Please review my Home Lab

[mars_cydonia]

Hello,

today I have finished to build my vSphere Home Lab.

I have started my adventure with ESXi and vSphere last summer almost for play but now I have finally found the time and in a particular way the money to build my vSphere Home Lab.

Still isn't what I really want however, I'm quite happy with my config.

This is my Hardware:

PC1

Asus P6T Deluxe V2

Intel Core i7 920

24GB DDR-3 RAM

ESXi installed on an USB Stick

3x1TB SataII HD

PC2

Asus P8P67-M

Intel Core i5 2500

16GB DDR-3 RAM

ESXi installed on USB Stick

PC3

Asus P7H55-M

Intel Core i3 540

8GB DDR-3

Windows Server 2008 R2

vSphere Client

I have installed FreeNAS on the PC1 and created a Stripe RAID0 array with the 3 1TB HD that I have on the PC1 and then added the NFS Share to ESXi.

Now I'm planning to install vSphere Server as VM on the PC1 and 2 Windows Server 2008 R2 VM for AD and DNS and then I'll play with vMotion etc...

Now what I need is a switch because actually I'm using my DD-WRT Gigabit Rourter but I know that is not the right solution.

However, what do you think of my Home lab?

I know, isn't perfect, is there something that I should do or should correct or avoid?

Thank You So Much!!!

Marco G.

[AndreTheGiant]

Could be good.

I suggest to buy a swith with VLAN and PVLAN support in order to test also some DVS feature (if you need the lab to prepare for VCAP-DCA or also for the "simple" VCP exam).

Also test both the iSCSI and the NFS solution because they work in different way.

Andre

[jose_maria_gonz]

Not bat at al l

As Andre mentioned a physical switch with VLAN support and Jumbo Frames would be a bonus.

Good luck.

Rgds,

J.

My Company http://www.jmgvirtualconsulting.com

My Blog http://www.josemariagonzalez.es

My Virtualization Web TV Show http://www.virtualizacion.tv

[mars_cydonia]

Thanks for your answers, I really appreciate.

Today I decided to buy another PC for NAS so I can have a PC dedicated only to shared storage.

So now I have no HD in my 2 vSphere Whiteboxes, this is the hardware for my NAS:

MB: Asrock H61M-GS

CPU: Pentium G620 (1155) Dual Core

RAM: 4GB DDR-3 Dual Channel

4HD (3x1Tb) and 1x640GB

FreeNAS

I have created a striped RAID0 array with the 3 1TB HD and 1 iSCSI target with the 640GB HD.

I'll use the iSCSI target to store my VM ISOs and the NFS Share for VM Files.

[mars_cydonia]

I forgot: I have decided to install vSphere Server on physical hardware on PC3, do you think that this is a good decision?

[jose_maria_gonz]

As long as it boots up and works it would be a good decision

JFYI, Check this out to make sure that whatever you are buying it would work http://ultimatewhitebox.com/systems

Rgds,

J.

My Company http://www.jmgvirtualconsulting.com

My Blog http://www.josemariagonzalez.es

My Virtualization Web TV Show http://www.virtualizacion.tv

[DSTAVERT]

Most embedded NICs do not work for ESXi. The vast majority are Realtek and are not supported. Without a supported NIC ESXi will not install. You can use one of the Intel Desktop adapters from the http://vm-help.com whitebox HCL or the VMware HCL http://vmware.com/go/hcl

[logiboy123]

With a small environment like this I would consider installing the vCenter Server Virtual Appliance and use the free DB2 database. This way you can use vCenter as a VM and not have to provide a Windows license.

http://vmwire.com/2011/07/15/vsphere-vcenter-server-linux-virtual-appliance-quick-start-guide/

Also some realtek chipset networking cards will be usable in ESXi 5.0. So it might be worth waiting for this release in a few weeks. I know the Vendors have a copy already so it won't be long before you can download it from VMware.

Regards,

Paul