Planning VCP Cert Test Box for Study...

[chillyhead]

I am getting ready to take the VCP class later this month and want to get a low cost server to setup a small lab for the test. I see the HP DL360's can be had for around $400.00 to $800.00 on eBay with 2 Xeon CPU's. How many VM's can I run on a Dual Xeon box with say 2GB of RAM with decent speed? I was hoping on at least three VM's between the two cpu's. Thanks guys...

[oreeh]

2GB RAM is a bit low. Since the vmKernel and the COS needs some memory you could only use ~1GB for the VMs.

[virtualdud3]

I agree that 2GB of RAM is on the low side.

I would run a minimum of 4 GB; I have run around 8 VMs concurrently on my dual-Xeon machine (when it had 4 GB of RAM) without problems. Once I bumped the RAM to 6 GB, I am running 10-12 VMs with great performance.

It would not hurt to have a second ESX server so that you can cluster the two of them together and setup/test VMotion/DRS/HA. So, an option to consider is purchasing 2 ESX servers, with 2GB in each or 2GB in one and 4 GB in the other. Install Linux on an old box you have laying around, and configure it as an iSCSI target. You will now be able to setup/test VMotion/DRS/HA.

This might sound like a bit of cash outlay but the hands-on experience will pay dividends. Heck, if you don't want to keep the additional ESX server you can easily sell it once you pass the exam.

Just my $.02 worth.

[chillyhead]

Interesting. So if I install 4GB of ram for the box, I can easily run multiple VM's for only two cpu's?

Ideally I want to run the following VM's:

1 - DC with AD installed

1 - Citrix Server Metaframe XP FR3

1 - Citrix Server 4.5

1 - Possibly an IIS Server with DNS/DHCP

This will really allow me to test these applications and VMWare as well for my lab. Since it's just me, the Citrix servers wont have a lot of load on them.

[oreeh]

A general rule of thumb is 4-6 VMs per CPU core.

[chillyhead]

Thats impressive. Thanks again for the info. Now I need to look at building the iSCSI box. Any suggestions for the Linux type? Fedora, CentOS or Ubuntu?

[virtualdud3]

I haven't had any problems running multiple VMs on only two cpu's.

Oreeh is correct with his guideline of 4-6 VMs per core. This mainly applies to production implementations. Since you are planning on setting these up in a test lab, I don't see you having any problems with exceeding 4-6 VMs per core.

Are you planning on installing VirtualCenter on a physical host, or running it as a VM? I have had great luck running VC as a VM (both in testing and in production); if you are planning on running VC as a VM, below is a link to a whitepaper you might find useful:

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_vc_in_vm.pdf

Please remember to award points if you found any of the posts correct/useful. Thanks!!!

[chillyhead]

I will check it out. Thank you.

I am hoping to secure a entry level VMWare job later after the cert and more practice. I have been in the IT field for 15 years now mostly dealing with Citrix, AD and HP servers for the hardware.

It seems like most of the VMWare jobs I see on Dice and Monster are consultant based. Perhaps that is where I should look for work when I am ready?

[oreeh]

Fedora and CentOS (and other distros with highly modified kernels) aren't ideal but for a test box shold be sufficient.

Just choose the distro you are familiar with.

[Nibor]

Check out Openfiler (http://www.openfiler.com/), works great as an iSCSI target.