Lab prerequisite MCSA Windows 2012

Hello,

What are the prerequisites to set up a home LAB ?

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You will need at least one Windows 8 client, two server 2012 for DC and other roles and possibly a 2008r2 server for migration/backward compatibility scenarios. So a beefy laptop or desktop able to virtualized that should have at least 8gb of ram, 100gb of HDD space and a quad core or better CPU.

ITMonkey

Not to forget ... you ought to run your lab environment as virtual machines within a hypervisor. Candidate hypervisors include: WMware's ESXI, or Hyper-V (also free, as it is a role provided in Server 2012, which you can download and evaluate for free from Microsoft; it is also a feature included in Windows 8 Pro), or Oracle's Virtual Box.

I purchased an annual Microsoft TechNet subscription. A purchase I am more than happy about.

kriscamaro68

Here is my lab pre-reqs

Dell PowerEdge C1100 1U 2X Xeon QC L5520 2 26GHz No HDD 72GB DDR3 Tested | eBay -Bought 2 of these and they are awesome. 1 is more than enough though.

buy 1 120gb Samsung 840ssd 3 256gb Samsung 840pros
install server 2012 on it and use storage pools and make a spanned volume with the 3 256gb ssd's and install server 2012 on the 120gb drive. With the storage pool you will get about 800 MB/s reads and writes and will get plenty of space to store all your vhds. Plus 16 cores and 72gb of ram you really won't have a need for anything to run labs on for quite some time.

Don't forget about a TechNet subscription to.

olaHalo

I briefly looked at the Technet subscriptions and I don't get the major advantage.
Aren't most of the MS products available for free for 90 days?

Also I am pretty new to Virtualization. I have setup a few VMs and the typical XP Mode stuff, but nothing using VMware ESXi.
Anyone know of a basic guide? Im watching train signal vids at the moment and they are helping somewhat.
I just dont want to setup something up wrong or purchase something I dont need.

jonny72

Technet makes it a lot easier, especially as you don't have to rebuild your lab every 90 days and you have downloads of pretty much every single Microsoft product at your finger tips. I reckon it is worth every penny.

If you've got a stand alone PC to use for labs, if you're going for Server 2012 certs you want to go with Hyper-V as it is covered by the certs.

gabypr

jonny72 wrote: »

Technet makes it a lot easier, especially as you don't have to rebuild your lab every 90 days and you have downloads of pretty much every single Microsoft product at your finger tips. I reckon it is worth every penny.

If you've got a stand alone PC to use for labs, if you're going for Server 2012 certs you want to go with Hyper-V as it is covered by the certs.

I decided to purchase a Windows 8 Pro laptop for that same reason, to use the Hyper-V client to create my virtual lab at the same time I learn to use it. Hyper-V its extensively covered in the new MCSE 2012.

olaHalo

Thanks for the input gabypr and jonny72.
Ill look more into Technet

JayBlisk

Doing the 417 now and in past studying for certs TechNet subscription is the way to go. I plan on keeping the subscription from now on. I have a HP server with 16gb of ram with 6 Intel ssd's in raid 0 with an Adaptec raid controller. Also 3tb drive for storage. I use to have VMware on my server but now it Hyper V. This site and TechNet are invaluable.