use SemaphoreUI as the web frontend for Ansible, Terraform and PowerShell in my homelab. Setup, screenshots, lessons learned in production use.

## Apple

- [How Apple Content Caching Works: Speed Up iOS & Mac Updates](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2021/02/apple-content-caching/): I have slowly morphed into an Apple fanboy over the last decade or so collecting a large number of devices ever since my first MacBook Air back in 2011.
- [MacBook Air 2018 Retina Review: My Setup & Build Scripts](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2018/12/new-laptop/): I decided it was about time I replaced my trusted MacBook Air that I purchased back in 2011.

## Artificial Intelligence

- [My Self-Hosted AI Stack: Infrastructure Deep Dive (Part 2)](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/my-self-hosted-ai-stack-infrastructure-deep-dive-part-2/): Part 2 of my self-hosted AI stack series. I cover container resource sizing, dual-network isolation via Traefik and Cloudflare Tunnels, and every database
- [My Self-Hosted AI Stack: Architecture Overview (Part 1)](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/03/my-self-hosted-ai-stack-a-technical-deep-dive/): How I built a fully self-hosted AI stack with Ollama, Open WebUI, n8n, ComfyUI, Qdrant and SearxNG on Docker Compose. Configs, costs, observability.
- [Free Octopus Agile Battery & Solar Calculator: 5 Batteries Tested](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/03/octopus-agile-battery-solar-calculator/): I am quite a heavy consumer of electricity at home.
- [Warp – The intelligent terminal](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2025/04/warp-the-intelligent-terminal/): Warp is helping me run my homelab.
- [How I Migrated from Pocket to Hoarder with AI Integration](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2025/01/how-i-migrated-from-pocket-to-hoarder-and-introduced-some-ai-along-the-way/): How I migrated my saved articles from Pocket to Hoarder (now Karakeep), self-hosted it with Docker, and added AI tagging to organise everything.
- [Self Hosting AI Stack using vSphere, Docker and NVIDIA GPU](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2024/10/self-hosting-ai-stack-using-vsphere-docker-and-nvidia-gpu/): Artificial intelligence is all the rage at the moment, It’s getting included in every product announcement from pretty much every vendor under the su

## Automation

- [Automating vSphere Golden Images with Packer and GitHub Actions](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/packer-vsphere-golden-images/): Automate your Packer vSphere golden-image pipeline: build 6 Ubuntu LTS templates (22.04, 24.04, 26.04) server & desktop flavours with GitHub Actions.
- [Template Deployment with Packer](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2021/01/hashicorp-packer/): How I got HashiCorp Packer set up on macOS to automate VMware template deployment — including the vSphere datacenter error I hit and how I fixed it.

## Cloudflare

- [Blog Performance & SEO Improvements: Cloudflare, Privacy & More](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/01/web-development-improvements/): I have spent the Christmas break making some improvements to this blog.
- [How I upgraded my blog as a Static Website with GitHub Actions and Cloudflare](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2025/10/how-i-deploy-my-blog-as-a-static-website-with-github-actions-and-cloudflare/): How I deploy my blog as a static site using GitHub Actions and Cloudflare — the WordPress API, build pipeline, Slack notifications, and comments setup.
- [WordPress Hosting with Cloudflare Pages](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2023/05/how-to-take-a-wordpress-site-and-publish-it-as-a-static-site-on-cloudflare-pages/): Table of Contents The Tooling The Process WordPress Plugin Install GitHub setup Cloudflare setup I have been using Cloudflare to protect my web assets for
- [Static WordPress hosting using Cloudflare](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2022/10/how-i-moved-my-wordpress-site-to-cloudflare-pages/): For a while now I have been running this site directly from Cloudflare utilising their excellent worker’s product.
- [Fixing Wrangler Node.js Version Conflicts After Brew Upgrade](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2022/01/wrangler-and-node-versions/): I am a massive fan of the brew package management system for macOS and use it on all of my Mac's I typically just upgrade everything blindly and have never

