VCP Home Lab

TE,
I'm interested in using ESXi and learning more about VMWare. Right now I have a pretty good understanding of ESX and how it works, but I'd like to learn more. A little background... I've been using VMWare at home for probably 6 or so years now. I was a really big fan of VMWare Server when it was an application. I wasn't as big of a fan when it moved to the Web Based Management. But I've digressed. At my current employer, we have VMWare 3.5 running currently, but I don't get to touch it too much. For the most part, I can only modify the vSwitch and occasionally I'll build a server if I need to.
My point in all of this was to ask... I have a WinXP 64-bit running on an Intel Core 2 Duo 6600 2.40 cpu. I also have 4 500Gb hard drives in this computer running VMWare Workstation 7. Would this be sufficient to have a VMWare lab? I also have 4 NICs (2 onboard). I currently use the machine to run VMs for separate domains so I can practice routing traffic such as email, web pages, etc... from different domains and networks. Are there any additional recommendations that you all have for me? Thanks in advanced!
-Peanut
I'm interested in using ESXi and learning more about VMWare. Right now I have a pretty good understanding of ESX and how it works, but I'd like to learn more. A little background... I've been using VMWare at home for probably 6 or so years now. I was a really big fan of VMWare Server when it was an application. I wasn't as big of a fan when it moved to the Web Based Management. But I've digressed. At my current employer, we have VMWare 3.5 running currently, but I don't get to touch it too much. For the most part, I can only modify the vSwitch and occasionally I'll build a server if I need to.
My point in all of this was to ask... I have a WinXP 64-bit running on an Intel Core 2 Duo 6600 2.40 cpu. I also have 4 500Gb hard drives in this computer running VMWare Workstation 7. Would this be sufficient to have a VMWare lab? I also have 4 NICs (2 onboard). I currently use the machine to run VMs for separate domains so I can practice routing traffic such as email, web pages, etc... from different domains and networks. Are there any additional recommendations that you all have for me? Thanks in advanced!
-Peanut
We cannot have a superior democracy with an inferior education system!
-Mayor Cory Booker
-Mayor Cory Booker
Comments
You can install ESX/ESXi as VMs in VMware Workstation, assuming you can enable Intel VT (the E6600 supports it). If you have enough RAM, this will work well and you can do most of what is covered on the VCP. One thing you can't use is VMware Data Recovery, which comes in the form of a 64-bit virtual appliance (virtual ESX/ESXi hosts can't run 64-bit guests).
I recently completed the VCP 4, and I used a physical lab for my studies. I posted the specs in this thread: http://www.techexams.net/forums/virtualization/57252-vmware.html
MCSA 2003, LFCS, LFCE (expired), VCP6-DCV
-Peanut
-Mayor Cory Booker
+1 to the Workstation approach if you only have the single machine. You could then setup multiple hypervisors and practice things like vMotion.
MCSA 2003, LFCS, LFCE (expired), VCP6-DCV
That's pretty sweet. I didn't know you could do that? Did you do this in route to your VCP?
RTFM Education vSphere Videos/Demos
I didn't, I had two physical hosts which seemed to be enough. The only thing I recall not being able to do was use Fault Tolerance (you would need three hosts to fully simulate it), however my hardware doesn't support FT at all (it requires the latest CPUs) so I couldn't use FT anyway.
MCSA 2003, LFCS, LFCE (expired), VCP6-DCV
Cool. Thanks for the link as well.
I'll probably wipe the PC clean... My main desktop is an iMac so I use the current machine to run VMWare workstation. I have a lot to learn about VMware. Does anyone have any good books to recommend? Thanks.
-Peanut
-Mayor Cory Booker
I'm buying these on Friday:
Amazon.com: Mastering VMware vSphere 4 (Computer/Tech) (9780470481387): Scott
Amazon.com: VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing the Virtual Environment (9780137158003): Edward
I'm also looking at this as well:
Amazon.com: VMware Cookbook: A Real-World Guide to Effective VMware Use
-Mayor Cory Booker
MCSA 2003, LFCS, LFCE (expired), VCP6-DCV
-Peanut
-Mayor Cory Booker
VMware ESX(i) Home Lab – Why, What and How? Considerations when building your own home lab. | TechHead.co.uk
-Peanut
-Mayor Cory Booker
Thanks for the link... I just downloaded the podcast and put it on my phone... I'll listen to it while I'm driving... I'll post back with my findings and/or questions. Thanks
-Peanut
-Mayor Cory Booker
All blog posts and vmware communities relates this to an incompatible NIC. I've since installed a PCI NIC linksys NIC that was sitting around, but I'm continuously running into the same error. I'll try a few additional things (including disabling the onboard NIC) to see if I can get around this error. BTW... my mobo is an ASUS P5W-DH deluxe. Any suggestions are welcomed. Thanks!
-Peanut
-Mayor Cory Booker
My suggestion is like QHalo pick-up a few Intel Pro1000 NICs and move them from whitebox to whitebox as you upgrade (I've done the same for years and did the same with a Promise SATA controller until they started supporting many of the Intel ICH storage chipsets).
profile: linkedin.com/in/astorrs
+1 for the Intel e1000 NICs. Good solid design and the dual port PCIe ones aren't expensive.
I use HP Smart Array controllers for my ESX cluster as I managed to get a bunch of P400s for a decent price a few years back.
Look at what is on the hardware compatibility list for ESX anyway. They've significantly improved the range of hardware that is supported in the last few years. It used to be that they only had vmkernel drivers for an extremely limited set of server hardware and you'd be SOL if you had anything else.
Thanks for the assistance thus far. I scoped out this NIC on eBay. Would this NIC suffice? I have another NIC in an older PC that I'm going to pull out tomorrow when I have more time. Thanks...
-Peanut
-Mayor Cory Booker
You guys are making this more difficult than it needs to be
Seriously:
Or www.ultimatewhitebox.com
I posted that
-Peanut
-Mayor Cory Booker
profile: linkedin.com/in/astorrs