Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
It's not very often I get a chance to help you guys out? But, if it is cheap hardware you are looking to buy. I have used these for years and have also turned other in the same spot as you. You may be able to get stuff cheaper off ebay. But, do you trust the seller? http://www.pacificgeek.com/ http://www.pacificgeek.com/http://www.surpluscomputers.com/ http://www.surpluscomputers.com/ http://www.weirdstuff.com/cgi-bin/category/0 http://www.weirdstuff.com/cgi-bin/category/0as for software I would go with action pack. And yes you do need to be verified you are a real business. On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 2:17 AM, Brian Desmond br...@briandesmond.comwrote: *I have an IcyDock cage. It came with the cables, brackets, etc which I was pretty impressed with. Just had to wire it up to my SATA controller.* * * *I also have a big Buffalo NAS with piles of junk on it. I know VMWare supports NFS of some sort so at some point if I need to expand I might look in to that. * * * *Thanks,* *Brian Desmond* *br...@briandesmond.com* * * *w – 312.625.1438 | c – 312.731.3132* * * *From:* Jonathan [mailto:ncm...@gmail.com] *Sent:* Thursday, January 13, 2011 1:25 PM *To:* NT System Admin Issues *Subject:* Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch Carpentry, huh? Well, my boss is a Jewish carpenter. ;-) Thanks for the input, everyone. This definitely helps me to put things into perspective. As for being ashamed, well, ASB picked up on the intended hyperbole. I have much ?better? things of which to actually be ashamed! I haven't had the burning desire or time to work with a home lab in the past, but definitely need to, and now is the time. The office is not conducive to a test environment, and the way things are these days, who knows how much longer %work% will be there. If I decide to branch out on my own, I need a test environment. Building such while being employed is much easier to do financially, as opposed to the alternative. On a more technical note, ASB - why specifically did you recommend that particular model Netgear over Linksys or anything else? Brian - curious, what brand/model is your external SATA cage? I don't know why I didn't think about a TechNet subscription (*headdesk*) - I have one at work. Duh. Thanks for the reminder. I even found a discount code online for TechNet Pro (no media) that knocked $88 off! Steven - multiple good points about documentation and 'real' servers being LOUD compared to desktops. I need to learn more about multiplicity, and I had not heard of Virtual Box. I'll have to read up on that as well. Again, thanks to EVERYONE for your input. I really appreciate it. Jonathan On Jan 13, 2011 1:10 PM, Jonathan Link jonathan.l...@gmail.com wrote: ~ 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 -- Gene C. Misc. B.S. http://genec-lori.com/ PackRat GarageSale http://genec-lori.biz/ Genes-Computers Inc. Yulee ,Fl Established 1981, Microsoft OEM Registered member, system builder Active registered Microsoft Partner Active Charter Partner of The Association of System Builders and Integrators If you think you're beaten, Then you are! If you give up the fight, Accept it !! ~ 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
RE: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
Curious, has anyone ever built a test lab in the Cloud, utilizing Amazon EC2 for example? Viable solution? Sam From: Brian Desmond [mailto:br...@briandesmond.com] Sent: Friday, January 14, 2011 1:18 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch I have an IcyDock cage. It came with the cables, brackets, etc which I was pretty impressed with. Just had to wire it up to my SATA controller. I also have a big Buffalo NAS with piles of junk on it. I know VMWare supports NFS of some sort so at some point if I need to expand I might look in to that. Thanks, Brian Desmond br...@briandesmond.com w - 312.625.1438 | c - 312.731.3132 From: Jonathan [mailto:ncm...@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2011 1:25 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch Carpentry, huh? Well, my boss is a Jewish carpenter. ;-) Thanks for the input, everyone. This definitely helps me to put things into perspective. As for being ashamed, well, ASB picked up on the intended hyperbole. I have much ?better? things of which to actually be ashamed! I haven't had the burning desire or time to work with a home lab in the past, but definitely need to, and now is the time. The office is not conducive to a test environment, and the way things are these days, who knows how much longer %work% will be there. If I decide to branch out on my own, I need a test environment. Building such while being employed is much easier to do financially, as opposed to the alternative. On a more technical note, ASB - why specifically did you recommend that particular model Netgear over Linksys or anything else? Brian - curious, what brand/model is your external SATA cage? I don't know why I didn't think about a TechNet subscription (*headdesk*) - I have one at work. Duh. Thanks for the reminder. I even found a discount code online for TechNet Pro (no media) that knocked $88 off! Steven - multiple good points about documentation and 'real' servers being LOUD compared to desktops. I need to learn more about multiplicity, and I had not heard of Virtual Box. I'll have to read up on that as well. Again, thanks to EVERYONE for your input. I really appreciate it. Jonathan On Jan 13, 2011 1:10 PM, Jonathan Link jonathan.l...@gmail.com wrote: ~ 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
RE: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
No - but on the face of it, it sounds like a grand solution! Good thinking. From: sca...@gmail.com To: ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com Subject: RE: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2011 12:54:23 -0600 Curious, has anyone ever built a test lab in the Cloud, utilizing Amazon EC2 for example? Viable solution? Sam From: Brian Desmond [mailto:br...@briandesmond.com] Sent: Friday, January 14, 2011 1:18 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch I have an IcyDock cage. It came with the cables, brackets, etc which I was pretty impressed with. Just had to wire it up to my SATA controller. I also have a big Buffalo NAS with piles of junk on it. I know VMWare supports NFS of some sort so at some point if I need to expand I might look in to that. Thanks,Brian desmondbr...@briandesmond.com w – 312.625.1438 | c – 312.731.3132 From: Jonathan [mailto:ncm...@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2011 1:25 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch Carpentry, huh? Well, my boss is a Jewish carpenter. ;-)Thanks for the input, everyone. This definitely helps me to put things into perspective. As for being ashamed, well, ASB picked up on the intended hyperbole. I have much ?better? things of which to actually be ashamed!I haven't had the burning desire or time to work with a home lab in the past, but definitely need to, and now is the time. The office is not conducive to a test environment, and the way things are these days, who knows how much longer %work% will be there. If I decide to branch out on my own, I need a test environment. Building such while being employed is much easier to do financially, as opposed to the alternative.On a more technical note, ASB - why specifically did you recommend that particular model Netgear over Linksys or anything else?Brian - curious, what brand/model is your external SATA cage? I don't know why I didn't think about a TechNet subscription (*headdesk*) - I have one at work. Duh. Thanks for the reminder. I even found a discount code online for TechNet Pro (no media) that knocked $88 off!Steven - multiple good points about documentation and 'real' servers being LOUD compared to desktops. I need to learn more about multiplicity, and I had not heard of Virtual Box. I'll have to read up on that as well.Again, thanks to EVERYONE for your input. I really appreciate it.JonathanOn Jan 13, 2011 1:10 PM, Jonathan Link jonathan.l...@gmail.com wrote:~ 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
RE: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
I've put stuff up there. Biggest issue is going to be cost and the semi non-persisted storage that EC2 uses. Thanks, Brian Desmond br...@briandesmond.commailto:br...@briandesmond.com c - 312.731.3132 From: Sam Cayze [mailto:sca...@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, January 14, 2011 12:54 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch Curious, has anyone ever built a test lab in the Cloud, utilizing Amazon EC2 for example? Viable solution? Sam From: Brian Desmond [mailto:br...@briandesmond.com] Sent: Friday, January 14, 2011 1:18 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch I have an IcyDock cage. It came with the cables, brackets, etc which I was pretty impressed with. Just had to wire it up to my SATA controller. I also have a big Buffalo NAS with piles of junk on it. I know VMWare supports NFS of some sort so at some point if I need to expand I might look in to that. Thanks, Brian Desmond br...@briandesmond.commailto:br...@briandesmond.com w - 312.625.1438 | c - 312.731.3132 From: Jonathan [mailto:ncm...@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2011 1:25 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch Carpentry, huh? Well, my boss is a Jewish carpenter. ;-) Thanks for the input, everyone. This definitely helps me to put things into perspective. As for being ashamed, well, ASB picked up on the intended hyperbole. I have much ?better? things of which to actually be ashamed! I haven't had the burning desire or time to work with a home lab in the past, but definitely need to, and now is the time. The office is not conducive to a test environment, and the way things are these days, who knows how much longer %work% will be there. If I decide to branch out on my own, I need a test environment. Building such while being employed is much easier to do financially, as opposed to the alternative. On a more technical note, ASB - why specifically did you recommend that particular model Netgear over Linksys or anything else? Brian - curious, what brand/model is your external SATA cage? I don't know why I didn't think about a TechNet subscription (*headdesk*) - I have one at work. Duh. Thanks for the reminder. I even found a discount code online for TechNet Pro (no media) that knocked $88 off! Steven - multiple good points about documentation and 'real' servers being LOUD compared to desktops. I need to learn more about multiplicity, and I had not heard of Virtual Box. I'll have to read up on that as well. Again, thanks to EVERYONE for your input. I really appreciate it. Jonathan On Jan 13, 2011 1:10 PM, Jonathan Link jonathan.l...@gmail.commailto:jonathan.l...@gmail.com wrote: ~ 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.commailto: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.commailto: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.commailto: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
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
RE: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
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 mailto: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
Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
Agreed! On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 9:47 AM, Don Guyer don.gu...@prufoxroach.comwrote: 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
Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
+1 for being a Luddite of sorts at home. I dabbled with some stuff, but honestly it felt like work. One possible reason is that I was asking more of my equipment than was reasonable (though not impossible) and it always seemed to require intervention on my part. All problems are solvable with enough time and money. Figuring out the proper ratio of the two is the trick... On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 9:47 AM, Don Guyer don.gu...@prufoxroach.comwrote: 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
RE: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
+1 I put in plenty of extra hours at work and doing work from home. It's one thing to do it as a hobby, but when I'm at home and not working I have plenty of other interests to keep me occupied. From: Don Guyer [mailto:don.gu...@prufoxroach.com] Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2011 8:47 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch 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 :) 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.commailto: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
Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
*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.* Some of my hobbies actually coincide with my career. Or, maybe it's the other way around, since I started the hobby first. Of course, there's still no reason for the OP to be *ashamed*, but I saw that as plain ol' hyperbole. *ASB *(My Bio via About.Me http://about.me/Andrew.S.Baker/bio) *Exploiting Technology for Business Advantage...* * * On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 9:47 AM, Don Guyer don.gu...@prufoxroach.comwrote: 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
RE: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
+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
Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
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
Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
Yeah woodworking! On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 12:55 PM, Steven Peck sep...@gmail.com wrote: 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
Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
Carpentry, huh? Well, my boss is a Jewish carpenter. ;-) Thanks for the input, everyone. This definitely helps me to put things into perspective. As for being ashamed, well, ASB picked up on the intended hyperbole. I have much ?better? things of which to actually be ashamed! I haven't had the burning desire or time to work with a home lab in the past, but definitely need to, and now is the time. The office is not conducive to a test environment, and the way things are these days, who knows how much longer %work% will be there. If I decide to branch out on my own, I need a test environment. Building such while being employed is much easier to do financially, as opposed to the alternative. On a more technical note, ASB - why specifically did you recommend that particular model Netgear over Linksys or anything else? Brian - curious, what brand/model is your external SATA cage? I don't know why I didn't think about a TechNet subscription (*headdesk*) - I have one at work. Duh. Thanks for the reminder. I even found a discount code online for TechNet Pro (no media) that knocked $88 off! Steven - multiple good points about documentation and 'real' servers being LOUD compared to desktops. I need to learn more about multiplicity, and I had not heard of Virtual Box. I'll have to read up on that as well. Again, thanks to EVERYONE for your input. I really appreciate it. Jonathan On Jan 13, 2011 1:10 PM, Jonathan Link jonathan.l...@gmail.com wrote: ~ 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
Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
A little late to the show here. You've gotten some some really good advice. I'll just add that it is very easy to start small and grow from there. I bought a Dell studio PC a little over a year ago for under $800. It came with two 750GB sata drives in a RAID 0 (not great for redundancy, but I've got backups of my critical data) and 8GB RAM. For about $100, I picked up a VT capable processor from Newegg which allowed me to host 64bit VMs (using VMWare server 2.0). My only intent for using Virtualization was to build the necessary environments for training. I've got DCs, Exchange 2010, Forefront, WSUS and a couple of Windows Client VMs. I'll admit things start to crawl while they're all running simultaneously, but it has served my needs quite well. Unfortunately, I was pretty amped when I was originally setting everything up. After a few weeks of actually using it for study/training purposes, the novelty wore off. That probably speaks more to my own lack of discipline, but I just wanted to throw that out there because the last thing you want to do is throw a bunch of time, energy and money into a test lab that will go unused. As of others have pointed out, life takes priority, and it's a lot more fun :) - Sean On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 11:24 AM, Jonathan ncm...@gmail.com wrote: Carpentry, huh? Well, my boss is a Jewish carpenter. ;-) Thanks for the input, everyone. This definitely helps me to put things into perspective. As for being ashamed, well, ASB picked up on the intended hyperbole. I have much ?better? things of which to actually be ashamed! I haven't had the burning desire or time to work with a home lab in the past, but definitely need to, and now is the time. The office is not conducive to a test environment, and the way things are these days, who knows how much longer %work% will be there. If I decide to branch out on my own, I need a test environment. Building such while being employed is much easier to do financially, as opposed to the alternative. On a more technical note, ASB - why specifically did you recommend that particular model Netgear over Linksys or anything else? Brian - curious, what brand/model is your external SATA cage? I don't know why I didn't think about a TechNet subscription (*headdesk*) - I have one at work. Duh. Thanks for the reminder. I even found a discount code online for TechNet Pro (no media) that knocked $88 off! Steven - multiple good points about documentation and 'real' servers being LOUD compared to desktops. I need to learn more about multiplicity, and I had not heard of Virtual Box. I'll have to read up on that as well. Again, thanks to EVERYONE for your input. I really appreciate it. Jonathan On Jan 13, 2011 1:10 PM, Jonathan Link jonathan.l...@gmail.com wrote: ~ 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
Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
Hey, Jonathan I've been seriously impressed with the Netgear. Excellent performance (5 GbE ports), and it supports DD-WRT, which I am using to make the functionality even more robust. I have multiple SSIDs setup with different security configurations, plus the device supports Syslog and 802.11x Lots of features, and under $80. *ASB *(My Bio via About.Me http://about.me/Andrew.S.Baker/bio) *Exploiting Technology for Business Advantage...* * * On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 3:24 PM, Jonathan ncm...@gmail.com wrote: Carpentry, huh? Well, my boss is a Jewish carpenter. ;-) Thanks for the input, everyone. This definitely helps me to put things into perspective. As for being ashamed, well, ASB picked up on the intended hyperbole. I have much ?better? things of which to actually be ashamed! I haven't had the burning desire or time to work with a home lab in the past, but definitely need to, and now is the time. The office is not conducive to a test environment, and the way things are these days, who knows how much longer %work% will be there. If I decide to branch out on my own, I need a test environment. Building such while being employed is much easier to do financially, as opposed to the alternative. On a more technical note, ASB - why specifically did you recommend that particular model Netgear over Linksys or anything else? Brian - curious, what brand/model is your external SATA cage? I don't know why I didn't think about a TechNet subscription (*headdesk*) - I have one at work. Duh. Thanks for the reminder. I even found a discount code online for TechNet Pro (no media) that knocked $88 off! Steven - multiple good points about documentation and 'real' servers being LOUD compared to desktops. I need to learn more about multiplicity, and I had not heard of Virtual Box. I'll have to read up on that as well. Again, thanks to EVERYONE for your input. I really appreciate it. Jonathan ~ 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
Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
Jonathan, Congratz on the online code for Technet. Everytime I look for one, it's already expired. Joe L. Heaton Windows Server Support Group Information Technology Branch Department of Fish and Game 1807 13th Street, Suite 201 Sacramento, CA 95811 Desk: (916) 323-1284 Jonathan ncm...@gmail.com 1/13/2011 12:24 PM Carpentry, huh? Well, my boss is a Jewish carpenter. ;-) Thanks for the input, everyone. This definitely helps me to put things into perspective. As for being ashamed, well, ASB picked up on the intended hyperbole. I have much ?better? things of which to actually be ashamed! I haven't had the burning desire or time to work with a home lab in the past, but definitely need to, and now is the time. The office is not conducive to a test environment, and the way things are these days, who knows how much longer %work% will be there. If I decide to branch out on my own, I need a test environment. Building such while being employed is much easier to do financially, as opposed to the alternative. On a more technical note, ASB - why specifically did you recommend that particular model Netgear over Linksys or anything else? Brian - curious, what brand/model is your external SATA cage? I don't know why I didn't think about a TechNet subscription (*headdesk*) - I have one at work. Duh. Thanks for the reminder. I even found a discount code online for TechNet Pro (no media) that knocked $88 off! Steven - multiple good points about documentation and 'real' servers being LOUD compared to desktops. I need to learn more about multiplicity, and I had not heard of Virtual Box. I'll have to read up on that as well. Again, thanks to EVERYONE for your input. I really appreciate it. Jonathan On Jan 13, 2011 1:10 PM, Jonathan Link jonathan.l...@gmail.com wrote: ~ 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
RE: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
Just got one of these: http://ubnt.com/powerapn from here: http://www.invictuswireless.com/Ubiquiti_PowerAPN_PAPN_PowerAP_N_Power_AP_N_ p/powerapn.htm Has a 2.4GHz spectrum analyzer built in. No GigE ports, but if you're just using it for an AP/gateway you shouldn't notice. Runs SSH out of the box and has an easy web GUI. Invictus is local to me but the owner is very knowledgeable. -- Mike Gill From: Jonathan [mailto:ncm...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 3:37 PM 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
Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
Are those antenna's removable? I have a point to point bridge with some old Linksys WAP54g's that need replacing and would rather keep my existing external antenna's. Steven Peck http://www.blkmtn.org On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 1:20 PM, Mike Gill lis...@canbyfoursquare.comwrote: Just got one of these: http://ubnt.com/powerapn from here: http://www.invictuswireless.com/Ubiquiti_PowerAPN_PAPN_PowerAP_N_Power_AP_N_p/powerapn.htm Has a 2.4GHz spectrum analyzer built in. No GigE ports, but if you’re just using it for an AP/gateway you shouldn’t notice. Runs SSH out of the box and has an easy web GUI. Invictus is local to me but the owner is very knowledgeable. -- Mike Gill *From:* Jonathan [mailto:ncm...@gmail.com] *Sent:* Wednesday, January 12, 2011 3:37 PM *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
Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
TNITQ413 was the code I found...supposedly expired Oct 31, 2010, but showed a discounted price when I submitted it when other codes bombed. I believe the codes are based on country, and this one is apparently for US only. It may only be good for new subscriptions. This is the site where I found it - WWW.retailmenot.com/view/technet.Microsoft.com On Jan 13, 2011 4:17 PM, Joseph Heaton jhea...@dfg.ca.gov wrote: Jonathan, Congratz on the online code for Technet. Everytime I look for one, it's already expired. Joe L. Heaton Windows Server Support Group Information Technology Branch Department of Fish and Game 1807 13th Street, Suite 201 Sacramento, CA 95811 Desk: (916) 323-1284 Jonathan ncm...@gmail.com 1/13/2011 12:24 PM Carpentry, huh? Well, my boss is a Jewish carpenter. ;-) Thanks for the input, everyone. This definitely helps me to put things into perspective. As for being ashamed, well, ASB picked up on the intended hyperbole. I have much ?better? things of which to actually be ashamed! I haven't had the burning desire or time to work with a home lab in the past, but definitely need to, and now is the time. The office is not conducive to a test environment, and the way things are these days, who knows how much longer %work% will be there. If I decide to branch out on my own, I need a test environment. Building such while being employed is much easier to do financially, as opposed to the alternative. On a more technical note, ASB - why specifically did you recommend that particular model Netgear over Linksys or anything else? Brian - curious, what brand/model is your external SATA cage? I don't know why I didn't think about a TechNet subscription (*headdesk*) - I have one at work. Duh. Thanks for the reminder. I even found a discount code online for TechNet Pro (no media) that knocked $88 off! Steven - multiple good points about documentation and 'real' servers being LOUD compared to desktops. I need to learn more about multiplicity, and I had not heard of Virtual Box. I'll have to read up on that as well. Again, thanks to EVERYONE for your input. I really appreciate it. Jonathan On Jan 13, 2011 1:10 PM, Jonathan Link jonathan.l...@gmail.com wrote: ~ 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
Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
I agree thanks for the ideas. I was and still am considering purchase of an i7 based laptop with either 8 or 16 GB of RAM as a portable lab. The better half kept killing the desktops I got to the house. Jon On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 3:24 PM, Jonathan ncm...@gmail.com wrote: Carpentry, huh? Well, my boss is a Jewish carpenter. ;-) Thanks for the input, everyone. This definitely helps me to put things into perspective. As for being ashamed, well, ASB picked up on the intended hyperbole. I have much ?better? things of which to actually be ashamed! I haven't had the burning desire or time to work with a home lab in the past, but definitely need to, and now is the time. The office is not conducive to a test environment, and the way things are these days, who knows how much longer %work% will be there. If I decide to branch out on my own, I need a test environment. Building such while being employed is much easier to do financially, as opposed to the alternative. On a more technical note, ASB - why specifically did you recommend that particular model Netgear over Linksys or anything else? Brian - curious, what brand/model is your external SATA cage? I don't know why I didn't think about a TechNet subscription (*headdesk*) - I have one at work. Duh. Thanks for the reminder. I even found a discount code online for TechNet Pro (no media) that knocked $88 off! Steven - multiple good points about documentation and 'real' servers being LOUD compared to desktops. I need to learn more about multiplicity, and I had not heard of Virtual Box. I'll have to read up on that as well. Again, thanks to EVERYONE for your input. I really appreciate it. Jonathan On Jan 13, 2011 1:10 PM, Jonathan Link jonathan.l...@gmail.com wrote: ~ 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
Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
By the way, Andrew, thanks for the recommendation on the Netgear. I was going to ask the list what they would recommend as a replacement to my incredibly old Linksys that has finally started to die. Reading your review, and the reviews on Newegg, convinced me to stop by my local BestBuy and pick one up. Seemed pretty reasonable at $83. I did notice several folks weren't real happy with Netgear's Support and RMA processes, so I decided to go with the $15 replacement plan from BestBuy. I just hope it can withstand sitting in my truck in 13 degree weather until I get home in a couple of hours. - Sean On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 11:44 AM, Andrew S. Baker asbz...@gmail.com wrote: Hey, Jonathan I've been seriously impressed with the Netgear. Excellent performance (5 GbE ports), and it supports DD-WRT, which I am using to make the functionality even more robust. I have multiple SSIDs setup with different security configurations, plus the device supports Syslog and 802.11x Lots of features, and under $80. *ASB *(My Bio via About.Me http://about.me/Andrew.S.Baker/bio) *Exploiting Technology for Business Advantage...* * * On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 3:24 PM, Jonathan ncm...@gmail.com wrote: Carpentry, huh? Well, my boss is a Jewish carpenter. ;-) Thanks for the input, everyone. This definitely helps me to put things into perspective. As for being ashamed, well, ASB picked up on the intended hyperbole. I have much ?better? things of which to actually be ashamed! I haven't had the burning desire or time to work with a home lab in the past, but definitely need to, and now is the time. The office is not conducive to a test environment, and the way things are these days, who knows how much longer %work% will be there. If I decide to branch out on my own, I need a test environment. Building such while being employed is much easier to do financially, as opposed to the alternative. On a more technical note, ASB - why specifically did you recommend that particular model Netgear over Linksys or anything else? Brian - curious, what brand/model is your external SATA cage? I don't know why I didn't think about a TechNet subscription (*headdesk*) - I have one at work. Duh. Thanks for the reminder. I even found a discount code online for TechNet Pro (no media) that knocked $88 off! Steven - multiple good points about documentation and 'real' servers being LOUD compared to desktops. I need to learn more about multiplicity, and I had not heard of Virtual Box. I'll have to read up on that as well. Again, thanks to EVERYONE for your input. I really appreciate it. Jonathan ~ 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
Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
I have found Netgear to be good on the storage side as well. Their NAS line, since the purchase of Infrant, seems to be quite solid. --Durf On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 6:26 PM, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote: By the way, Andrew, thanks for the recommendation on the Netgear. I was going to ask the list what they would recommend as a replacement to my incredibly old Linksys that has finally started to die. Reading your review, and the reviews on Newegg, convinced me to stop by my local BestBuy and pick one up. Seemed pretty reasonable at $83. I did notice several folks weren't real happy with Netgear's Support and RMA processes, so I decided to go with the $15 replacement plan from BestBuy. I just hope it can withstand sitting in my truck in 13 degree weather until I get home in a couple of hours. - Sean On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 11:44 AM, Andrew S. Baker asbz...@gmail.comwrote: Hey, Jonathan I've been seriously impressed with the Netgear. Excellent performance (5 GbE ports), and it supports DD-WRT, which I am using to make the functionality even more robust. I have multiple SSIDs setup with different security configurations, plus the device supports Syslog and 802.11x Lots of features, and under $80. *ASB *(My Bio via About.Me http://about.me/Andrew.S.Baker/bio) *Exploiting Technology for Business Advantage...* * * On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 3:24 PM, Jonathan ncm...@gmail.com wrote: Carpentry, huh? Well, my boss is a Jewish carpenter. ;-) Thanks for the input, everyone. This definitely helps me to put things into perspective. As for being ashamed, well, ASB picked up on the intended hyperbole. I have much ?better? things of which to actually be ashamed! I haven't had the burning desire or time to work with a home lab in the past, but definitely need to, and now is the time. The office is not conducive to a test environment, and the way things are these days, who knows how much longer %work% will be there. If I decide to branch out on my own, I need a test environment. Building such while being employed is much easier to do financially, as opposed to the alternative. On a more technical note, ASB - why specifically did you recommend that particular model Netgear over Linksys or anything else? Brian - curious, what brand/model is your external SATA cage? I don't know why I didn't think about a TechNet subscription (*headdesk*) - I have one at work. Duh. Thanks for the reminder. I even found a discount code online for TechNet Pro (no media) that knocked $88 off! Steven - multiple good points about documentation and 'real' servers being LOUD compared to desktops. I need to learn more about multiplicity, and I had not heard of Virtual Box. I'll have to read up on that as well. Again, thanks to EVERYONE for your input. I really appreciate it. Jonathan ~ 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 -- -- Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Give a fish a man, and he'll eat for weeks! ~ 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
