Question about labbing

jahsoul

I'm changing my major at WGU to Network Administration. Now I have to take Microsoft's exams. My main thing is about home labbing. Everything that I have been reading has been focus on building the host instead of setting up the guest. I know that my box is sufficient but I more focused on a lab design. What is the general consensus for the number of VMs we need to lab? I was just thinking about 3 2008R2 and 3 Windows 7 guest and calling it a day? Will this be efficient enough or is more needed? Thanks.


Joey

sherrill

Depends. For the 70-640, to set up Federated Services, you need to have to have 6 2K8 servers and one 2K3 server with SQL 2005 (although I got away with using a 2008 server box with 2008 SQL with my lab).

Essendon

That's going to be a big switch for you - from CCIE prep to the world of MS exams. You shouldnt have too many issues though, if you have the desire and ability to tackle the CCIE, the MS exams shouldnt be too hard for ya!

As far as labbing goes, you need more Server VM's than client VM's. I was limited to 2 Server 2008 R2 VM's and 1 Win 7 VM. As such I could not lab up on Federated Services too much, but that's just one topic. The rest of it all can be done with a 2-3 Servers and 1-2 clients. What are the specs of your host machine?

LAN_Guru

jahsoul wrote: »

I'm changing my major at WGU to Network Administration. Now I have to take Microsoft's exams. My main thing is about home labbing. Everything that I have been reading has been focus on building the host instead of setting up the guest. I know that my box is sufficient but I more focused on a lab design. What is the general consensus for the number of VMs we need to lab? I was just thinking about 3 2008R2 and 3 Windows 7 guest and calling it a day? Will this be efficient enough or is more needed? Thanks.


Joey

You can't just build three servers and three workstations and be done with it. Each MS Press book has different lab VM requirements. Also, a lot depends on if you have evaluation software or fully licensed product and how long you are going to be using the VM's. Eval software is good for 180 days max then you have to perform a new install.

What I did was build "base" images for labs as follows:

1) Created a full-install 2008R2 Enterprise base VM with 20GB VHD and 2GB memory (my lab server has 16GB RAM) using default installation options.

Note: I don't think any labs call for a VM with more than 1024MB RAM except for the SharePoint 2010 Foundation labs at the end of Chapter 9 in the MS Press 70-643 2nd Edition book.

2) Created a core-install 2008R2 Enterprise base VM with 20GB VHD and 2GB memory using default installation options.

3) Created a Windows 7 Enterprise base VM with 40GB VHD and 2GB memory using default installation options.

I sysprep all the base VM images.

At the beginning of the 70-643 (for instance) book they have a few pages discussing lab setup. It requires Server1, Server2, and Core1 VMs. I create Server1, Server2, and Core1 subfolders. Then I copy my base image VHD to each of those subfolders and rename the base image in Server1 folder to Server1, base image in Server2 folder to Server2, etc. I then create the required VM's using those VHDs. Boot the VMs, rename the computers to the required name, configure network settings as required, etc. When I have finished a book and passed the exam, I delete the VMs, VHDs, etc. that I used for that book but do not delete the base images.

Generally speaking, you will not be able to reuse VMs from one book to another unless you remove roles, change network settings, etc. I suppose you could use snapshots to undo changes but that takes disk space and, to me, it is quicker and easier to just create new VMs from a base install image.

ID10T#

Yea, I purchased VMWare Workstation and just create "Teams" for each book I'm working on. Except currently I'm going through the Train Signal Server2008 AD Inf. training vids. So I only have one team for this "Scenario"..

ID10T#

ID10T# wrote: »

Yea, I purchased VMWare Workstation and just create "Teams" for each book I'm working on. Except currently I'm going through the Train Signal Server2008 AD Inf. training vids. So I only have one team for this "Scenario"..

Just a thought, it has occurred to me that I will need an eval copy of Server 2003 for the Lab work for the 70-640 exam.. Um... How am I supposed to get my hands on that?

Krunchi

ID10T# wrote: »

Just a thought, it has occurred to me that I will need an eval copy of Server 2003 for the Lab work for the 70-640 exam.. Um... How am I supposed to get my hands on that?

Why do you need a copy of Server 2003 for labbing Server 2008?


If it's to work with deferent domain and forest levels they are built into 2008 with 2000 being the native "default level" you just Raise the domain/forest only reason to use 2003 would be if you were working with NT DC's.


As for labbing to study for Server 2008 just use Hyper V works great I use Two computers running Three Server VM's each RWDC/RODC and a Server Core SCDC and one win 7 OS.

LAN_Guru

ID10T# wrote: »

Just a thought, it has occurred to me that I will need an eval copy of Server 2003 for the Lab work for the 70-640 exam.. Um... How am I supposed to get my hands on that?

You'll be fine without W2k3. I have a Technet subscription so I have access to all previous versions back to even DOS 6.22 (Windows ME anyone?) and I didn't bother setting up a W2k3 VM. IIRC, you just use earlier AD functional levels and then raise them...as the other user posted...

crrussell3

LAN_Guru wrote: »

Eval software is good for 180 days max then you have to perform a new install.

Actually you can rearm the eval for upto 240 days of usage.

How to extend the Windows Server 2008 evaluation period

Krunchi

If you have a student E-mail something with a .edu in it you can get what you need for free at Microsoft's student Certification web site https://www.dreamspark.com/default.aspx They were giving out one free Exam voucher last year. I'm waiting to see what they are going to do this year.

Pishof

Krunchi wrote: »

If you have a student E-mail something with a .edu in it you can get what you need for free at Microsoft's student Certification web site https://www.dreamspark.com/default.aspx They were giving out one free Exam voucher last year. I'm waiting to see what they are going to do this year.

Love Dreamspark. It's a great resource for full legal installs to lab with. When I wasn't an eligible student I just signed up as the coordinator for a school corp I work for and received all the benefits.

(I gave some students access as well of course!)

LAN_Guru

crrussell3 wrote: »

Actually you can rearm the eval for upto 240 days of usage.

How to extend the Windows Server 2008 evaluation period

My bad. It was late and I was thinking about the 30 days before activating that you can stretch out to 180.

I have Action Pack and Technet subscriptions so software is the least of my worries...

crrussell3

LAN_Guru wrote: »

My bad. It was late and I was thinking about the 30 days before activating that you can stretch out to 180.

I have Action Pack and Technet subscriptions so software is the least of my worries...

Not a problem. Just throwing it out there as wasn't sure if you were aware of it or not (though I was pretty sure you were). I still don't understand why they give you the ability to rearm up to 240 days. Why not just make the trial go for that long anyways.