lab suggestions...

I want to start studying for 70-291 but I don't know if I need to buy any computers to lab it up or if I can use virtual tools and install server 2003 on it. I have an XP box and I have a box which has server 2003 installed and that's it. My XP box is not powerful and I don't know if it can handle and virtual tools, I guess I can try.

Suggestions please.

Thank you.

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gateway

Post the spec of your pc and we will have a better idea of what to recommend

If you can't use virtuals on your pc, then Technet has some pretty good labs preconfigured.

wastedtime

What gateway said.

I was able to lab most of the stuff on my 4 year old notebook that was the bottom of the barrel at the time performance wise (only cost $400). It had a 32 bit AMD Semperon 3300+ and I upgraded the ram to 2 gigs for about $80.

I was able to run about 2-3 virtual PCs at a time without any issues.

Devilsbane

Even with a lab, there are just some things that would be impossible to learn. I don't know how specific Microsoft is going to test on timings, but that just isn't something you pick up from labbing.

There are many books that you can pick up for $30 or less. I wouldn't take any test without a book, but that is just me.

dadaji

The XP box is Pentium D 2.4GHz or 2.6GHz, not exactly sure with 2 GB of memory and its an Dell XPS 400. I recently upgraded the memory to 2GB. Hard drive space is not a problem.

I will be going through the MS Press book and doing the labs. I have read in the second chapter that I will need 2 machines with windows server on it and hence the original question. I don't have any other boxes at home but if I can do it with virtual tools, then I don't want to buy anything.

Any ideas?

wastedtime

As I said above that is similar setup to mine except it was a notebook. You should be able to do it, but it may be a bit slow at times.

gateway

dadaji wrote: »

The XP box is Pentium D 2.4GHz or 2.6GHz, not exactly sure with 2 GB of memory and its an Dell XPS 400. I recently upgraded the memory to 2GB. Hard drive space is not a problem.

I will be going through the MS Press book and doing the labs. I have read in the second chapter that I will need 2 machines with windows server on it and hence the original question. I don't have any other boxes at home but if I can do it with virtual tools, then I don't want to buy anything.

Any ideas?

It should be capable of running 2/3 vm's without too much trouble.
If you install Virtual Box or Virtual PC, you could then install 2 x Server 2003 and 1 x XP client, that should be fine. Don't bother with AV unless they are internet facing to help performance.

Lab up as much as you can on DNS with the 2 servers, that will be a great help. Not too sure how you will go about labbing RRAS on them though.

Devilsbane

gateway wrote: »

Don't bother with AV unless they are internet facing to help performance.

Even then you don't have to worry about antivirus as long as you understand that it could be infected, so don't use it to enter personal information. And if you start getting an onslaught of popups and such, you can just blow the whole thing away and revert to a backup. So make a backup once you finish installing the os.

gateway wrote: »

Lab up as much as you can on DNS with the 2 servers, that will be a great help. Not too sure how you will go about labbing RRAS on them though.

If another computer is available, you could get some cheap usb nics and use bridged to have some 3 on the one computer, and maybe 1 or 2 on the other?