I figured it was hyperbole as well. That said, I have a home lab setup to play with technology. Sometimes I play a lot and sometimes I ignore it. However, because I have it available I can play with it. Some situations like learning a new technology because you want to prepare to leave your current employer on your own schedule would dictate prudence rather then using your current companies existing test environment. Others because you really enjoy playing with the technology. I, myself, go through phases of interest mixed with family, woodworking, gaming, sca, etc.
On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 8:41 AM, Sam Cayze <sca...@gmail.com> wrote: > +1. > > My employer pays for everything as for as test labs require because they > realize how much it will benefit them, and I keep it all at work. > > When I am home, work shuts off, unless I am behind, need to do afterhours > work, or there are fires. > > I have a $200 dollar, 5-year desktop at home (Albeit I do have a fancy work > laptop). That’s it. > > > > The only problem is that if I ever find myself without a job, I lose access > to my test bed. However, the costs to set one up are pretty cheap. > > > > Sam > > > > *From:* Daniel Rodriguez [mailto:drod...@gmail.com] > *Sent:* Thursday, January 13, 2011 8:49 AM > > *To:* NT System Admin Issues > *Subject:* Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch > > > > Agreed! > > On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 9:47 AM, Don Guyer <don.gu...@prufoxroach.com> > wrote: > > From the OP: “I’m a little ashamed to admit it, but I'm probably one of > the few tech heads out there that doesn’t have a home lab setup........” > > > > Why be ashamed? Is someone questioning your skill set or dedication because > you don’t have a home lab setup? > > > > I’m not ashamed at all that I don’t have one setup. At the moment, one of > my workstations at home cannot connect to the WWW and I could care less, > quite frankly. As long as one in my house can, great. > > > > The last thing I want to do in my free time is work on computers at home, > or anywhere else for that matter, unless necessary. > > > > As long as I have a test environment at my place of employment, I’m all > set. No need to “burn out” outside of work, gotta have outside > interests/hobbies. > > > > My $.02 > > > > J > > > > Don Guyer > > Systems Engineer - Information Services > > Prudential, Fox & Roach/Trident Group > > 431 W. Lancaster Avenue > > Devon, PA 19333 > > Direct: (610) 993-3299 > > Fax: (610) 650-5306 > > don.gu...@prufoxroach.com > > > > *From:* N Parr [mailto:npar...@mortonind.com] > *Sent:* Thursday, January 13, 2011 9:39 AM > > > *To:* NT System Admin Issues > > *Subject:* RE: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch > > > > My setup is almost the same except I use a cheap SSD for ESXi boot and then > have a couple WD2002FYPS drives mirrored on an LSI Megaraid SATA controller > that was on VMware's HCL. You can barely hear the thing running right next > to you and it sips the power. Have about 7 VM's running on it at any one > time, DC, Exchange, spam filter, vcenter, VDR, surveillance, etc. In > addition to RAM don't skimp on the Raid controller, get the best you can > afford that's on the HCL. > > > ------------------------------ > > *From:* Ken Schaefer [mailto:k...@adopenstatic.com] > *Sent:* Wednesday, January 12, 2011 7:44 PM > *To:* NT System Admin Issues > *Subject:* RE: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch > > You don’t really need CPU power. You need RAM to cater for your VMs. You > need a decent disk subsystem unless you want everything to crawl. > > > > My home setup is a Dell PowerEdge (a low end model). It’s a quad core CPU, > but barely uses anything, so don’t worry too much about this part. > > It has 12GB of RAM in it. I think most high end consumer boards will > support 16+ GB of RAM, so I’d look for something like that. Exchange 2010 or > MOSS 2010 would be 2GB VMs. SCOM would also be. So factor getting a board > that gives you up to 16GB of RAM (or at least 8 as a minimum). > > Disk is the next thing to focus on. If you want to run all of these OSes > off one or two disks, things will crawl. Either get multiple SATS disks and > put them into a RAID array –or- consider getting a couple of SSDs for the > most disk I/O intensive VMs. I bought 2 x 120GB SSDs for my home server, and > keep 2 x 2TB regular drives. The 2TB drives hold the VHDs for Windows Home > Server, the VHD for WSUS patch storage and other bulk storage. But the SSDs > hold everything that doesn’t require a lot of space (e.g. Forefront TMG, > Exchange 2010). > > > > Brian’s suggestion of getting something like a Precision or low-end > PowerEdge (or even an XPS) from the outlet store is a good one. > > > > Cheers > > Ken > > > > *From:* Jonathan [mailto:ncm...@gmail.com] > *Sent:* Thursday, 13 January 2011 7:37 AM > *To:* NT System Admin Issues > *Subject:* OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch > > > > Alright ladies and gents, I'm looking for suggestions and pitfalls to avoid > (aren't we all?). I’m a little ashamed to admit it, but I'm probably one of > the few tech heads out there that doesn’t have a home lab setup, and I think > it’s about time that I change that. We’ve had numerous discussions on this > list about home vmware setups and personal SANs etc, and I’d like to hear > some suggestions on what I should start with, mistakes to avoid, etc. I’m on > a budget – I don’t have thousands to spend, but I’ve got to start somewhere. > > > > Here’s what I’ve got right now that is *potentially* useable (I'm not set > on using this stuff, but right now it is just collecting dust): > > > > - 3 or 4 old Dell Optiplex desktops (one MT form factor, and 2 desktop > form factor) with P4 procs and a couple Gigs of RAM > > > - Broadband Cable connection @ 10 Mbps > > > - (my wireless router just recently died) > > > - 2 free standing two post 7 foot racks (that I was thinking about > tying together to make a 4 post rack) > > > > I’d like to focus on Windows Server 2003/2008 & Powershell. Exchange, > Sharepoint, and SCCM are of particular interest, and so is vmware (I will > probably want to play with Hyper-V, but don’t have much need for it.) > Ultimately, I’d like to include some Cisco as well, as I have a good (albeit > basic) Cisco background with PIXes, ASAs, and Catalyst switches. Oh yeah, > and Linux too... > > > > Finally, I'd also be interested in suggestions for how to [legally] obtain > MS licensing on the cheap if that's possible - 120 day evals aren't really > going to cut it. Action Pack? MSDN? > > > > Thanks, > > > > Jonathan > > A+, MCSA, MCSE > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
