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cal70
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Building VMWare homelab

So, I have been running ESXi / VSphere on a home lab for the past yr.  I have learned at TON.  BUT at the moment, I am looking for some help / guidance on the best way to move my lab to the next level. When I initially set up the servers, I was concerned about developing in an isolated environment that would allow me to take down portions (on purpose or by mistake) without impacting the production environment. (FOR REF: my production side of the homelab is the portion that runs the services / internet etc for the family)

I know have a decent understanding of some of the basics, but I am thinking that there must be a better design, vs. what I am using now.  Current setup is 2 physical systems that are essentially the same but isolated from each other. I want to delve more into clusters and all that goes with that architecture.

Would anyone be able to guide me towards a good tutorial / reading on how to redesign my lab?  Or maybe take some time to assist me in the design process??  Appreciate any input.

Cheers!

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nachogonzalez
Commander
Commander

Hey, hope you are doing fine

Regarding homelabs you have lots of options on what to do, also you can try options that are out of VMware Support (I.E. Nested ESXi)

I strongly recommend ready William Lam's blog since he is a master in what comes to Nested virtuaization and Home Labs
https://www.virtuallyghetto.com/home-lab

What I would do is (for example) nest 3 esxi hosts into a phyiscal server (most of my peers here in Argentina are doing this with cloned hardware, since home lab hardware is difficult to get)
Also, you can attach SSD's and HDD's to that phyisical server to emulate a vSAN datastore.

Maybe you can add NSX to the game

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cal70
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Thank you!  I have not really thought about nesting ESXi but I guess I am already doing that (sorta) with a VSphere server running as VM in ESXi - I think?  BUT multiple servers nested would be interesting to try.  Also thanks - I will look up the blog (initial glance looks great).

Going to try and figure out how to nest.  CHEERS!!

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nachogonzalez
Commander
Commander

Yes, i think for lab and product testing purposes nesting is a really good option.
Never run production or such things in a nested environment since it is not officially supported.

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ctucci
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Definitely look into and implement vSAN.

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