Vsphere Lab setup tips

[matheenl]

Hi all

I am planning to take VCP on Vsphere4. I had atteneded ESX3.5 fast track but didnot take the test. So I reckon I need to take 'What's new in Vsphere' course to do my VCP4. As a part of that preperation I would like to setup a lab for Vpshere in to my office. Please find the details below.

On to our office we already have 2 live ESX3.5 hosts and the office is running on Wind03 DC, EX 2003 for mails, on class C IP addressing and have enough IP addresses for the test lab. I am planning to install EX2007, Win2008 DC (test machine) on the lab Vpshere hosts.

I would like to know what will be the best way to isolate the live ESX3.5 hosts from the lab Vsphere hosts at the ESX level (I don't want to use seperate switches) as I don't want test DC, EX2007 interferning with my live systems. I would be able to control both the live and the test hosts from my PC.

Please find the test systems I will be using below

1. Two Dell power edge 1950 servers (will be installing ESX4.0 as hosts)

2. One HP Prolian machine (will be installing Openfiler or SAN melody for the storage)

3. For VC I don't have a physical machine at the moment, Would I be able to run as a VM under my live host as I have some free resources available on the live host.

Your assistance will be much appreciated..

Regards

Matheen

[awliste]

I'd recommend making an entirely separate VLAN, or VLANs, and running with that.

Regarding your question about VC, not sure by what you mean as 'live host' (production host?). If you mean running VC for your vSphere in your existing 3.5 cluster, the answer is no if it is separated by VLANs.

If you mean as a standalone VM inside of one of your 1950's inside the vSphere environment, then yes, absolutely no problem.

Hope this helps.

- abe