suggestions for mcsa

[cyr0n_k0r]

I am going to start studying for my MCSA and I already have my electives taken care of (the A+ Server+ combo)

I was wondering how many computers I need at home to setup a test enviroment for AD and IIS and start playing with domains and all that fun stuff. Currently I just have my laptop, so would 2 or 3 extra little mini POS boxes be sufficient to play with server 03 and such?

 

[Fint]

One server, two if you can (for AD replication, FSMO roles, etc). At least one workstation, but two would be nice (roaming profiles, etc).

 

[Phaedrus]

if you have a beefy rig with lotsa ram you can use one computer with vmware or virtual PC...

 

[ktwebb]

I use VMWare workstation 5 and recommend it IF: a. you have plenty of RAM on the rig you want to run it (1GB minmum if you want to run multiple VM's) and b. a fairly beefy CPU and some spare hard drive space. VirtualPC is probably a better fit for most based solely on price. I prefer VMWare (biased as we run ESX server at work) but it is more expensive. If that isn't something you want to get into then you can run 2003 server on a machine that is marginal. It just won't be all that fast navigating etc...You can check MS's site for minimum requirements.

For reference I run two DC's, a member server, and XP VM's. I do however have a two processor server with 2GB of RAM. Also run a linux VM on that box but rarely do anything with it or have it up and running. I dedicate 256MB of memory to the servers and 192MB to the XP workstation VM.

 

[cyr0n_k0r]

I already have access to ESX server 3, so that is what I will most likely use.

What I would really like to do is build (2) mini itx systems in tiny little cases and load them up with a 1ghz processor in each, with 1 gig of ram or so.. and then have each one be 2 machines. hows that sound.

 

[ktwebb]

ESX 2.5 requires 2 Processors. Fairly short list of SCSI adapters as well. You'll also need a SCSI, Fiber Channel or RAID LUN available. You might want to create an account on the VMWare discussion boards and see what the experts say. All our blades we run it on have two processors and fiber channel to a SAN. The Blades do however have a small IDE 2.5" drive for the stripped version of Linux ESX runs on so there may be ways to intall it on the box your asking about. I've never tried to install it on a one CPU box. If you have access to GSX server that would be something to consider. Windows solution but the system requirements aren't quite as demanding.

Frankly I'd just build one box with a bunch of RAM and run it on the single system. No reason to use two IMO as long as you have a powerful CPU and relatively fast disk subsystem. SCSI or a RAID 0 or 5 setup..