VMware vSphere 4.1 - Before Course Question

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I'm lucky enough to be going on the vSphere 4.1 Install, Maintain and Configure course in three months time.

In my pre sales role, I do advise on VMware and design solutions based on its technologies, so I have a firm understanding off it's benefits, shared storage whether this is Fibre/iSCI, VMotion, HA, FT and what is required from a licensing and hardware perspective.


What I haven't done is ever installed it or done that much on it!

So before I go on the course, I wanted to get myself up to speed, so I have done the following:

- Purchased Sybex VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 4
- Downloaded and installed ESXi on HP ML115 and booting from USB stick
- Configured a couple off servers.

I won't be able to convince the better half to let me purchase another ML so I can only role with locally attached storage for now.

Do you think this is sufficent before the course or can anyone make any further recommendations?

 

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you wont really be able to lab it that much with one esxi server, you'd be better off (presuming that there is *gb or more on the server), sticking a 64bit os on there and then trial version of vmware workstation and build your lab in that. you can always turn local storage into remote storage by creating an openfiler vm, you wont need much space to lab it up in fact the only running vm I had in my test lab for my vcp 3.5 was nostalgia from the vm marketplace (because I admined 2 live 3.5 environments I did not feel the need to make more vm's).

You'll get plenty of installation practice as you'll need to blow away the host 64b os each time the workstation trial period expires (although knowing you you'll pass it before it expires the first time!!!)

edit: oh yes and you'll want to check the changes that are in vsphere 4.1 as alot of books have not caught up with that yet and theres quite a few changes that will be needed for the exam.

 

I would have a look at the VTSP (VMware Technical Sales Professional) course, it's free and a good one for those interested in the VCP.

 

Cheers Dales, I could borrow a couple of ML's from work, make one an iSCSI target using OpenFiler and the other a ESXi Node and run vCentre on my laptop?

 

Keep the 3 hosts as ESXi and Virtualize Openfiler or use the HP VSA that you recommend

 

Can't ESX virtualize ESX just like Workstation can?
I remember a Lab of two servers that was actually a cluster of 10 ESX hosts

Install ESX onto ESX a few times, and a virtual iSCSI platform
take it from there

plenty of interweb guides on how to do that

Hell I will second the VTSP, there were areas of it that were very useful, and deep
due to the limited nature of the I&C class there was actually plenty to learn, including SRM and other such DR/BC stuff
as a VTSP in Server Virtualization, Desktop Virtualization and BC/DR, I can recommend them all :P

 

Yeah could use VSA but thats registered against clients so not sure how that would sit LOL

 

Cheers Phoenix, didn't know you could do that, I will google that and check the guides out!

 

If your going with the original 1 ML115 then it might be a bit tight on your 8GB RAM

 

Will bear that in mind, I might run Server 2003 O/S then rather than 2008 to keep resource usage to a minimum.

 

Yes as phoenix suggested you could do that but I did not suggest it as I've done it once your twice and found a most hideous performance hit on the virtualised hypervisors even with the tweaks mentioned around the net. it took virtualised esx/i about 10 minutes plus to boot up and also I found things like configuration ha/drs problematic too. its just easier to virtualise esx using a supported path like workstation so you dont have to struggle uphill before you even start playing with the tech properly.

 

If you chuck in a SSD you could get some extra performance with offloading swapping/paging to it or if you have some cash to burn then I would recommend a Adaptec 5805q(bit OTT but damn are they sweet) in one of my ML110 G6s I've got 2x 80GB SSD(caching and hot data) and 4 2TB drives, the IOPS I get off it are insane considering how much I paid for it

[added]
scrap the 5805q as I've just re-read the OP and see that the mrs wouldn't be happy

 

Are they ever

 

I am lucky that mine is understanding, my home lab is huge (check out my blog for some home lab ideas).

 

Im not sure performance is ever paramount in this specific example
guest ESX with nested VMs was never intended to be fast, but allow you to actually get exposure to lots of ESX boxes together, great for testing scripts

 

yes agreed performance is not really an issue, however in my case I found an unacceptable perfomance hit a lots of little things that just did not work right in my home lab of I virtualised esx within esx plus I'm a busy man with children and wife's to look after by the time I actually get to sit down of an evening I've got about an hour of study time before I gotta goto bed so 10 minutes or more waiting for stuff to happen gets a bit irksome. Dunno maybe it was down to the servers I've got 2x dell sc440's 8GB ram each, I just found it quicker and easier to use my free workstation licence (vcp you see to build a lab which was much quicker and did not have the other niggles I experienced. Plus its portable too now cause workstation is on my laptop!

 

It's possible mate, i mean all of VMwares hands on labs at PEX and VMworld are nested ESX servers inside of ESX (with some lab manager for good measure) and they are not that bad despite the magnitude of users

could be config related or something, or if we are going back far enough it was never really available is a native option and much more of a pain then

 

I normally have a pair of shoes and something shiny on standby for that very reason LOL

 

lol I like your style!

 

One point about the exam, it is a 4.x exam, it is not 4.1-specific.