RE: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
Yep, removable. They are rated 6dbi though and aren't too shabby for factory. -- Mike Gill From: Steven Peck [mailto:sep...@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2011 1:46 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch Are those antenna's removable? I have a point to point bridge with some old Linksys WAP54g's that need replacing and would rather keep my existing external antenna's. Steven Peck http://www.blkmtn.org On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 1:20 PM, Mike Gill lis...@canbyfoursquare.com wrote: Just got one of these: http://ubnt.com/powerapn from here: http://www.invictuswireless.com/Ubiquiti_PowerAPN_PAPN_PowerAP_N_Power_AP_N_ p/powerapn.htm Has a 2.4GHz spectrum analyzer built in. No GigE ports, but if you're just using it for an AP/gateway you shouldn't notice. Runs SSH out of the box and has an easy web GUI. Invictus is local to me but the owner is very knowledgeable. -- Mike Gill From: Jonathan [mailto:ncm...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 3:37 PM 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
Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
Your very welcome... -ASB: http://XeeSM.com/AndrewBaker Sent from my Motorola Droid On Jan 13, 2011 6:26 PM, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote: By the way, Andrew, thanks for the recommendation on the Netgear. I was going to ask the list what they would recommend as a replacement to my incredibly old Linksys that has finally started to die. Reading your review, and the reviews on Newegg, convinced me to stop by my local BestBuy and pick one up. Seemed pretty reasonable at $83. I did notice several folks weren't real happy with Netgear's Support and RMA processes, so I decided to go with the $15 replacement plan from BestBuy. I just hope it can withstand sitting in my truck in 13 degree weather until I get home in a couple of hours. - Sean On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 11:44 AM, Andrew S. Baker asbz...@gmail.com wrote: Hey, Jonathan I've been seriously impressed with the Netgear. Excellent performance (5 GbE ports), and it supports DD-WRT, which I am using to make the functionality even more robust. I have multiple SSIDs setup with different security configurations, plus the device supports Syslog and 802.11x Lots of features, and under $80. *ASB *(My Bio via About.Me http://about.me/Andrew.S.Baker/bio) *Exploiting Technology for Business Advantage...* * * On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 3:24 PM, Jonathan ncm...@gmail.com wrote: Carpentry, huh? Well, my boss is a Jewish carpenter. ;-) Thanks for the input, everyone. This definitely helps me to put things into perspective. As for being ashamed, well, ASB picked up on the intended hyperbole. I have much ?better? things of which to actually be ashamed! I haven't had the burning desire or time to work with a home lab in the past, but definitely need to, and now is the time. The office is not conducive to a test environment, and the way things are these days, who knows how much longer %work% will be there. If I decide to branch out on my own, I need a test environment. Building such while being employed is much easier to do financially, as opposed to the alternative. On a more technical note, ASB - why specifically did you recommend that particular model Netgear over Linksys or anything else? Brian - curious, what brand/model is your external SATA cage? I don't know why I didn't think about a TechNet subscription (*headdesk*) - I have one at work. Duh. Thanks for the reminder. I even found a discount code online for TechNet Pro (no media) that knocked $88 off! Steven - multiple good points about documentation and 'real' servers being LOUD compared to desktops. I need to learn more about multiplicity, and I had not heard of Virtual Box. I'll have to read up on that as well. Again, thanks to EVERYONE for your input. I really appreciate it. Jonathan ~ 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
RE: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
I generally don't make improvements to my lab environment at home unless I am working on a project where I need to learn something or I anticipate needing to be able to speak to something at a customer environment. The only major improvement I've made to it in quite a few years was getting SCCM working for patching and inventorying all my VMs. I hadn't patched them in years (literally). They're now all up to date and such. Given I have dozens of them it's actually kind of nice having a picture of where things stand sometimes. For the most part everything is a disaster in terms of config, best practice, etc. I actually don't mind this as when I toss a script on there to test it usually will smoke out some error conditions that aren't uncommon in a customer environment. I've been using the thing for years now though so over time I've just continued to add stuff to it and let it evolve. It's pretty rare that I'm sitting at home on a weekend or whatever and decide to go mess with any of this stuff or try and improve it less I'm working on work. Thanks, Brian Desmond br...@briandesmond.com w - 312.625.1438 | c - 312.731.3132 From: Sean Martin [mailto:seanmarti...@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2011 1:42 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch A little late to the show here. You've gotten some some really good advice. I'll just add that it is very easy to start small and grow from there. I bought a Dell studio PC a little over a year ago for under $800. It came with two 750GB sata drives in a RAID 0 (not great for redundancy, but I've got backups of my critical data) and 8GB RAM. For about $100, I picked up a VT capable processor from Newegg which allowed me to host 64bit VMs (using VMWare server 2.0). My only intent for using Virtualization was to build the necessary environments for training. I've got DCs, Exchange 2010, Forefront, WSUS and a couple of Windows Client VMs. I'll admit things start to crawl while they're all running simultaneously, but it has served my needs quite well. Unfortunately, I was pretty amped when I was originally setting everything up. After a few weeks of actually using it for study/training purposes, the novelty wore off. That probably speaks more to my own lack of discipline, but I just wanted to throw that out there because the last thing you want to do is throw a bunch of time, energy and money into a test lab that will go unused. As of others have pointed out, life takes priority, and it's a lot more fun :) - Sean On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 11:24 AM, Jonathan ncm...