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Advice on Vmware Lab (DQ77MK)

V

vumemu

n00b
Joined
Aug 19, 2012
Messages
9
Hi Guys,
This is my first post on the forum so sorry if I am going over old stuff again. :)

Looking to go indeep into vSphere and get ready for the certification. I want to setup a lab at home and was wanting to get some advice.
Would have been awesome to go for the X9SCM-F route but due to cost looking something more like this.

2 node cluster with the following hardware
2x Core i5 3750, 32gb of Memory
2x Intel DQ77MK
FreeNAS on a separate machine for iSCSI storage.
Either Cisco 2960 or HP layer 2 switch with LACP and VLAN support.

Has anyone tried out the motherboard? By all accounts it should work just have to add the drivers for the NICs.

Also do you think the following lab would give me FT and HA or do I need a xeon for that path?? :confused:

Thanks in advance!
 
vumemu said:
Hi Guys,
This is my first post on the forum so sorry if I am going over old stuff again. :)

Looking to go indeep into vSphere and get ready for the certification. I want to setup a lab at home and was wanting to get some advice.
Would have been awesome to go for the X9SCM-F route but due to cost looking something more like this.

2 node cluster with the following hardware
2x Core i5 3750, 32gb of Memory
2x Intel DQ77MK
FreeNAS on a separate machine for iSCSI storage.
Either Cisco 2960 or HP layer 2 switch with LACP and VLAN support.

Has anyone tried out the motherboard? By all accounts it should work just have to add the drivers for the NICs.

Also do you think the following lab would give me FT and HA or do I need a xeon for that path?? :confused:

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

FT needs specific cpu's IIRC, they are on the HCL list, its not very big.(server cpu's)
I just started learning on this stuff, so could be wrong. :)

If its just for the test, and you are not really going to run really any VM's, you could scale down.(I just built 2 cheap matx quad core amd's with 8gb of memory, need to build a nas machine for storage)

As far as the NIC's you will probably want to get the intel dual nic cards from ebay.I have 2 extra nics in each to play around with some of the features.

Having the 2 machines will be nice for testing DRS and HA, AFAIK.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the reply Hagrid.

For the extra network cards I was thinking of running a trunk to the box so I can have vlans for iSCSI1,2,heart beat, data, management. Do you reckon I can get away with this on a test lab ?:)
Keeping the ram though because I will be running a few domain controllers for a test environment of AD, etc.

Thought as much for the server processors. Looks like the Xeon path I go $$$

Cheers
 
I wouldn't stress on the FT. You can get it working on desktop hardware and vmplayer or workstation. If you search for ultimate vsphere lab that guy got it working for 32 bit vms with nested esxi servers on desktop software. I think they really just want you to know the requirements more then labing it out since there really isnt much to actually turning on FT as opposed to what you need to know about it.

Personally I was going your route and then decided to scrap the idea in favor of one box. Now I just run esxi on a amd 8120 with 32 gigs of ram. Nested the two esxi servers and built out the network. Works fine haven't ran into anything I couldn't lab yet so idk....


Quick edit...

Also don't worry about lacp as they recommended just lag ports.
 
Thanks so much for "ultimate vsphere lab" tip. Been reading the boerlowie one all afternoon - gold!
 
Thanks for the advice everyone.

I bit the bullet and went down the single PC route for now. Build as follows

- Intel DQ77MK
- Core i5 3750, 32gb of Memory
- G-Skill F3-12800CL9Q2-32GBZL 32GB Kit
- 2x 1tb Western Digital Green
- 4gb Sandisk Cruzer Fit (very compact)
- ESXi 5 Update 1
- Latest firmware as of 9/2012
- Intel Pro 1000 PCIe card

I installed ESXi onto the USB using VMWare Workstation 9.

I used the original ISO without slipstreaming drivers. Only the second network card works with the stock ISO. The LM used for vPro is not supported. I am thinking to keep it like this to have a dedicated vPro NIC for remote management. Kind of like a server with iDrac or ILO.

Everything boots fine and looks good. Really happy with the build. :)
 
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