Starting on my jounry to MCITP:SA

Hi All,

I was just wanting some advice on creating a lab. I want to be able to have one box, with a server and multiple virtual machines running in it. I have the hardware just not sure what software to use.

Can someone point me in the right direction and a version of software I can use? Have been looking into Vmware as we use that one for our clients, so I wanted to learn a bit about it also, but not sure if you can integrate virtual PC's with Servers?

Please let me know your thoughts and any recommendations

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Comments

Iristheangel

Go with 4_lom's recommendations below

4_lom

If you are wanting a dedicated virtual server, I would suggest Hyper-V Server 2008, ESXI, or Windows Server 2008 R2 with the Hyper-V role installed. However, the first 2 choices will have the least demand on your hardware, because they don't really have an interface. You would use a client on a different machine to remotely access the server and create VM's. For ESXI you would use the VSphere client, and with Hyper-V you would use the Hyper-V Manager.

I'm studying for the 685 and 686 right now. I have Windows Server 2008 R2 with the Hyper-V role installed on one of my boxes. I then have 2 servers running the same OS, 4 Windows 7 clients, and 1 XP client. I can even access this server from work via RDP. Being that I am at work most of the week and do 90% of my studying there, I need access to my labs from my desk. I do have Virtual Box and VMWare Workstation installed on my work computer, but it gets pretty bogged down with all of those VM's running. Another option was to use my laptop as a more mobile solution. But having a dedicated virtual server just sounds so much more cooler

sharpy56

What about licenses for the different software, obviously these can actually add up to me a lot more then the actual physical hardware themselves!

I decided to go with the VmWare ESXi option as we use that one at work, so I want to learn a bit more about it while studying also and setting up my machines etc. Do you know of any software that I can use that won't break the bank?

Krunchi

sharpy56 wrote: »

What about licenses for the different software, obviously these can actually add up to me a lot more then the actual physical hardware themselves!

No need for them you can just use the trial versions and rearm when need be. You should be reloading your VM's for every new test anyway because you should be breaking them fixing them and doing things to the OS that we can't speak of

Get familiar with sysprep and clone you don't need to spend any money on Software it all can be done for free very easily.

4_lom

sharpy56 wrote: »

What about licenses for the different software, obviously these can actually add up to me a lot more then the actual physical hardware themselves!

I decided to go with the VmWare ESXi option as we use that one at work, so I want to learn a bit more about it while studying also and setting up my machines etc. Do you know of any software that I can use that won't break the bank?

I would suggest getting a Technet subscription. This will give you MAK keys to nearly all of the Microsoft Operating Systems and a bunch of software.

4_lom

Krunchi wrote: »

No need for them you can just use the trial versions and rearm when need be. You should be reloading your VM's for every new test anyway because you should be breaking them fixing them and doing things to the OS that we can't speak of Get familiar with sysprep and clone you don't need to spend any money on Software it all can be done for free very easily.

You don't necessarily have to reload a machine every time you break it. You could just create virtual snapshots of the machine. This way, you can revert back to the snapshot after the machine is broken. Same concept as a System Restore.

Krunchi

4_lom wrote: »

You don't necessarily have to reload a machine every time you break it. You could just create virtual snapshots of the machine. This way, you can revert back to the snapshot after the machine is broken. Same concept as a System Restore.

Yea that's what clone and sysprep are for just about the same thing just two different ways to do it.

Yes you want to reload after every exam some thing you do in 640 could conflict in 642 646 etc. trust me I know from experience reload after every exam.

4_lom

Krunchi wrote: »

Yea that's what clone and sysprep are for just about the same thing just two different ways to do it.

Yes you want to reload after every exam some thing you do in 640 could conflict in 642 646 etc. trust me I know from experience reload after every exam.

Or... You could create a snapshot of the machine minutes after you first install it. And then revert back to this snapshot. Also, rather than Clone you should be using ImageX, this is they Microsoft way. And it's good to know for the client exams if you ever get around to taking them.

Psoasman

4_lom wrote: »

You don't necessarily have to reload a machine every time you break it. You could just create virtual snapshots of the machine. This way, you can revert back to the snapshot after the machine is broken. Same concept as a System Restore.

That's what I do. I use Virtual Box for my labs and I take snapshots after the installation for the DCs, member servers, and clients, so I can revert back when needed.