Luis Knowledge Base – IT Info, VMware, Veeam & more.

3 de julio de 20263 de julio de 2026

Transición a Homelab con Proxmox: Mejora del rendimiento y escalabilidad

En este artículo, exploraremos la transición de un entorno de virtualización VMware a un homelab basado en Proxmox, destacando los beneficios de esta migración y cómo Veeam Backup & Replication (B&R) y el almacenamiento S3 mejoran la seguridad y disponibilidad.

¿Por qué dejar VMware?

VMware es una solución completa para la virtualización, pero su costo puede ser prohibitivo para los entornos de desarrollo o pequeñas empresas. Además, la escalabilidad y el rendimiento pueden verse limitados en sistemas con recursos modestos. Proxmox, por otro lado, ofrece un conjunto de herramientas de virtualización asequibles y personalizables que se integran perfectamente con el almacenamiento S3.

Introduciendo Proxmox

Proxmox es una plataforma de virtualización libre que permite crear servidores virtuales (VEs) en Linux. Ofrece características como la consolidación de servidores, la mejora del rendimiento y la escalabilidad, todo ello sin requerir un hardware específico.

Veeam Backup & Replication: Seguridad garantizada

Veeam B&R es una herramienta líder en backup y replicación de datos para entornos virtuales. Su compatibilidad con Proxmox permite a los usuarios crear copias de seguridad automáticas y transparentes, reduciendo el riesgo de pérdida de datos.

Almacenamiento S3: Escalabilidad ilimitada

El almacenamiento S3 ofrece una solución escalable y segura para almacenar backups y datos en la nube. Su arquitectura distribuida permite un crecimiento horizontal sin limitaciones, reduciendo así el costo del almacenamiento y mejorando la disponibilidad.

Ventajas de Proxmox con Veeam B&R y S3

La transición a Proxmox con Veeam B&R y almacenamiento S3 ofrece varias ventajas:

Costo reducido: Proxmox es una alternativa gratuita a VMware, mientras que Veeam B&R ofrece un costo predictible.
Mejora del rendimiento: La consolidación de servidores con Proxmox permite liberar recursos y mejorar el rendimiento general.
Seguridad garantizada: Veeam B&R proporciona copias de seguridad automáticas y transparentes, reduciendo el riesgo de pérdida de datos.
Escalabilidad ilimitada: El almacenamiento S3 permite un crecimiento horizontal sin limitaciones.
Conclusión

La transición a Proxmox con Veeam B&R y almacenamiento S3 ofrece una solución escalable, segura y personalizable para los entornos de virtualización. Al dejar atrás la complejidad y el costo de VMware, se puede aprovechar todo el potencial de Proxmox y sus herramientas complementarias.

20 de mayo de 2026

Uptime-Kuma. – Initial config, notifications and monitoring

Hi there,

After the first part of this topic, now is time to jump into the good stuff, the main thing here is to be notified every time something changes or goes «wrong».

Lets follow u the screenshots, from Setup, to Notifications setup, to finally monitor a couple servers and services.

As I said before, this is basic «alive» monitoring, not statistics and deep monitoring, there are other cool tools for that, the topic here is first line, quick and easy! lets go:

This is my Uptime-Kuma Dashboard, after install, lets go to Settings, click on your name up right, and click settings,

under Settings, we will find an easy and clear menu to config the tool, from appearance to proxy, etc.

Im going to deep dive into the Notifications menu:

Now, let’s check it out, in the main menu, at the very bottom, we have the option to monitor TLS certificates and Domains expiracy, this is awesome! Im super happy Im not missing a cert renovation anymore, and no entries into my calendar, Uptime-Kuma notifies me in the time I program it.

Now, lets click into Setup Notification, A menu will Appear showing you all the options we have, they are so many, Im using at the moment SMTP and Telegram:

The is a huge list of services to choose from:

After setup, Just test and Setup, and you are set.

All right,

Now, moving on to the first monitoring item, lets configure a PING check for a vm inside the lab, and a web monitoring with the certificate expiraiton.

Now, lets monitor a website with the certificate expiration:

All set, now, this is how it looks the main page of my lab monitoring Uptime-Kuma instance:

And this, is a view we can create for different accesses / services, so we can separate them by service, type, or «client», depending on your setup.

cheers.

2 de mayo de 2026

Uptime-Kuma

Hi there
Time to update the Lab, this time, easy monitoring for VMs, Services and Webs.

