SAN / NAS Hardware suggestions for Home Lab(cheap)

[HomeBrewer]

Ok. I'm new here. Not just to the forum.

I just started down the VMWare path and I could use some suggestions, that I'm sure, have been repeated hundreds of time.

I have 2 Compaq DL380's in my home lab that I am using to learn and get up to speed on VMWare. But I need to get a SAN/NAS so that I can perform all of the real functions, Vmotion, DRS, HA, etc.

So I was hoping someone might know of a cheap and popular that accomplishes this task. It is for home lab purposes only, nothing Prod.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

HomeBrewer

[wardb0071]

When I first started testing ESX I used 3 desktop PC's 2 with ESX installed and the other a linux box setup as a NAS .

So a linux install on an old PC with NAS configured does the trick.

[mrksiddiqui]

I have used Linux based openfiler. It gives you option for NAS as well as ISCSI.

[HomeBrewer]

Any Windows based solutions?

Old habits die hard. Very hard.

Thanks for your input.

HomeBrewer

[learningman · Accepted solution]

If you have a copy of Windows 2003 R2 NFS is built in.

If you found this or any other post helpful please consider the use of the Helpful/Correct buttons to award points

[vmroyale]

Hello. I'll throw in another nod for Openfiler. The install and configuration are both incredibly easy, and you won't need to know any Linux to get it working.

I tried several times to get Windows Services for UNIX working on a 2003 Server and never had good results with it. To me, getting this working was significantly more difficult than using OpenFiler, and the performance was not as good.

Good Luck!

[wardb0071]

If you really want to learn ESX then you should get used to using Linux as most trouble shooting is done from the CLI and uses alot of standard unix commands.

Linux or openfiler free - Windows expensive.....

[mrksiddiqui]

Two solutions I know that will convert Windows server to ISCSI target. You might be able to do a trail. But for Free and very good solutions should look into Linux

1. StarWind ISCSI Target.

2. WinTarget.

[runclear]

+1 more for OpenFiler ....

even if you have little linux experience, with a few hours poking around, you should have no issues setting up NFS/ISCSI volume......

[Realitysoft]

Hi HB, Just joined the forum as I am taking the vi3: 3.5 course next week and going down the same lines as yourself with testing. Just wondered if you did use a linux host for storage and did it work? Any info would be greatly aqppreciated. Thanks and good luck.

Jim