@gmail.commailto:ncm...@gmail.com wrote: Carpentry, huh? Well, my boss is a Jewish carpenter. ;-) Thanks for the input, everyone. This definitely helps me to put things into perspective. As for being ashamed, well, ASB picked up on the intended hyperbole. I have much ?better? things of which to actually be ashamed! I haven't had the burning desire or time to work with a home lab in the past, but definitely need to, and now is the time. The office is not conducive to a test environment, and the way things are these days, who knows how much longer %work% will be there. If I decide to branch out on my own, I need a test environment. Building such while being employed is much easier to do financially, as opposed to the alternative. On a more technical note, ASB - why specifically did you recommend that particular model Netgear over Linksys or anything else? Brian - curious, what brand/model is your external SATA cage? I don't know why I didn't think about a TechNet subscription (*headdesk*) - I have one at work. Duh. Thanks for the reminder. I even found a discount code online for TechNet Pro (no media) that knocked $88 off! Steven - multiple good points about documentation and 'real' servers being LOUD compared to desktops. I need to learn more about multiplicity, and I had not heard of Virtual Box. I'll have to read up on that as well. Again, thanks to EVERYONE for your input. I really appreciate it. Jonathan On Jan 13, 2011 1:10 PM, Jonathan Link jonathan.l...@gmail.commailto:jonathan.l...@gmail.com wrote: ~ 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.commailto: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.commailto:listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http
RE: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
I have an IcyDock cage. It came with the cables, brackets, etc which I was pretty impressed with. Just had to wire it up to my SATA controller. I also have a big Buffalo NAS with piles of junk on it. I know VMWare supports NFS of some sort so at some point if I need to expand I might look in to that. Thanks, Brian Desmond br...@briandesmond.com w - 312.625.1438 | c - 312.731.3132 From: Jonathan [mailto:ncm...@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2011 1:25 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch Carpentry, huh? Well, my boss is a Jewish carpenter. ;-) Thanks for the input, everyone. This definitely helps me to put things into perspective. As for being ashamed, well, ASB picked up on the intended hyperbole. I have much ?better? things of which to actually be ashamed! I haven't had the burning desire or time to work with a home lab in the past, but definitely need to, and now is the time. The office is not conducive to a test environment, and the way things are these days, who knows how much longer %work% will be there. If I decide to branch out on my own, I need a test environment. Building such while being employed is much easier to do financially, as opposed to the alternative. On a more technical note, ASB - why specifically did you recommend that particular model Netgear over Linksys or anything else? Brian - curious, what brand/model is your external SATA cage? I don't know why I didn't think about a TechNet subscription (*headdesk*) - I have one at work. Duh. Thanks for the reminder. I even found a discount code online for TechNet Pro (no media) that knocked $88 off! Steven - multiple good points about documentation and 'real' servers being LOUD compared to desktops. I need to learn more about multiplicity, and I had not heard of Virtual Box. I'll have to read up on that as well. Again, thanks to EVERYONE for your input. I really appreciate it. Jonathan On Jan 13, 2011 1:10 PM, Jonathan Link jonathan.l...@gmail.commailto:jonathan.l...@gmail.com wrote: ~ 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.commailto: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
RE: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
Hi- The way I do this is I have a refurb Dell Precision I bought which basically has a server motherboard and server CPUs. I bought it a number of years ago so one consumer CPU is probably faster than the Xeons in there, but, it's more than suitable. It has a max capacity of 64GB of RAM so I add 8GB at a time when I want to spend the money and need it. I'm up to I think like 26GB right now. I have an external 4 drive SATA cage running RAID10 (so 2T useable) which provides excellent perf for my needs. I added an Adaptec SATA RAID controller at some point also. The whole thing is running on some VMWare vSphere 4.0 Enterprise Plus or something. VMWare was kind enough to comp me a couple licenses of this. I don't know if they have an MSDN type thing. As far as MS licensing, I would look at a Technet subscription. It's probably the best deal. Personally I wouldn't go overboard with the hardware. Don't forget how much power this stuff sucks down. The single machine I have with the above specs is more than sufficient. Dell's outlet is a good deal for this stuff. Find a refurb/open box engineering workstation that's marked way down there and you can improve it as needed. Same warranty and everything as new. I have a couple Dell 8 port GigE switches (they're like 80 bucks a pop) that I have under my desk and a simple router. I have the lab stuff on a separate VLAN but that's the extent of it. Thanks, Brian Desmond br...@briandesmond.com w - 312.625.1438 | c - 312.731.3132 From: Jonathan [mailto:ncm...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 3:37 PM 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.commailto: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
Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
