A few basic questions

Jon_Cisco

Hi everyone. I love this forum but I'll be honest I don't know what most of the things you talk about are. I figured I would see if I could get a few answers at once. So here goes.

1 - I see a lot of posts about using old rack mount servers for EXSi builds. Can I just buy an off the shelf computer to that is built for virtualization? I want to use it for learning microsoft server and OS platforms but figure I better start using virtualization while I am at it. If so does anyone have a quick link to something I could consider.

2 - I have used VMware player to install virtual machines. However I want to connect multiple virtual machines to work with domains. Is there a need to buy VMware workstation or is virtual box acceptable.

3 - Do I need to connect this to the internet for any reason? I think long term I would want that connectivity but I don't want to piss the wife off messing up our internet!

4 - When people refer to nested ESXi are they installing ESXi on something like a VMplayer machine? Does that work so that I can skip purchasing another box and still learn?

Thanks for any feedback. I know they are a bit random but I am probably at least a year away from studying virtualization. I just want to make some good choices to become familiar with it ahead of time. I believe everything will move in this direction so I am going to need to catch up with the technology sooner rather then later.

Jon

slinuxuzer

1. Most boxes will work for a lab, look for one that offers virtualization hardware assist like intel-vt this allows virtualizing 32 bit guests on a 64 bit proc. I use a HP G6 server with 48+ gig of memory (have several at work), but a laptop that holds 16 GB of memory and an SSD could do the job.

2. virtual box will work, I prefer workstation because Ive always used it and own it through WGU school.

3. Yes, you will eventually need internet, figure out how to connect everything without breaking the net, you need to learn that sort of thing.

4. nested ESXI is ESXI running on a hardware then ESXI VM's running on top of that.

jibbajabba

1. You can. However, with each newer version of ESXi, old drivers are being removed. Which means that older systems might not be able to run ESXi 5.5 for example. Most systems having Xeon CPUs of the series 5500/5600 and upwards should support ESXi 5.5 (latest currently) from the CPU point of view. Network and storage depends on the system you buy - but if network is an issue - a new nic is easily bought. Storage - most -people probably use USB to run ESXi and use remote storage

Best bet is to check the HCL to make sure the system is being supported : VMware Compatibility Guide: System Search

2. Virtual Box is quite limited and only works to an extend : Installing ESXi in Virtual Box

3. Still on dialup where internet is causing issues :P But no, you don't need internet per-se. Just depends what you want to do with the VMs. Windows Updates / Linux Updates for VMs alone can be a bit of a pain without internet

4. This is it, yes. A lot of people just have one PC at home, can be their gamig rig or generic PC etc. On top of their base os (Windows 8 for example) people install VMware Workstation or as you mentioned - Virtual Box (see limits posted in #2 though). In VMware Workstation you then install ESXi hosts. Then inside the ESXi hosts you install virtual machines.

Or you buy a single physical server and install ESXi on it - then the VMs you install are ESXi again and so on.

Trouble with nested setups : Performance. Once you run multipe VMs you will notice you will run out of RAM and storage performance VERY quickly.

You will need at LEAST 32GB of RAM to study for a VCP for example and have an SSD which idealy is dedicated to virtual machines.

Have a browse here in the virtualization forum - there are a lot of lab examples posted recently and there is a danger here that people don't answer because we keep repeating ourselves quite often recently

So do yourself a favour and have a look

Jon_Cisco

Thanks guys.

It sounds like I need to avoid virtual box or skip ESXi.
I'm not convinced I could afford to spend the money on Workstation just yet but I'll probably have to download the 30day trail and see how it goes.

I have been following the lab posts a little. Unfortunately they don't seem to emphasize bare minimum entry into virtualization as the focus of the form is certifications. I was really hoping to find some sort of tigerdirect ESXi box off the shelf option.

Virtualization is not my focus right now but I expect it to be a big part of our future. So quick and easy exposure was my only goal for this year.

I'll keep reading and put something together before the next semester starts.

Jon