I have no experience with installing apps in VMware, so I went on Ebay and bought an internal 1.5t hard drive that had CUCM, UC, Presence, UCCX, etc. already installed via VMware.
I installed the hard drive in a desktop/server I bought thru an employee discount program, HP quad core 8gb ram, 1t hd, 21 inch monitor for about $600, adding the hard drive with the apps already installed, cost under $800. I installed 2 additional NIC cards in the server, hard set an ip address in each, installed VM Workstation to access the apps, I had to make some additional changes to the VM config files to get them to work with my network setup, but things work very well. Stephen Manuel From: ccie_voice-boun...@onlinestudylist.com [mailto:ccie_voice-boun...@onlinestudylist.com] On Behalf Of Sam Park Sent: Friday, July 22, 2011 8:57 AM To: indigoboy Cc: OSL Questions Subject: Re: [OSL | CCIE_Voice] Memory for your VM & VMware follow up. I started the UC apps on VMware Server 2, then after a year migrated to ESXi. Performance is much better. On Server 2, which I ran on top of Ubuntu Linux, sometimes the VM's were sluggish, but enough to study with. On ESXi, I don't notice that sluggishness. Also, you could run your Windows OSes on VMWare. More and more, I'm trying to run everything I can on VMWare. As well, since Cisco is pushing virtualized UC, it would not be wasted effort to learn and use ESXi. There is a post earlier in the month where I gave some links for ESXi VMWare. And to Bill's point about studying on MAC OSX, I use WinXP on VMWare Fusion on MacBook Pro, since the student PC will be a Windows machine (XP, I believe). Run the vSphere client there. If you mostly use a laptop like I do, then connect a full size PC (not Mac) Keyboard to study. Again, this what you will use when you sit the lab. The laptop, as well as Mac, keyboards either lack some important keys for shortcuts or are located somewhere different than during your practices. Your muscle memory will be thrown off - every little advantage helps, right? Sam. On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 8:15 PM, Bill Lake <whl...@gmail.com> wrote: ESXi is loaded via a keyboard and mouse in this situation, after that is complete, everything else has to be completed remotely. You first go to a web page, get the VM client, install client and begin installing your Virtual Machines (VM's) that is it. You might want to play with shared resources if your system is a little low on memory but otherwise you should be fine. As far as performance, I find that by using some old SATA disk I had laying around and spreading the servers out over several disk, that I can not really even tell I am on a VM, it seems as responsive as a real server for the most part, sometimes if I am booting another system that is on the same HDD that will slow things down so I try to avoid that but otherwise it works great. Much better than multiple machines in a VMware server or workstation running in windows or OS X. The only disadvantage is there is not an OS X client but if your doing your IE study in OS X you have to have a windows machine to run some things anyway. On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 5:18 PM, indigoboy <indigo...@gmail.com> wrote: This seems like a doable solution. to dualboot from the bios. In terms of quantifying the cost-benefit of going into a ESX environment, what would you say the advantages are? That is, in terms of speed, is it about 20% faster than a windows platform? Just trying to put it in numbers to justify the extra work involved =) Also, one advantage having my CUCM sit on top of windows is that I don't need to hook up a monitor or keyboard to it. I have it set to just boot up and run on VNC. Does ESX allow for any type of remote desktop feature where I can bypass keyboard/mouse/monitor solution? On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 2:54 PM, Bill Lake <whl...@gmail.com> wrote: Yes you should be able to dual boot, I doubt that the boot loaders would work but you could use the BIOS controls to select the boot device. Some systems like Dell/HP ect let you pick the boot device from a menu. So if I was doing this, I would load windows on 1 disk, disconnect that disk, install ESXi on a second disk, not the same SATA channel. Then I would connect up both disk and use the BIOS to pick the OS to boot. On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 4:10 PM, indigoboy <indigo...@gmail.com> wrote: I know ESX would be the fastest but I'd like to be able to use the box for other things occasionally. That being said: 1) are drivers a pain to load on ESX? 2) is there a dual-boot option where I can boot ESX and Windows? On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 7:36 AM, Sam Park <upperlevelpark...@gmail.com> wrote: Answering VMWare question. If you can afford to, go Bare-metal VMWare ESXi. Sam On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 9:27 AM, indigoboy <indigo...@gmail.com> wrote: Last week, the Kingston's 4x 4gb were down to a record low $89 after rebate. It sold out after two days but I would expect memory prices to keep falling lower & lower. Kingston HyperX 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3-1600MHz Desktop Memory $89.95AR http://www.techbargains.com/news_displayItem.cfm/261095 On the other hand, I posted a question that has probably been answered before but still up for debate: Can anybody weigh in? Which OS/VMware version combo is the fastest for CUCM? 32-bit Windows Server? 64-bit windows XP / Server / 7? If 64-bit, which VMware combo? I'm currently running workstation 6.5 https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2093173 On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 5:26 AM, Bill Lake <whl...@gmail.com> wrote: anyone with a PC style VMWare server and wanting to upgrade, deal at NewEgg this weekend get 16GB DDR3 1600 RAM for $135 use code EMCKCHJ37 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145347 <http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145347&nm_mc=EMC-I GNEFL072111&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL072111-_-EMC-072111-Index-_-DesktopMemory-_-201 45347-L04A> &nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL072111&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL072111-_-EMC-072111-Index-_-Desktop Memory-_-20145347-L04A _______________________________________________ For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, please visit www.ipexpert.com Are you a CCNP or CCIE and looking for a job? Check out www.PlatinumPlacement.com _______________________________________________ For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, please visit www.ipexpert.com Are you a CCNP or CCIE and looking for a job? Check out www.PlatinumPlacement.com _______________________________________________ For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, please visit www.ipexpert.com Are you a CCNP or CCIE and looking for a job? Check out www.PlatinumPlacement.com
_______________________________________________ For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, please visit www.ipexpert.com Are you a CCNP or CCIE and looking for a job? Check out www.PlatinumPlacement.com
