Lab Environment

[ymohamed]

We are trying to build a lab environment with the following equipment.

2 - Dell 1850 Poweredge Servers with 2 NICS each

1 - Dell 2600 - (Used as Openfiler server)

1 - Dumb 1000 Gigabit switch

1 - Dumb 100 switch

How would you go about setting up the network?.

[azn2kew]

Depends on what version of ESX you're going to use and that depends on Hardware Compatability List. Check to see if your PE 1850 supported before deploying a lab. You can configure CIFS/NFS/iSCSI Openfiler on that no problem just make sure you have enough network connections and bandwidth to support it. Once done, you just install ESX 3.5/4.0 hosts on each server and you can manage via vSphere client or install virtual center server as well that way you can utilize more exciting features within vCenter server.

Once done, you can create virtual guests (windows, linux, netware) and test it, and you can convert it as a template and deploy it automatically if you want to.

From infrastructure design perspective, make sure you have redundancies for network switches, iscsi/nfs paths and multiple ESX hosts within a DRS, HA, VMotion clustered. That way you will have 99.999% uptime.

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Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

VMware vExpert 2009

iGeek Systems Inc.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant

[ymohamed]

Thanks...I was looking for specifics..

This is for a lab, so security and redundancy is not a big deal..

[ymohamed]

ESX 3.5 servers

[azn2kew]

Since your'e using OpenFiler for iSCSI solution, networking is simple as local LAN connections just connected to 1GBe NICs to your swich and ESX hosts NICs.

1. pNIC0->SC/VMotion

2. pNIC1->VMotion/SC

3. pNIC2-3->iSCSI Network

4. pNIC4-5->DMZ,Backup,Test networks (anything)

You should read the ESX 3.5 Administrator guide and iSCSI guide as well it shows you all the details how to set them up. http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35u2/vi3_35_25_u2_iscsi_san_cfg.pdf

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

VMware vExpert 2009

iGeek Systems Inc.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant

[weinstein5]

When you say lab environment are you talking a lab to develop other software or a lab environemnt to test VI-3 I would use the 100 MB switch for your management netwoek and 1000MB switch for yout VMs -

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[ymohamed]

It is to test software and test vmware

[azn2kew]

Even if you're using VMware to test out the features or using VMware for software deployment lab environment to test (windows, linux, network etc..) that is a good choice to start in this case. Both 100mb and 1000mb will work just fine if everything is connected to from LAN network. if using iSCSI openfiler, using 1000mb would preferrable since it gives you better throughput. just pop them up and test it and rip it and test it never hurts and adjust them accordingly if you need. I have a complete test lab using Openfiler (iSCSI, NFS) and ESX host to test everything.

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

VMware vExpert 2009

iGeek Systems Inc.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant