Setting up my MCSE lab: Please critique and give suggestions.

Right now Im currently finishing up studying for my Net+ and then will knockout my A+ within a month after that and will then will go on to the 70-620 and get the elective covered by my A+/Net+ and then finish up my MCSA and then my MCSE after that. Im hoping to be able to knock out one exam every month or 6 weeks and with my experience I should be able to do that with my study habits.

Ok heres the deal, Im a very hands on person and I love to tinker with computers and can never have to many. I just purchased 8 HP Compaq D530's that have P4 2.8ghz, 1gb RAM and a 40gb HD. I will use 7 of these as my client computers. For my server I have my moms old Compaq Presario S1540 that I will replace the proc/mobo with an AMD 64 X2 5000+ and upgrade the ram to atleast 4gb. I have just downloaded Windows Server 2003 180 day trial for it. I will set it up as the domain controller and use the 7 D530's as clients. I will set all of them up on a 8 port KVM switch so I can easily switch between all of them.

I used to be the sole Network Admin at my old job and was in charge of the entire network. I miss working on AD and all of that and in my current role I dont get the hands on so I want to set up the real thing. Does everyone think that will be an ideal setup for a Windows Server 2003 environment? Anything I need to add?

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dynamik

How much did you get those D530s for? Is there a reason you didn't just build one nice machine and use virtual machines? I'd go with more servers and fewer clients. You should be able to do everything you need to with just one or two clients.

JoJoCal19

dynamik wrote: »

How much did you get those D530s for? Is there a reason you didn't just build one nice machine and use virtual machines? I'd go with more servers and fewer clients. You should be able to do everything you need to with just one or two clients.

I got them in a lot. Came out to be $80 a piece. Not the greatest deal ever but not bad. They each also come with a COA for XP Pro so I can run XP Pro on them. I like virtual machines and use them now for various things but for this setup I want to have it as close as possible to actually being like Im working in a server room supporting clients. I like more clients for group policy testing and OU setups, plus I just want extra machines for various things. How many more servers should I add? Maybe a separate print server, web server, etc?

Andretii

dynamik wrote: »

How much did you get those D530s for? Is there a reason you didn't just build one nice machine and use virtual machines? I'd go with more servers and fewer clients. You should be able to do everything you need to with just one or two clients.

+1 with dynamic.

I just have 1 good machine with lots of RAM and virtual machines. I think you will complicate your self and also there's going to be a lot of dust.

Good luck

dynamik

I only add additional servers when necessary, such as creating additional domains, clustering, etc. As far as learning goes, there's rarely a difference between loading up a single server with a bunch or roles or isolating one per server.

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JoJoCal19

Andretii wrote: »

+1 with dynamic.

I just have 1 good machine with lots of RAM and virtual machines. I think you will complicate your self and also there's going to be a lot of dust.

Good luck

I respect everyones opinions on the virtual machines and I hear your advantages to using them, but really what is the negative if you can get your hands on actual workstations? Im not concerned with dust or anything. I clean regularly. Im just wondering if you have real workstations, why not use them instead of virtual machines? I just want to be in the most realistic environment and having actual workstations just seems more real to me than virutal machines.

Thanks for the Technet link dynamik. I will definitely look into a subscription there.

Daniel333

It's just awesome you are using real machines. This is really a good thing. Although I think you'll find it just complicates some matters down the road. But still, it's really kinda cool.

May I recommend you snagging a Cisco 2924 switch off ebay to connect them all.

Anyhow, for your first couple of exams, XP/Vista you are just going to need 2 machines. Once you start into the 70-290 Windows 2003 exam, you'll need to add a server in. I found on the 70-291/293 you are going to need to create multiple domains so 4 machines was a requirement.

Bottom line, you have more than enough.

What books/videos are you using? I look forward to your progress. Keep us posted!

dynamik

Space, power, money, convenience, etc.

There's nothing wrong with using physical machines if you have them; I just wouldn't encourage people to go out of their way to get them if they were starting from scratch. Aside from learning how to deal with simple things like not having a cable plugged in or some hardware failure, there's no real advantage to having physical equipment. Plus, some software, such as VMware Workstation, can provide additional functionality, such as simulating slow WAN links. Personally, I'd be more interested in things like replication over physical hardware problems. To be honest, even if I had what you did, I'd still virtualize. You could probably get at least 2-4 VMs going on each of those.

I'm not saying you made a mistake, nor am I trying to give you a hard time. That's just my perspective. You're in a unique situation where you're also working towards the A+, and I do think you should play around with real hardware for that. Regardless of whether you us VMs or PMs, you'll still get where you need to go.

JoJoCal19

Daniel333 wrote: »

It's just awesome you are using real machines. This is really a good thing. Although I think you'll find it just complicates some matters down the road. But still, it's really kinda cool.

May I recommend you snagging a Cisco 2924 switch off ebay to connect them all.

Anyhow, for your first couple of exams, XP/Vista you are just going to need 2 machines. Once you start into the 70-290 Windows 2003 exam, you'll need to add a server in. I found on the 70-291/293 you are going to need to create multiple domains so 4 machines was a requirement.

Bottom line, you have more than enough.

What books/videos are you using? I look forward to your progress. Keep us posted!

Thanks for the recommendation on the Cisco switch. Ill see how much I can snag one for. Yea I definitely think having the workstations for stuff like multiple domains would be nice.

So far the books I am buying now are the MS Press ones. If there are other good books for the MCSE exams I would be glad to take recommendations, especially for any lab books.

JoJoCal19

dynamik wrote: »

Space, power, money, convenience, etc.

There's nothing wrong with using physical machines if you have them; I just wouldn't encourage people to go out of their way to get them if they were starting from scratch. Aside from learning how to deal with simple things like not having a cable plugged in or some hardware failure, there's no real advantage to having physical equipment. Plus, some software, such as VMware Workstation, can provide additional functionality, such as simulating slow WAN links. Personally, I'd be more interested in things like replication over physical hardware problems. To be honest, even if I had what you did, I'd still virtualize. You could probably get at least 2-4 VMs going on each of those.

I'm not saying you made a mistake, nor am I trying to give you a hard time. That's just my perspective. You're in a unique situation where you're also working towards the A+, and I do think you should play around with real hardware for that. Regardless of whether you us VMs or PMs, you'll still get where you need to go.

I really do appreciate your input and I definitely respect your opinions. I think I will also mix in VMware workstations too because the experience working with it in a more advanced capacity will definitely be worth it.

tawnos

I haven't needed more than 2 clients for anything yet. I've had 3 servers and really would prefer more of those. Having 2 DCs, 2 DNS servers, at least 2 RRAS servers, and a separate DHCP server somewhere has been helpful. I haven't even gotten to anything with clustering yet, so probably even more would be better. I've also found VMs to be easier to work with since there are no cables to root around on the floor with if i want to change something with a network. Given your course of study though it looks like you'll have ample time working on the tests that don't require such an array of servers to find out how you prefer to work with a lab.

egrizzly

You got 7 clients. Prolly should use about 3. 2 Servers is enough, at least for the server exams. That's the most number of clients seen so far. You got more than enough though. You could use the extra 2003 server as a member server.

djhss68

Do yourself a favor a shell out $180 for VMWare Workstation and download some trial software.

I have a WinXP machine with 8 gigs of RAM and Quad Core C2D and I can set-up some fairly complex domain networks. You can set-up teams within VMWare and create virtual networks. I use about 128MB of Ram for each client and 256 for each server and this seems to be plenty. But you don't need 8 GB of Ram like me. I just like to go overkill. You can certainly get by with 4, and maybe even 2. But you will be limited. And of course make sure you have a proper sized HDD.

I love Workstation. Don't know what I'd do without it. Although working with virtual networking and virtual adpaters and that stuff takes some time to learn. The VMWare documentation is not so great, so forums like this are a lifesaver.