Best lab setup for 290?

I've installed the VMware Server software (per some good advice from another user), and I'm really excited by what its capable of (its already saving me a couple hundred $$$ in new hardware). I have a couple questions concerning what's the best lab setup, though.

First, how many servers should I be running? Is 1 enough, or should I consider jumping up to 2 or 3?

Second, how many clients / which ones should I consider installing? I've already added a Win XP Pro and a Win 2k Pro. I'm considering adding a FreeBSD client (just because I'm familiar with it), but I'm wondering how much benefit this will give me in the real world. I'm curious as to how often people see a Unix or Linux client on a modern Win 2003 server environment?

Any thoughts?

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Comments

dynamik

Going by the exam objectives. It looks like all you need is one client and one server. 290 is basically 270 for Server 2003. You're going to look at backing up, performance monitor, users and groups, etc. I'd be nice to have a client or two to test out things like roaming profiles and adding computers to the domain. Being able to simultaneously log in as a couple different users would also make things like testing user and group permissions easier. All in all, 290 doesn't require much.

While learning to integrate *nix clients is always good knowledge to have, you will learn a lot more about this in later studies. You might be getting a bit ahead of yourself. If you just want to do things like access shares, it's not a big deal. Just remember to disable SMB signing. I nearly went insane trying to figure out why none of our Macs could connect to our shares.

Dracula28

I have two clients and one server installed on my lab, a DC, a member server, and an Xp client. I think that is more than adequate for this exam.

Daniel333

Yeah, the Sybex book wants you to have one computer for a server and another for a client. In my 70-290 class though I found having a separate member sever to be useful.

147

Thanks for the advice, guys. I think I'll try and install a second server then, just for kicks if nothing else. (I'm assuming that MS with authenticate two installs of the same trial software here).

It took me three evenings of playing around with the setup to get the DC and XP client machines communicating on the same virtual network- I wasn't fully understanding how VMware put it together, but I finally figured it out. Once they were on the same network, everything else fell into place with no trouble.

Now I'm finally geting around to working out some of the hands on examples, and I have to say that the lab is helping significantly in my understanding of the material. (Thanks for the recommendation, dynamic).

If I should choose to keep the DC and member server on the same machine (despite best management practices), will I have any trouble understanding the environment? If so, are there specific areas that I should pay close attention to so I don't miss vital experience?

dynamik

147 wrote:

If I should choose to keep the DC and member server on the same machine (despite best management practices), will I have any trouble understanding the environment? If so, are there specific areas that I should pay close attention to so I don't miss vital experience?

What do you mean by, "on the same machine?" I assume you mean having them both run as VMs instead of physically cabling together two different machines since you can't have a single installation be a DC and a member server. It's good to play around with physical equipment so you learn how to troubleshoot things like bad cables, etc., but your VMs aren't going to function any differently than physical machines.

147

Okay, I didn't realize the DC and member server could not be the same physical (virtual) machine. I thought it was just a bad management practice, and not necessarily illegal. I'll have to install a second virtual 2k3 server to replicate that arrangement.

Thanks!

94jedi

hey 147, I'm in Salisbury Md too. Where do you work? pm me. I work for an Architecture and Engineering Firm in Downtown Sby.