Building a lab for 2012 certifications

Shdwmage

Good Morning!

Sorry I haven't been around. I've been very busy lately! Anyhow, I am getting back on the bandwagon of working towards my certifications.

To get to the next level of certifications I feel I really need to have my own full blown lab environment to play in. That way I can see all of the interactions.

I'm torn between spending a bunch of money to get my lab started, or paying for a subscription service like azure as needed to be able to have the flexibility and not have to shell out a bunch of money up front.

That being said, what do your labs look like? Does anyone out there have experience using azure for certification training?

Thanks in advanced!

kriscamaro68

I would read over this thread: http://www.techexams.net/forums/mcsa-mcse-windows-2012-general/98468-hardware-setup-vm-msca-2012-testing-learning-box.html

I have not used Azure or AWS. I prefer to have the actual server so when all is said and done I can either sell it of or use it to host exchange and some other stuff at home for the heck of it.

Also if you have 2 physical machines it will be easy to setup a Hyper-V cluster. As far as I know Azure and AWS won't allow for that.

Shdwmage

Fantastic link, I bought one of those servers listed in that thread.