@scottalanmiller said in Growing VM disks:
@Grey said in Growing VM disks:
At what point is there a diminishing return?
There never is one. Unlimited fragmentation is assumed in modern storage systems. The overhead of it, if there is any (generally there is none) is already absorbed.
Has anyone done a study?
@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
Trying to get to the boot menu of a Dell PowerEdge 2650.
wow. Why?
@scottalanmiller said in Growing VM disks:
VMFS is the file system and each VM is a single file on it. Each block has a pointer to it in most filesystems, the only inefficiency in non-linear growth is in the movement of a drive head - which often happens anyway in shared systems regardless of file linearity, and is of no consequence in SSDs. So in modern systems, the idea that fragmentation is going to cause performance issues really isn't an issue. And the complexity of the underlying filesystem doesn't change, because it's just one file per VM anyway.
Unless you add drives to the guest, which gives you multiple files per guest, and then those "drives" or the OS can get grown, which comes back to the allocation table thought, and fragmentation of the file(s). At what point is there a diminishing return?
@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Watching Now:
I saw every episode of that as a kid.
I added them to my plex.
I was thinking to myself about the growth of file systems on a VMWare system. I hadn't considered it before and was wondering how the growth is handled; is it linear? It couldn't be, right? If I create 3 VMs, and expand two of them to add more space to an existing vmdk, it's tacked on from free space on a file system held by the hypervisor, but then does that mean we're creating a file system on a pre-existing file system, and do the allocation tables themselves generate excess waste? How efficient is that?
#ShowerThoughts
@scottalanmiller said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:
And now that I'm moving, likely via a shipping container, I'm really thankful for that.
I'll expect cigars and rum to be tithed annually to my home address. 
@black3dynamite said in What Are You Watching Now:
Chicago Stolen Police Horse Riots 2020
Youtube Video
There's a great scene in Men in Tights where they use a Club steering lock on a horse. I guess they needed one here? Also, what happened to the horse afterward?
@jmoore said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
Reading Algebraic Curves: An Introduction To Algebraic Geometry by William Fulton
Good luck on your GED!
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Tech Tent: Trump versus Twitter
For years, Twitter resisted calls to treat President Trump just like any other user. Then this week, everything changed.
It began on Wednesday. Twitter had been under fire for allowing tweets in which the president shared a far-fetched conspiracy theory about an alleged crime involving a TV presenter and former Republican congressman. But instead of taking action on those tweets, it fact-checked two others - about postal voting under a new policy which seeks to deter content which might suppress voting. Social media expert Chris Stokel-Walker tells Tech Tent that if Twitter thought limiting action to the area of elections was a cautious first step, it was wrong. "As soon as you start engaging in any sort of moderation or comment on politics, you run the risk of potentially alienating 50% of your audience - and given our very politically fractious times, that is more of a risk than ever," he said. Having taken that first step, and seeing President Trump immediately go nuclear and threatening to go so far as to shut the social media platform down, Twitter might have been tempted to go quiet for a bit.
I hope they push Dear Leader to a heart attack. Please, please, please.
@wirestyle22 said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
Closing on the house tomorrow. Got my ubiquiti equipment ready
No cameras? Is your switch PoE?
I'm adding 2 more cams. The ones I have caught a kid across the street last year as he was jumping a fence and shot himself.
@hobbit666 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Trading Standards squad targets anti-5G USB stick
"So what's different between it and a virtually identical 'crystal' USB key available from various suppliers in Shenzhen, China, for around £5 per key?"
And the answer appears to be a circular sticker.
"Now, we're not 5G quantum experts but said sticker looks remarkably like one available in sheets from stationery suppliers for less than a penny each,"
if it stops people from destroying 5G towers, then the councils should give the snake oil away. As for the woman selling it, good for her. Idiots with that much money who can't understand science should be ashamed of themselves and I hope the new digital version of crystals/aromatherapy leads the way.
@scottalanmiller said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@scottalanmiller said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@black3dynamite said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@scottalanmiller said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@scottalanmiller said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@black3dynamite said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
OMG, that's what I've been waiting for!
what will you do with it?
Desktop
I would love to use it as multimedia desktop for my living room and family room TV.
Yeah. With 8GB it's suddenly enough to use as the main desktop for almost all of our staff. I'm going to be getting a lot of these and sending them around!
cool, what do you use for local storage?
Depends. You can use USB3 if you want a local drive, you can use NFS mount if you want remote (there is GigE connections remember) or if you need very little just boot from SD.
PXE boot ftw.
@hobbit666 said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
Switch choices.
48 port "Core" switch, VLAN routing (L3 capable) 10GB Base-T
Going to be replacing a 7 year old Cisco Catalyst 3560 1GB switch.What's peoples "Go to" Manufacturer for switches? I normally go Netgear.
Ubiquiti. https://switch.ui.com/
Software defined networking is the way to go. That's why the Cisco Meraki products are almost business standard where Cisco is deployed, but I don't like paying the monthly fee that Meraki charges. Plus, Ubiquiti still has ssh capability, if needed, for their devices.
A well-defined SDN will allow expansion by easily adopting new devices and provisioning those devices to match your existing hardware, or stretch your footprint as with VPNs. For your specific request, I'd get the US-48-500W since adding PoE now will help you not buy a PoE later when you need that function, such as when adding phones or security cameras.
One of the absolute coolest things that ubiquiti has is this feature where it integrates an AR to your cell phone to help you find wtf is plugged in. Check it out:
https://prd-www-cdn.ubnt.com/media/static/media/bg.e5ecc7ca.mp4
@scottalanmiller said in What did you have for lunch or dinner today?:
Fried clams cooking right now.
I've heard women say the same thing about sitting on a sunbaked motorcycle seat.
I started the Nickelodeon episodes of Last Airbender a couple days ago, but I'm also up to s02e06 of Blake's 7.
@jmoore said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
@Grey Users always skimp on the mics around here.
We used to deploy mics similar to https://shop.nuance.com/store/nuanceus/en_US/Content/pbPage.speech-mike for the radiologists to use with Dragon. If your users are on a laptop mic or anything less than a boom mic (I switch from my 8200 to my Plantronics Focus UC for this reason), then the sound quality is too low.
Be sure to run through the speech learning process.
@jt1001001 said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
Playing with new Microsoft 365 updates, and by playing I mean troubleshooting silly user issues. Got one user trying to use the new dictation feature adn I do not think they understand it will not be a perfect copy.
I've used that and the biggest barrier is a good mic with no ambient noise.
