Ideas for home lab
WB4Admin
Registered Users Posts: 1 ■□□□□□□□□□
Greetings all, first post here. I apologize in advance if this question has been asked a million times, I did some poking around on the forum before I decided to post.
First, a brief background of myself: I have worked in IT Support for almost 8 years. Just finished up Cisco CCNA and working on CCNA Security. I've decided that before I continue on to CCNP that I should get at least the MCSA to add to my resume. I have some very minor experience with Microsoft Server, mostly file shares and permissions and creating AD accounts.
I'd like some guidance on what hardware I would need for a home lab for the MCSA exams. Would a separate machine be required for the install/configure/practice of Server 2012 or can it be done in a VM? My primary computer is a very powerful machine and I already run several VMs with VMWare on that machine. Would I gain the needed experience by installing Server 2012 in a VM? I'm also concerned about nested VMs, meaning, if I were to install Server 2012 as a VM with VMWare would I be able to create HYPER-V VMs inside the Server VM? (My machine can handle the resources hit for multiple VMs, but not sure if it's feasible to run nested VMs.)
I'm not against building a dedicated box for Server 2012, but if I can save the money I'm all for it.
Thanks in advance!
First, a brief background of myself: I have worked in IT Support for almost 8 years. Just finished up Cisco CCNA and working on CCNA Security. I've decided that before I continue on to CCNP that I should get at least the MCSA to add to my resume. I have some very minor experience with Microsoft Server, mostly file shares and permissions and creating AD accounts.
I'd like some guidance on what hardware I would need for a home lab for the MCSA exams. Would a separate machine be required for the install/configure/practice of Server 2012 or can it be done in a VM? My primary computer is a very powerful machine and I already run several VMs with VMWare on that machine. Would I gain the needed experience by installing Server 2012 in a VM? I'm also concerned about nested VMs, meaning, if I were to install Server 2012 as a VM with VMWare would I be able to create HYPER-V VMs inside the Server VM? (My machine can handle the resources hit for multiple VMs, but not sure if it's feasible to run nested VMs.)
I'm not against building a dedicated box for Server 2012, but if I can save the money I'm all for it.
Thanks in advance!
Comments
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lmoworld
Member Posts: 124 ■■■□□□□□□□
Installing Hyper-V on VMWare Workstation
You can do it. My current set up is several 2 Servers, 3 Virtual machines, and ESXi server. Hopefully this answers your question. VMware workstation gives you a 60 day trial period if you don't want to buy. -
lmoworld
Member Posts: 124 ■■■□□□□□□□
Forgot to mention that you can make an internal network with your lab to get everything talking. Good Luck
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Louie1277
Member Posts: 505 ■■■□□□□□□□
Load yourself the hyper-v core since it's free and create your vm's from there. You will need win8 for the manager to connect to the hyper-v and create the vms ... if you don't have win8 create a vm from virutalbox and run it from there.
That's how I have it setup at home.2018 Goals: 70-410 [X], 70-411 [],70-412 [] :bow: 410- Passed!!!!!!
My Goal for the Future
2012 - *MCSA*(WHO KNOWS WHEN) KEEP FAILING!!!! Not enough time to pass the last 2 exams.
2021 - *Security+*
2022 - * Pen Tester*