How to Setup a Virtual Lab for Windows Server 2008 Training

mnr367

I am New to this forum,

I am doing my ccna & MCITP Now... I used boson offline Lab Software... which helped me a lot to Learn CCNA

For Windows i found out that Boson is using online labs so it wont be available all the time for me... and its very expensive

Can any one please help me How to setup a Lab Like environment using Oracle Virtual Box.
Or any Article Explaining setting up a Lab Environment using Virtual Box

Or is there any other ways i can Create a Virtual Lab And Do my Experiments and Setup there ...

MrSharp

Never used boson / oracle virtual box

What I did was install Windows 2k8 Enterprise, and then used Hyper-V for all the VM's (or you could use vmware player but with hyper v being one of the technologies tested on the mcitp:ea track figured may aswell get familiar with it)

My machine isn;t that beefy so I can;t run all the VMs I create at once.
So I just power on the ones required for a particular labbing session and leave the rest powered off.

paul78

Hello and welcome to TE - I don't use Virtual Box but there are quite a few resources on youtube and Oracle's web site on how to use it.

What type of host are you planning to use? There are other options as well including Xen, VMWare, and of course Microsoft (which @MrSharp mentioned)

If you are relatively new - you probably may want to avoid Xen. But if you are using Windows or Linux as your host, VMWare's VMPlayer is a free for non-commercial use solution which you should be able to get up and running pretty quickly.

You can find VMWare VMPlayer resources here:

http://www.vmware.com%2Fpdf%2FVMwarePlayerManual10.pdf
VMware Player FAQs: Free Virtualization to Run a Virtual PC on Linux or Windows
https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/free#desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_player/5_0

tah84ag

I just recently did a setup with virtual box running 4 virtual servers. If you set the network setting to 'internal' for all of your machines you can test replication and everything just like you would building a network and using physical servers. Assuming you have copies of Windows Server you can do it for very little extra cost. Did it on my home pc that only has 4gb of ram and an AMD X4 965, and while it was a little slow at times it wasn't anything unusable. If you have questions I could walk you through it, it wasn't that bad.

jdballinger

If you are doing the MCITP exams (I'm going to assume 200 then you should just work through the labs in whatever books you are using, as they will walk you through the setup. All you should need to have at the get go is a copy of Windows Server (download from Microsoft) and some kind of virtualization software (I highly recommend VirtualBox, but they are all good products.)

Do you have a more specific question about a certain aspect of setting it up?

ITMonkey

The most complete test lab setup I've seen documented is in the Microsoft 70-643 Training Kit (for server 2008 R2). Click here for the Amazon.com page. The setup is before Chapter 1 begins, and is several pages in length. It is based on using the Hyper-V role in Windows Server 2008 R2. Follow the setup step by step, and you'll have a good lab. Chapters 1 & 2 can help you learn Hyper-V, and things useful to know. The other chapters may be a little out of scope for your needs.

If you have a local library that offers eBooks and eMagazines, ask if they also have a Safari eBook subscription. If they do, you'll find the book there and can read it for free (or the cost of a library card).

The only other thing to watch out for is whether or not your PC can run Hyper-V. I found the easiest way to determine this is trying to install Hyper-v using Microsoft's free eval copy of Server 2008 R2, or 2012. If it installs successfully, it generally works.

Johnny Johnson

I'm currently working on upgrading my MCSE to 2008 and have three virtual servers set up using VMWare Player (which is free). One is a domain controller, one is a member server, and the other is a Windows 7 client.

EV42TMAN

I've used virtualbox, and hyper-v before, and I've just set up an esxi 5.1 system for my lab setup. In my opinion ESXi is the best for a lab environment but, using hyper-V for you lab set up will make some studying easier. I are you going to branch out to the exchange/sharepoint/System center/etc certifications? because if you are i'd look into getting a dedicated VM host and picking your virtualzation software.

Also if you have a Window 8 Pro machine you can add hyper-v in from the add and remove components window. You can't do some of the advanced stuff but, there is more then enough to use for labbing.