## Homelab

- [Unleashing the Beast](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/06/ubiquiti-udm-beast/): I retired my 7-year-old WatchGuard M200 for the UniFi UDM Beast — the spec, my iperf and WAN tests, the BGP/FRR setup, and what I consolidated onto it.
- [Can you really squeeze 96TB in 1U ?](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2024/09/can-you-really-squeeze-96tb-in-1u/): Yes, that’s a clickbait title.
- [New Homelab Nodes: SuperMicro BigTwin for VMware & Nutanix](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2024/07/new-nodes/): I refreshed my homelab nodes with SuperMicro BigTwin hardware — building a Nutanix CE cluster and an ESXi host, all at very little cost.
- [Configure DHCP Option 43 for UniFi devices to enable remote adoption across subnets](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2024/06/unifi-dhcp-option-43/): Configure DHCP Option 43 so UniFi APs and switches auto-adopt across subnets. Includes the hex converter, OPNsense + Mikrotik examples, and a UDM guide.
- [Nvidia Tesla P4 vGPU Setup in VMware Homelab: Full Guide](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2023/10/vgpu-setup-in-my-homelab/): Step-by-step setup of Nvidia Tesla P4 vGPU on VMware ESXi for a homelab. Drivers, licence server, vGPU profiles, plus gotchas and performance notes.
- [Homelab Storage Refresh (Part 1)](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2023/05/homelab-storage-refresh-part-1/): Table of Contents Background ZFS Overview Read Cache (ARC and L2ARC) ZIL (ZFS Intent Log) Hardware Background I have just completed the move of all my prod
- [Using Intel Optane NVMe in a VMware Homelab: Setup & Results](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2023/04/intel-optane/): I have been a VMware vExpert for many years and it has brought me many many benefits over the years.
- [MikroTik CRS504 Review: 100Gb/s Networking in My Homelab](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2022/12/100gb-s-in-my-homelab-sort-of/): For a while, I've been looking to update the networking at the core of my homelab.
- [Forcing an Upgrade to vSphere 8](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2022/12/forcing-an-upgrade-to-vsphere-8/): I run a reasonably extensive homelab that is of course built around the VMware ecosystem.
- [Homelab SSD Failure: How Synology RAID Saved My Data](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2022/11/homelab-bad-days-almost/): I recently spent 3 weeks in Ireland with my wife Wendy and our son Nate.
- [Starlink Satellite Internet Review: Rural Broadband Solution](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2022/10/starlink/): Since moving to Dorset last year internet connectivity has been the bane of my existence.
- [Lab Update – Part 2 Storage Truenas Scale](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2022/01/lab-update-part-2-storage/): The HP Z840 has changed its role to a permanent storage box running Truenas Scale.
- [Homelab Network Upgrade: DACs, 40Gb/s vMotion & pfSense](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2022/01/lab-update-part-3-network/): I have retired the WatchGuard Devices with the migration to PFSense running bare-metal in one of the Supermicro Nodes.
- [Lab Update – Desired Workloads](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2022/01/lab-update-part-5-desired-workloads/): My lab is always undergoing change. Partially as I want to try new things or new ways of doing things.
- [Homelab Compute Upgrade: SuperMicro BigTwin & vSphere Setup](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2022/01/lab-update-part-1-compute/): Quite a few changes have happened in the lab recently. I decided to do a multipart blog on the changes.
- [Homelab Storage Upgrade: Synology DS918 for VMware & NFS](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2019/02/lab-storage-2/): My homelab storage upgrade — adding a Synology DS918+ with SSDs, presenting it to VMware over NFS 4.1, and testing VAAI and NFS multipathing.
- [My First Homelab Storage Setup: HP Gen8 & Xpenology](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2018/01/lab-storage/): I have been meaning to post around some of the lab setup for a while. Although it changes frequently at present it's as below.
- [Running Nutanix CE at Home: AHV Setup & First Impressions](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2018/01/nutanix-ce/): I ran a Nutanix CE server at home for a little while when it first came out.

