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vblockx
Contributor
Contributor

HomeLab for VCP6-DCV exam - Desktop spec?

Good evening! VMware members,

I wonder my desktop specs is ready for VCP6-DCV (Home Lab) ( 6.5 or 6.0) or not, so could you please tell me?

Desktop:

CPU:           Intel Core i5 6500 Skylake 6th Gen 4Cores/4Theads

RAM:           KINGSTON HYPER-X DDR4/2133MHz 16GB 16x1

MOBO:        MSI H170 GAMING M3

OS:             Windows 10 Pro 64bit ver 1709 (Build 16299.248) on ADATA SP920SS (128GB SSD)

HDD:          2TB 1x2

VMWorkstation: VMware Workstation Pro Latest Version/Build

I really need your feed asap. Thank you!

Regards,

Sammy

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6 Replies
daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

It depends how much you want to be able to do on it. I'd say double your RAM to start with as 16 GB doesn't leave a whole lot for much more than a single ESXi host and one other VM.

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vblockx
Contributor
Contributor

First of all, many thanks for your feedback, daphnissov, so you mean " I should upgrade 32GB RAM ". And what about CPU is okay?

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

CPU is probably fine, but I'd start with going up to 32 GB.

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vblockx
Contributor
Contributor

Again, thank, daphnissov! I will order 16GB RAM, and I will test. I will inform you about it.

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Gavis4569
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

As said, if you add bit more memory you should be quite OK.

Although I would suggest another approach as well - depends on your budget. I did use my home PC in the past for running my LAB workloads but once you start to play with another compionents of vSphere like NSX, VSAN or vROps you will realize thet even 32GB is not enough.

Today I run my LAB on dedicated servers located in datacenter, I have possibility to conenct from everywhere and I do not need to wory about my home PC resources. Right now I have 64GB of RAM, 2x 480 GB SSD (one is for boot disks of my VMs, second is for iSCSI storage / VSAN) and 2x 2TB HDDs (data disks, backups) and I have to say that I would probably upgrade to 128 GB of RAM soon 🙂 I am running nested virtualization so physical server hosts my master ESXi server and then I run several virtual ESXi servers for testing.

Martin Gavanda https://martingavanda.com https://learnvmware.online
vblockx
Contributor
Contributor

Good evening! Martin, your feedback makes me feel so confident and on point - I really appreciate your help. Anyway, my level doesn't reach that level (your level), I want to learn (self-study) and practice them (vSphere's Features)  before taking it to the real environment.

My final question is: Is my current CPU ready for your level?

Thank you!

Regards,

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