UPTIME – KUMA

Im going to show you how to easily deploy an instance inside Proxmox, containerized, ready to go.

First, go to this website and search the community script to deploy it:

https://community-scripts.org/?q=uptime

Copy the command, as shown in the picture

Go to your Proxmox Host, open a terminal, and paste the command

Hit Enter

Lets follow the script steps, as always, with screenshots:

Storage for template, in my case, NFS, for future HA

Container Storage, same thing, NFS for future HA

update found, lets apply it and continue

Done!
Now you can see the Ip from our DHCP were Uptime Kuma is running.

Open up in a browser, and follow the initial wizard,
I selected SQLite.

Next entry, initial config, notifications and initial monitors.

cheers.

25 de enero de 2026

HomeLab – Pi-Hole + WireGuard + DuckDNS

Hi everyone
After christmas, I had some time to improve my lab a little bit.
I decided to setup a Pi-Hole to use it as my main DNS and filtering app, and why not, use it also over my VPN with WireGuard , and be able to use it all the time reaching my Server from anywhere with a FQDN instead of an IP (Dynamic), with DuckDNS.

As a base system, I chose Ubuntu Server, with the minimum installation,
choose your own, maybe you will need to adapt some commands or content.

After login into my clean ubuntu server machine, and update all the packets,
I went to the Pi-Hole website, and click into the Install Pi-Hole button.

I used the Curl command with sudo before:

curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash

Now let´s open a browser and login into the Pi-Hole console:
http://192.168.15.136:80/admin
using the password provided in the previous step: Xa7K80RE

Done!
Now, let`s create our DuckDNS Sub domain before continuing:

Go to the DuckDNS website, and create an account, is free.

In my personal use case, I sing in with google, so the creation was super easy and smooth.

In the page, write down the name you want to use in your subdomain, and click in add domain

In my case, I have two domains created, im showing you them right now:

now, is time to connect our duckdns domain with our server to get the automatic IP update every time our dynamic IP address changes:

On top of the DuckDNS website, you will find an Install menu, click on it:

Follow the web instructions, choose your OS and setup, and follow the steps and input the information in your server, in my case, Linux base with cron tab:

With this command we check that the DNS update is working fine.

DuckDNS setup completed,

Now, Let´s install WireGuard
to be full set,
We are going to use this command, its awesome and prepared for raspberry pi, but also work with many distros and platforms, making the deployment super easy and smooth!

Follow the screenshots!

sudo curl -L https://install.pivpn.io | bash

As you can see here, we must select WireGuard!!

Port! I leave the default one, to be opened later on in our router.

Super Important! the script detected we have deployed in the same machine Pi-Hole, so say yes and continue.

here, Important step, select DNS as shown, to be able to call our service via DuckDNS Subdomain and not Public IP Address!!

Done!
Now our server is full setup with PiHole, DuckDNS and Wireguard.
Now we need a few adjustments in PiHole and create users in WireGuard.

Important!

The Server has not a fixed IP Address, I do assign an IP address on my DHCP, if you want to do so, please setup a fix IP address into the machine.

Open your port on the router to be able to reach the VPN service from outside of your network, IP – port 51820 UDP, I normally open both, TCP and UDP

Now, lets create a VPN user, to be able to set it up into our phone / laptop, and start using our WireGuard VPN.

Connect to your new deployed server via ssh

Now, let`s execute the command:

pivpn add

i didnt add any ip, just hit enter, and continue, and give it a name

vpn user created, now, lets see the QR code for setup

execute the command pippin -qr, and select the the user config you want to configure

open you wireguard client app and follow the screenshots

Done!

now, you have your VPN fully configure.
anua time you want to connect, simply open the app and switch the VPN to on (green)

all traffic will be back and forth the VPN.

cheers.

10 de noviembre de 2025

Building a lab with PROXMOX – Part 2 – Hypervisors Installation

Let’s continue setting up our Proxmox Lab.

Download the ISO file from the Proxmox site .

I then wrote it to a USB Thumb drive to boot and Install, I use a Mac, so I did it with BalenaEtcher.

Now, I will post a few screenshots of the installation process.

I did the same steps on the three nodes, just changing the managing IP address and hostname, the rest, the same:

the other two hosts look the same, different IP address and hostname.