## Hosting

- [Analytics in a privacy focused world](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2023/11/analytics-in-a-privacy-focused-world/): I recently helped my friend Dean Lewis @veducate with some hosting issues.
- [Cloudflare Workers – Limits of the free tier](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2022/01/cloudflare-workers-limits-of-the-free-tier/): I have been making several changes (mainly cosmetic to this site over the last day or so) On most changes I have been doing an export and then uploading th
- [Hosting This Blog on Cloudflare Workers: Why & How I Did It](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2022/01/web-development/): A while ago I started messing with Cloudflare Workers. I have now moved this site permanently over to them.
- [What Is Cloudflare? Free CDN, WAF & DDoS Protection Explained](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2018/03/cloudflare/): Cloudflare - What is it and why would I care? I have been using Cloudflare for a long time.

## Nutanix

- [Passing the Nutanix NCP Exam: Free Training & My Experience](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2020/07/nutanix-ncp/): I saw a tweet a couple of weeks ago mentioning that Nutanix were offering a free go at the Nutanix Certified Professional exam.
- [Nutanix Command Reference Guide](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2018/06/nutanix-command-reference-guide/): Nutanix Command List This is a list of Nutanix commands I have found useful.
- [Nutanix Life Cycle Manager](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2018/04/nutanix-life-cycle-manager/): A practical walkthrough of Nutanix Life Cycle Manager (LCM) and how it simplifies firmware and hardware upgrades across your Nutanix cluster, step by step.

## Personal

- [My Home Office Setup & Upgrades](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2021/01/my-home-office-setup-upgrades/): Given the year that was 2020 and at the time of writing a distinct improvement appears a long way off I decided it was time to up my homeworking game.
- [VMware Certified Master Specialist HCI 2020](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2020/09/vmware-certified-master-specialist-hci-2020/): I recently sat (and passed the VMware HCI Master Specialist exam (5V0-21.
- [And now for something completely different](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2018/10/and-now-for-something-completely-different/): I have worked for my current employer Zen Internet for 3.

## VMware

- [New VMware Cloud on AWS Host: i7i.metal-24xl](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/new-vmc-host-i7i-metal-24xl/): We’ve expanded the VMC fleet with the new i7i (i7i.
- [Using Content Libraries in VMC to deploy software faster](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/01/using-content-libraries-in-vmc-to-deploy-software-faster/): Using VMware Cloud on AWS Content Libraries to deploy ISOs and OVAs to new SDDCs in minutes instead of hours. Setup, layout, and a working example.
- [vSAN Cluster Shutdown – Orchestration](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2025/12/vsan-cluster-shutdown/): As can be seen on my Lab Overview page. I have a GPU/Management cluster that is usually running 24x7.
- [An in-depth look at VMware Cloud on AWS hosts](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2025/08/vmc-host-deepdive/): A full side-by-side comparison of every VMware Cloud on AWS host type — I3.metal, I3en.metal and I4i.metal — covering CPU, memory, storage and networking specs.
- [VMware Cloud on AWS Storage Sizing Quick Reference Guide](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2025/05/vmc-quick-sizing-guide/): VMware Cloud on AWS storage sizing reference: usable TiB by host count for i3i, i3en, and i4i, plus the FTT/RAID policy used at each cluster size.
- [VMware Holodeck Multi-Host VCF: Lab Setup & Configuration](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2024/01/multihost-holodeck-vcf/): Set up a multi-host VMware Holodeck lab with full VCF stack, networking and VSAN. Step-by-step config and the unsupported-but-it-works gotchas.
- [vSAN ESA in VMware Cloud on AWS: What Changed in VMC M24](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2023/11/vsan-esa-and-the-improvements-it-brings-to-vmc/): vSAN ESA - Benefits Performance benefits Efficiency benefits Resilience Benefits Sizing vSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA) was announced at VMware Exp
- [Advanced Deploy VMware vSphere 7.x 3V0-22.21N](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2023/11/advanced-deploy-vmware-vsphere-7-x-3v0-22-21n/): Yesterday I sat and passed the above exam. It had been on my todo list for a good number of years.
- [VMware – Going out with a Bang!](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2023/10/going-out-with-a-bang/): There is a lot of uncertainty with VMware at the moment. This is all due to the pending acquisition by Broadcom.
- [How VMware Cloud on AWS Handles Host Failures Automatically](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2020/09/vmc-host-errors/): How VMware Cloud on AWS automatically detects and remediates a host failure — I watched it provision a replacement and evacuate the faulty host seamlessly.
- [VMware Cloud on AWS i3en Host: Specs, Storage & Performance](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2020/07/i3en/): A look at the new VMware Cloud on AWS i3en host — 96 cores, 768GiB RAM and ~46TiB of NVMe storage, and what that means for storage-bound clusters.
- [Monitoring VMware Cloud on AWS: Tools & Approaches (Part 1)](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2019/12/monitoring-vmc-part-1/): My approach to monitoring VMware Cloud on AWS — why you still need to monitor your VMs, and testing Veeam ONE as the first tool for the job.

