Nested lab hardware configuration AMD FX

[szafa]

Hi All

I plan on setting up a nested ESXI 5.5 home lab on top of VMware Workstation 10. What I want to do is practice with ESXI 5.5, 2012 server and setup a few other VM's.

What you thing about below configuration (I'd like to choose AMD because is much cheaper  )

AMD FX8-8320 Black Edition Vishera 8 Core AM3+ 3.5GHz 16MB 125W

Gigabyte 78LMT-USB3 AM3+ AMD 760G DDR3 mATX

Corsair 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600Mhz CL11 XMS3 Performance Desktop Memory Kit

I have already :

3x SSD 60GB OCZ Vertex 2 SATA2

1x SSD 128GB Samsung SATA2

In future I could expand memory to 32GB

Should I consider mobo with SATA3 controller (all SSD dives are SATA3 now) or SATA2 should be enough for VCP 5.5 certification and Windows server 2012?

I have goggled and looks like I should be able to run 64bit OS inside this nested lab. Please correct me if I'm not right.

Thanks

[camerlengo]

Too late for reply but I guess (by know you know this) that your current specs are more than enough.

What I have at home is an old desktop with the following specs:

AMD Phenom II X4 840

8GB Ram

500 GB HDD

Builtin Graphics

Still I was able to run an environment that allowed me to play around with features in preparation for my 510 exam.

Here's my lab setup

Network (edit VMware Workstation Virtual Network Editor)

192.168.0.0/24 - Management Network - Bridge - vmnic0

192.168.8.0/24  - Storage Network - Host Only - vmnic1

192.168.18.0/24 - vMotion Network - VMNet 2 -vmnic2

Redundancy     -  Management Network - Bridge - vmnic3

  prodnet - VM Port Group - VMnet 3 - vmnic4

Shared Storage

vmwarevolume My iSCSI Volume 4096 MB iSCSI

Virtual Machines

FLR1 - Open Filer 2.99.1

192.168.8.4

VC2 - vCenter Server Appliance 5.1

192.168.0.5

ESXi1 - vSphere ESXi Hypervisor 5.1

192.168.0.6

192.168.8.6/9

192.168.18.6

ESXi2 - vSphere ESXi Hypervisor 5.1

192.168.0.7

192.168.8.7/9

192.168.18.7

Summary

DRS and vMotion in action

vCenter as an appliance (tried using the normal vCenter but its slowing my system down)

Openfiler for shared storage.

[rurffy]

Nice design - But how where you able to run 2 esxi Host with just 8GB ram of your machine. How many GB Ram did you assign to these host Each, I have almost same configuration but with an Intel i3 Processor , 8GB Ram and 256 SSD.

Im sure your enviroment runs really slow right? please let me know ..

Regards

[wmarusiak]

Hi,

For the beginning it is ok. You will be limited with RAM of course but you will be able to easily build environment with 2 ESXi server, vCenter and other components.

[szafa]

Hi

Thanks for replay. My host is ready and now is time to build lab. I'm using Debian linux as host and VMware Worstation 10. I have small problems (can't change subnet mask in virtual netwok editor, subnet mask is grayout) but looks like they are related to linux host, because on Windows host (i have workstation 8 on Windows 7 host at work) I don't have this problem but this is problem for separate discussion .

[camerlengo]

@rurffy

Let me give you the full specs of each vm

the 2 ESXi

2gb ram

2 vcpu

40 gb hdd

Network Adapter 1 - Bridge(Management and prod)

Network Adapter 2 - Hostonly (iSCSI)

Network Adapter 3 - NAT (vMotion)

Network Adapter 4 - Bridge(Management Redundancy)

Network Adapter 5 - Hostonly(iSCSI secondary. Yes i have dual path in my lab)

the vCenter Appliance

4gb ram

2 vcpu

25 GB hdd1

60 GB hdd2

Network Adapter 1 - Bridge

OpenFiler

256mb mem

1 vcpu

and disks 12 gb for root and you can specify anything for the volumes you'll use as iscsi targets.

[camerlengo]

As for the question if slow. Yes its slow but still workable. my base of is windows 8.1 and pretty much i dont have a lot of services running in the background.

[rurffy]

camerlengo

Ok from your above reply - i gather  the below -

ESXI 1 = 2 gb RAM

ESXI 2 = 2 gb RAM

Vcenter = 4 gb RAM

In total 2 + 2 + 4 = 8GB RAM .

This is utilizing your total Desktop 8GB - Hmm interesting . (Thinking out loud here - But how would you then run VM inside these ESXI with just 2GB? would you assign 512MB to VMs? )

[camerlengo]

that is precisely correct and dont forget that same with linux we have pagefile to back up little tasks that needs memory resources.

that is right vms are running 512mb each.

I never though this lab would work initially though until i tried it :smileygrin:

[camerlengo]

My system :smileygrin:

[rurffy]

I would probably try same thing on my Laptop. I already have a PC with 32GB and Intel i5 Quad care processor which runs like a monster. But i am always on the road/Trains so i need a mobile Lab. Hence i am ruining all these on my Laptop.

Great! Thanks for the tips -

[camerlengo]

You're welcome. HTH