The OS installation is super simple,
Now, in the next entry, we will get into details with the console, initial configurations and shared CEPH storage.

Stay tuned.

30 de octubre de 2025

Building a lab with PROXMOX – Part 1 – HW

Hi there:
After months of thinking, I took the step to switch my lab to Proxmox,
I’ve been a Vmware «guy» for many years, but I knew the time came to give it a try, after many companies switching to it.

I decided to re-use the hardware I had from previous projects, to see the capabilities and «how tiny» the setup could be.

Here we go:

The hardware Im using is the following

3 x Zima Board – 8GB RAM, Intel Celeron 4 Core
3 x SSD 240GB (OS)
3 x SSD 480GB (Storage)
1 x Managed 1Gbps 8p Switch (HPE Office Connect)
Ethernet cables

This hardware was laying around in my lab from previous projects,
and now looks super cool!

The electrical consumption is very low.
Im monitoring it, but for now, 10W each node….. xD

Few more pictures here:

Cheers.

21 de julio de 202521 de julio de 2025

Blocky for Veeam

Hi there
Today, I want to share with you all a technology/partner that caught my eye at VeeamOn 2025 in San Diego, CA.

Have you ever wondered how to «enforce» or «protect» your Veeam Windows Setup, with local / presented Storage, without modifying or adding Appliances/devices to your Infrastructure?

Here is where Blocky comes into Play.

The Only Ransomware Protection That Runs on the Veeam Windows Server.

Blocky installs and runs directly on Windows-based Veeam Backup & Replication (VBR) servers—securing backup jobs at the source without requiring added hardware, Linux, or infrastructure changes.
Blocky hardens the Windows VBR against ransomware threats by transforming the ReFS and NTFS volumes into a zero-trust, Write Once Read Many (WORM) volume.
This creates robust ransomware protection for Veeam backup volumes without disrupting operations.

Another important aspect is that the learning curve is relatively easy to learn/manage.
No extra Hardware/tech needed, and no modifications (or big mods) on your existing setup.

Key Capabilities

WORM Shield – Ensures data protection on ReFS and NTFS volumes to prevent ransomware from altering backups
Zero Trust Architecture – Only explicitly authorized processes can interact with protected backup data
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) – Strengthens administrative access security with optional MFA
Disk Protection – Prevents physical disk tampering—adding protection beneath the file system layer
Real-Time Alerting – Detects and records access attempts, supporting incident response
Centralized Control – Enables uniform protection policies across multi-site or distributed environments

How Blocky Works

When installed, Blocky:

Transforms standard NTFS and ReFS volumes into hardened WORM volumes
Creates a zero-trust environment where only authorized Veeam processes can modify data
Stops all unauthorized access for write, delete, and encryption to the backup volumes
Provides real-time detection and alerts for unauthorized access attempts
Delivers disk-level protection to prevent physical tampering with storage media
Enables centralized policy control for unified security across multiple locations

I see Blocky as super useful in many different scenarios,
What quickly comes to my mind, SMBs without deep IT Skills, or no Linux Skills,
Windows fully dependent setups, and of course, companies looking to enforce their local backup volumes, as an extra layer of security.

Stay tuned, next entry, Installation and first look into the Blocky console.

Screenshot, Blocky Console initial look.

Cheers.

17 de julio de 2025

Lab patch VBR 12.3 – KB4696

I was updating my Lab, and came to this little issue I would like to share with y’all.

I was applying the patch for KB4696 to ensure my 12.3 was fully patched, but then I noticed my free space on the C drive was insufficient.
First thought: easy… let’s enlarge the drive (it’s virtual), increase it, and continue…
The recovery partition didn’t allow me to do so.

Find below the screenshot of the patch installation + steps for being able to extend your drive in case you also need to.

First error, close your VBR Console before continuing… (Palmface)

Let’s fix this issue to be able to deploy the patch,
As you can imagine, we will shut down the VM, reboot, and then relaunch the install and continue.

Here’s a breakdown of the methods:
Using Disk Management and Diskpart (Requires disabling and potentially deleting the recovery partition):
Disable the Recovery Partition:
Open an elevated command prompt and run reagentc /disable. This moves the recovery partition’s functionality into a file (Winre.wim).
Delete the Recovery Partition:
Use diskpart to select the disk, list partitions, select the recovery partition, and then delete it with delete partition override.
Extend the C Drive:
In Disk Management, right-click the C drive and select «Extend Volume». Follow the wizard to merge the now-unallocated space.
Recreate the Recovery Partition:
If you want the recovery partition back, you’ll need to create a new partition, format it, and then re-enable WinRE using reagentc /enable.

