VCP lab (home-lab) setup

[sorabhk5]

We all know that hands-on experience is of prime importance in VCP exam.

So we need a LAB setup, some of us work on these technologies in our day to day job or few have access to resources in the office for Lab setup.

But I am curious to know what all are using for hands-on practice in their home/personal LAB

Or what is the recommended setup for VCP 5 certification.?

As written by David here  http://virtualizationreview.com/articles/2011/03/01/how-to-create-a-virtual-vsphere-lab.aspx basically there are 2 options:

Option 1. Using Workstation with Virtual vSphere Infrastructure    -- Cost effective

Option 2. Using Real vSphere Infrastructure with Dedicated Hardware -- Costly

So which option you are usnig or prefer.

TIA

[CloudZone]

I have the good fortune to work in a real environment, but for the lab I use a PC with an Intel i7-920, 12GB and workstation 8.

My LAB for VCP is:

2 Host ESXi 5 in virtual machine mode

1 vCenter Appliance

1 SAN Openfile

Using the demo licenses spending appears to be only the purchase of computer.

[AndreTheGiant]

Both could be fine.

IMHO I prefer a dedicated server (with supported hardware or a whitebox) solution.

[MarekZdrojewski]

Hi,

I used a laptop (Quad Core, 8GB) for a while, works OK if you running 2-3 VMs, after that the performance drops. Upgrading to SSD is an option.

This month I bought a physical lab setup (server, switch, NAS) though. Quite expensive but I must say that I'm quite happy with the performance and capabiliteis, now I'm able to run more workloads and test more things.

Cheers!

[sorabhk5]

Thanks all for the response.

[Popatopia]

I went with option 2. I plan on using my VCP lab to study for other certifications and run my home lab. I wanted something that could simulate a real Enterprise environment. I picked up 3 HP G5 DL360s for around $525.00 + (225.00 for additional NICs, RAM, and HD), purchased a Cisco 48 port Gig switch for $300.00, picked up an HP 19U server rack for $500.00, and I am looking into my storage solution right now. I will most likely pickup an IOMEGA device.