VMware Vsphere 4.1 Lab Setup

Discussion in 'Virtual and Cloud Computing' started by onoski, Feb 1, 2011.

  1. onoski

    onoski Terabyte Poster

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    Hi all,

    I haven't posted on here for a while as I have been busy with MS exams and glad to also say am now officially MCSE 2003 security and messaging. It's taken me two years to achieve this cert with lots of failures but kept on going for it and it's finally in the bag.

    Well back to the point of this thread which is VMware lab setup as I currently own an HP Proliant ML115 G5, quad core 4Gb runnig ESXi 4 hosting 4 VM's.

    At work I have been working with VMware ESX and ESXi 4 for over six months now, virtual centre and VMware Vsphere 4 and HP Proliant 460 blade servers in a HP c7000 chasis enclosure.

    In the next few months we'd be upgrading our old rusty exchange server 2000 to exchange server 2007 in a virtual environment. Hence its an appropriate time for me to upgrade my home lab and currently looking at a budget of £350.

    The £350 would include an AMD AM3 processor quad core at 3.2Ghz, 16Gb of Ram split amongs custom built whitebox, Gigabyte motherboard and HP Proliant ML115, running VMware ESXi 4 and 4.1.

    I also have pentium dual core HP DC7800 small form factor pc and thinking of using this as a cheap storage box running FreeNas.

    Well guys and gals, thats it for now and feel free to contribute and yes it's a small budget but it would get the job done in terms of carrying out hands on lab work. Cheerio and keep on hussling:)
     
    Certifications: MCSE: 2003, MCSA: 2003 Messaging, MCP, HNC BIT, ITIL Fdn V3, SDI Fdn, VCP 4 & VCP 5
    WIP: MCTS:70-236, PowerShell
  2. Sparky
    Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    You are MCSE security and messaging? Good work! :biggrin
     
    Certifications: MSc MCSE MCSA:M MCSA:S MCITP:EA MCTS(x5) MS-900 AZ-900 Security+ Network+ A+
    WIP: Microsoft Certs
  3. onoski

    onoski Terabyte Poster

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    Hi Sparky, thanks that was my bad it is actually on messaging only that is MCSE 2003 and MCSA 2003: Messaging. I had another look at my transcript on Microsoft's web site to confirm the above.

    The thing is I sat the 70-298 two weeks ago as my last paper and taught that being design paper on security that would have made me MCSE 2003: Security.

    I would have to sit the 70-299 exam to get the security status in MCSE 2003 and frankly I don't work on a lot off security stuff at work so would be pointless. Cheerio:)
     
    Certifications: MCSE: 2003, MCSA: 2003 Messaging, MCP, HNC BIT, ITIL Fdn V3, SDI Fdn, VCP 4 & VCP 5
    WIP: MCTS:70-236, PowerShell
  4. Mikeyboy

    Mikeyboy Kilobyte Poster

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    Hi,

    This would be interesting for me too, as I am currently attempting to set up a similar thing myself. In work we are probably going to look at virtualising our blade centre, and I don't really have a clue how this would be done, I have used vmware quite a lot at home (just tinkering) and since I found out we might be looking at using it in work I have decided to "upgrade" my home setup a little.
    I was given an old PC which I have upgraded a little, it is dual core with 4gb RAM in it, and it has been fine running VMWare workstation with a couple of servers on it, but I decided to up the game a little and put VMWare ESX on it (well a virtual ESX) which was just completely useless, poor thing couldn't handle it at all.
    Have just put vCenter on it, so going to test this out, hopefully will run a bit smoother.

    Anyway back to (your) point, I was wondering what would be a decent setup to actually be able to run something like this properly in a home lab setup, are we talking quad core massive RAM etc... I had looked at cheap servers like the HP Proliant ones you see on ebuyer, although I did wonder about building one myself.

    Anyone with experience of what the best route to take would be helpful - not trying to hijack your thread just find myself in a similar place at the moment :)
     
    Certifications: VCP,MCSA, MCP, MCDST, MCITP, MCTS, A+, N+

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