## Other

- [How to Expand Ubuntu Disk Space: LVM pvresize Step-by-Step](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2025/12/ubuntu-disk-expansion-steps/): Step-by-step Ubuntu disk expansion with LVM: pvresize, vgextend, lvextend, resize2fs. Works after resizing the VM disk in vSphere/Hyper-V/KVM.
- [VMware Cloud on AWS Time Sync & NTP Configuration](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2025/12/time-in-a-vmc-environment/): How to configure Time Sync and NTP in VMware Cloud on AWS using the Amazon Time Sync Service — setup, firewall rules, and troubleshooting tips.
- [How to Run ZFS on VMware vSphere: Setup Guide and Best Practices](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2024/12/zfs-on-vmware/): Introduction Copy on Write Disk IDs Trim Introduction I have run a number of systems using ZFS since the earliest days of my homelab using Nexenta, all the
- [Home Network Upgrade to 25Gb/s with MikroTik Switching](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2024/09/home-network-upgrade/): My home network upgrade to 25Gb/s: MikroTik CRS504 switching, DACs, optics, and the gotchas I hit going beyond 10Gb at home.
- [VMware Holodeck on Older CPUs: Fixing Compatibility Issues](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2024/01/holodeck-cpu-fixes/): Disclaimer: This is not a supported configuration by the Holodeck team please don't reach out to them for help.
- [Configuring a Zen Internet and City Fibre connection with a 3rd party router](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2023/11/configuring-a-zen-internet-and-city-fibre-connection-with-a-3rd-party-router/): Back in July I bought a new house and one of the best things about the property was that it was already in a City Fibre location.
- [TrueNAS Scale CLI Reference: Storage & Kubernetes Commands](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2023/11/truenas-scale-useful-commands/): General Storage Application General ZFS I have very much fallen down the rabbit hole with TrueNAS and although the GUI is very good occasionally I need to
- [Runecast Remediation Scripts: Auto-Fix VMware Storage Issues](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2023/05/runecast-remediation-scripts/): I am a huge fan of the Runecast product and luckily as a vExpert they give out NFR licences for my lab.
- [Use Portainer in a Homelab with GitHub](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2022/12/use-portainer-in-a-homelab-with-github/): How I use Portainer to manage Docker containers in my homelab, deploying stacks straight from a GitHub repository. Setup and a working example.
- [My First GitHub Pull Request: Contributing to Open Source](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2020/12/my-first-pull/): The story of my first GitHub pull request — spotting a fix in an open source project, learning the process, and getting my contribution accepted.
- [VeeamON 2020: Highlights From Veeam’s Virtual Conference](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2020/06/veeamon2020/): As everyone knows by now the world has changed possibly forever. Due to Covid19 working from home has become the new normal.
- [What’s In My Tech Bag? Everyday Carry for IT Consultants](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2019/01/whats-in-my-backpack/): I have seen a few posts online recently about the tools and technology people use on a day to day basis.
- [UK Money Saving Tips: Banking, Rewards & Travel Cards](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2017/05/money-saving-uk-version/): I recently got back from an amazing conference in New Orleans.