so I have a home lab. I run HyperV. It's a single box HP Pavillion MediaCenter q6600 with 8 GB ram (cost me $500 from new egg on special). Small environment. To expand it, I have Virtual Box on my desktop system that I fire up if I need a few more guest systems to play with. Had more at one time, but the other boxes eventually had HW failures not worth fixing. In my budget for this year is to expand a little more on the dedicated hw and get a cheap NAS of some sort. Backend network is a GB switch I got from a friend years ago. If / when I expand it I will probably go with another deskop and try out Virtual Box. I am not bothering with ESXi because getting a system that meets the requirements is to annoying and I use VMware at work. Unless you are wanting to learn it specifically 99% of what you want to do can be done in HyperV or Virtual Box, both far more forgiving on HW. I have a 4 320GB drives internal and can run 2-3 VMs per as long as I don't mind slow, which I don't really. I build systems with a DC online (single DC and guest with more memory then cut it down. Random thoughts - 'Real servers are LOUD' Very LOUD, which is irritating to the spousal unit. Don't tie your home systems into your lab for Internet access (spouse will be irate should you go to work with home network in a broke state, spouse system production, your lab server is not) HyperV doesn't export guest systems the way I assumed. Rebuilt my lab. Read before doing. Decide what items in your lab are important, treat them with more care (DC,s etc). Decide on goals and list them out, otherwise you're just doing random crap they may or may not help you learn something. Put your systems on a UPS. They are fairly cheap. Document what you are doing... Journal/OneNote, etc... keep track. Interruptions at home occur and can last days/weeks and when you return you often cannot remember what state your system was in. Document your processes for your lab. If you find a cool script to populate AD, make sure you document it because you will be searching for how you did that again in 3 months if you didn't track it. (OneNote on your SkyDrive is awesome for this) For PowerShell IRC can be a useful tool (#PowerShell on freenode) Multiple monitors with good visibility are cheap, you should have them. (I have 3, 2-23, 1-20) Multiplicity works great for using one keyboard/mouse while working on my desktop and lab server. Licensing... TechNet Professional, MSDN Subscription (more expensive) and MS Action Pack (need a business license I think), have a friend with such. https://partner.microsoft.com/40016455 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/default.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx no URLl for friend. Don't over complicate your lab, you are building something that is a tool to play with. Does it really need redundant power supplies and your house re-wired for 30 amp lines? :) Steven Peck http://www.blkmtn.org On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 3:37 PM, Jonathan ncm...@gmail.com wrote: 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:
Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
Oh yes Microsoft has online labs and resources to leverage as well. These are generally basic, but they are free, somewhat useful and can get you a little first hand exposure if you haven't seen it before. Comes with a lab manual and semi-pre configured virtual systems. Kind of lets you run through things before you set them up. http://www.microsoft.com/events/vlabs/default.mspx ^^ This and various PowerShell links are in a block on my site. Steven Peck http://www.blkmtn.org On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 4:16 PM, Steven Peck sep...@gmail.com wrote: so I have a home lab. I run HyperV. It's a single box HP Pavillion MediaCenter q6600 with 8 GB ram (cost me $500 from new egg on special). Small environment. To expand it, I have Virtual Box on my desktop system that I fire up if I need a few more guest systems to play with. Had more at one time, but the other boxes eventually had HW failures not worth fixing. In my budget for this year is to expand a little more on the dedicated hw and get a cheap NAS of some sort. Backend network is a GB switch I got from a friend years ago. If / when I expand it I will probably go with another deskop and try out Virtual Box. I am not bothering with ESXi because getting a system that meets the requirements is to annoying and I use VMware at work. Unless you are wanting to learn it specifically 99% of what you want to do can be done in HyperV or Virtual Box, both far more forgiving on HW. I have a 4 320GB drives internal and can run 2-3 VMs per as long as I don't mind slow, which I don't really. I build systems with a DC online (single DC and guest with more memory then cut it down. Random thoughts - 'Real servers are LOUD' Very LOUD, which is irritating to the spousal unit. Don't tie your home systems into your lab for Internet access (spouse will be irate should you go to work with home network in a broke state, spouse system production, your lab server is not) HyperV doesn't export guest systems the way I assumed. Rebuilt my lab. Read before doing. Decide what items in your lab are important, treat them with more care (DC,s etc). Decide on goals and list them out, otherwise you're just doing random crap they may or may not help you learn something. Put your systems on a UPS. They are fairly cheap. Document what you are doing... Journal/OneNote, etc... keep track. Interruptions at home occur and can last days/weeks and when you return you often cannot remember what state your system was in. Document your processes for your lab. If you find a cool script to populate AD, make sure you document it because you will be searching for how you did that again in 3 months if you didn't track it. (OneNote on your SkyDrive is awesome for this) For PowerShell IRC can be a useful tool (#PowerShell on freenode) Multiple monitors with good visibility are cheap, you should have them. (I have 3, 2-23, 1-20) Multiplicity works great for using one keyboard/mouse while working on my desktop and lab server. Licensing... TechNet Professional, MSDN Subscription (more expensive) and MS Action Pack (need a business license I think), have a friend with such. https://partner.microsoft.com/40016455 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/default.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx no URLl for friend. Don't over complicate your lab, you are building something that is a tool to play with. Does it really need redundant power supplies and your house re-wired for 30 amp lines? :) Steven Peck http://www.blkmtn.org On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 3:37 PM, Jonathan ncm...@gmail.com wrote: 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
Re: OTish? - Building a home lab from scratch
Get yourself a Netgear WNR-3500L as a replacement router. If you're going to focus on VMWare, then start with ESXi, get yourself to a couple of VMWare shows, and see if you can't get a legit copy of the enterprise stuff that way. Processing power is not nearly as useful for you as RAM and disk space. Beyond that, you've gotten great advice from Brian and Steven. Get cracking. :) *ASB *(My Bio via About.Me http://about.me/Andrew.S.Baker/bio) *Exploiting Technology for Business Advantage...* * * On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 6:37 PM, Jonathan ncm...@gmail.com wrote: 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
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.commailto: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
