Storage for VCP lab

Just about to start building a lab to run through all the VCP requirements after completing the stanley CC course.

Going to be doing it all in Vmware workstation, what's the best free/easiest storage setup which will mimic iscsi/nfs as well as it can to be able to lab all the vcp requirements from peoples experience.

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Mow

I have been using OpenFiler. Not too bad, once you get used to how to do things with it.

iBrokeIT

AutoLab is also a nice prepackage VMware environment for labbing certain scenarios

http://www.labguides.com/autolab/

jibbajabba

What will you be using for vCenter / AD etc. ? If you got a Windows 2012 planned then you could even go as far as just using that box as ISCSI target .. saves an additional VM

Introduction of iSCSI Target in Windows Server 2012 - The Storage Team at Microsoft - File Cabinet Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

OctalDump

Another vote for OpenFiler. FreeNAS also supports iSCSI and NFS. You can virtualise these also, so you can run a box with only DAS, and then use OpenFiler etc to present it as NAS. Acceptable for a lab, but obviously not what you'd want in production.

NFS and iSCSI are also relatively straightforward to set up on vanilla Linux and Windows 2012+ (not sure about 2008 from memory).

vmNut

Openfiler is the one to go. Easy to setup and stable.

kj0

I changed from freenas to openfiler as it heavily relies on memory and requires 8Gb min.

Openfiler only requires 2Gb.

Here is a video I made 2 years ago on setting up Openfiler inside VM Workstation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8JL2P2Apus

Deathmage

love the QNAP NAS in the lab, it does iSCSI perfectly fine.

jibbajabba

kj0 wrote: »

I changed from freenas to openfiler as it heavily relies on memory and requires 8Gb min.

Openfiler only requires 2Gb.

Here is a video I made 2 years ago on setting up Openfiler inside VM Workstation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8JL2P2Apus

If you are RAM limited then Nas4Free might be for you - it is based on an older codebase of FreeNas and in fact, it is a heck of a lot easier to administrate as well.

kj0

It wasn't when I tried it, OPenFiler was still easier. Or just a windows box running starwinds iSCSI. Heaps of Options.

barberj66

Good stuff cheers everyone gives me plenty of options to have a play around with. May need to stick another 8GB of RAM in my PC really only got 8GB at the min which has been ok for running a few windows servers for labbing but think I could do with more for vmware

bym007

Hey, you will need to set aside 8GB memory aside for running vCenter Server alone.

jibbajabba

bym007 wrote: »

Hey, you will need to set aside 8GB memory aside for running vCenter Server alone.

Yea - 8GB for vCenter tho is a frustrating experience ... I think nowadays 32GB is the bare minimum for bare minimum labs ... In fact - maybe look at Ravello - as vExpert you get 1000 CPU hours / month for free ...

https://www.ravellosystems.com/go/vexpert

I'd be surprised if they scrap that for 2016 ...

kj0

jibbajabba wrote: »

Yea - 8GB for vCenter tho is a frustrating experience ... I think nowadays 32GB is the bare minimum for bare minimum labs ... In fact - maybe look at Ravello - as vExpert you get 1000 CPU hours / month for free ...

https://www.ravellosystems.com/go/vexpert

I'd be surprised if they scrap that for 2016 ...

Somehow I only ended up with a month free. Not too worried at the moment.

bym007

Did anyone try using the free AWS services for VCP labbing ?

GAB1900

How cost effective is the ravello solution?