Now, let’s continue with our patching…
I reboot the VM and restart the process. Here are the following steps.

I hope you find this info useful.
Cheers.

29 de abril de 202529 de abril de 2025

Installing Nutanix CE in Supermicro E300-9D – Initial Configuration

In our previous post, we installed the Nutanix CE in our Supermicro E300-9D server,
Now, is time to config initial aspects, to then continue running and setting up our Server.

This is how it looks right now:

Now, we are going to go to settings, top left menu, click and select Settings

Here, on the left, we can see all settings, lets navigate through them and configure some important aspects as shown on the screenshots:

I added the following details to my cluster:

We already know that the CVM is the Controller VM with takes care of all aspects of our Cluster, Storage, Compression, Dedup… etc.
From here, we can choose the memory size of our CVM, for now, 20GB to keep it «light» for the lab

These were the «common» settings I normally touch / check the very beginning, now, lets jump into something super important, Inventory.
This means, looking for cluster updates, software, AHV, firmwares, drivers, etc.
Easy to use, Simple run an Inventory, if detects anything to be updated, follow the wizard….

We go to the menu top left, LCM, Perform Inventory,
follow the screenshots for more info:

Inventory done, lets check what is contains

We goto Updates menu, Software, and select the software we would like to update

OK, is telling to us to perform an NCC Update, then check, and continue with the updates, so in this particular case, we select only NCC; and proceed with the update.
After the update, we come back to the LCM Menu, Pre-Upgrade check, NCC check.

Now that this is done, we run a new inventory, and continue the process as described before, selecting the things to be updated, and running the shown update plan.

Boom! everything has been updated successfully, without any stress or complicated procedures.

This is how our main console looks after the update.

As you saw, there was an «error» in the update,
Just simple as a pre requirement to continue with the rest.
The menu is super user-friendly, well explained, and just with a few click, you can have your cluster updated and up and running, with no stress, no complex commands or consoles, etc.

Ah, one more thing, if you want to see your cluster status from the SSH console, simply login to the CVM, and run this command:

cluster status

We are almost there to start creating our first vm

see you in the next one.

15 de marzo de 2025

Installing Nutanix CE in Supermicro E300-9D

After some time trying and playing around with the Nutanix CE in Nested mode in my lab,
I finally put my hands into a little monster able to handle a Single Node Cluster, My Supermicro E300-9D!

Im going to show you the process of Installation, cluster (Single node) creation, in future posts, we will continue seeing new stuff, step by step.

Let’s get started:

First of all, as we already know, lets download the Nutanix CE from the community portal, to do so, you must be registered, and after installation, you will need your restoration to make it work properly.

after downloading the CE ISO, lets boot from the ISO and get started…

Now is time to add some data,
I havee 3 disks, Boot, CVM and Data, choose the ones you would like to use, and then,
configure the IP Details as shown,
You need 1 IP for the AHV Host, One for the CVM, gateway and subnet mask.

after few minutes, done!
Now, is time to remove the boot media, answer with a Y, and continue…

Now, after the first boot of the server,
we are going to ssh to the AHV host, with the IP we setup earlier
username: root
password: nutanix/4u

then, from the AHV host, we are going to ssh to the CVM to the IP we also setup earlier,
in this case
username: nutanix
password: nutanix/4u

Now, we are into the CVM via ssh, its time to create the Cluster,
in this case, Single node cluster
the command I used is the following:

cluster -s <CVM IP> —-redundancy_factor_1 —-dns_server 1.1.1.1 create

Now, the cluster has been created successfully, lets see the server console.

Now, lets connect to the web UI to continue working on our new cluster

to connect, we will use the CVM IP Address and the port 9440

Default username: admin
Default password: nutanix/4u

Now, is time to change the admin password

Here is an important step, we need to provide our Nutanix Community credentials, as we created them before to download the ISO, if you don’t have any, its time to create an account, 😉

Done!

Here is our beautiful WebUI of our Nutanix CE Single Node Cluster!!

I hope you like it,

this setup is in a physical server,
Supermicro E300-9D, 128GB RAM, 3 SSD disks.

In the next entry, initial config and run.

cheers!