New vSphere lab

[Sgt Beavis]

I lucked into some new server hardware this month and built up a new lab with it. We had a project shutdown and the company decided to give out the leftover servers to employees for research.

They gave me two HP DL165 G7 servers specked out like this:

2 x AMD Opteron 6128HE (16 cores total)
32GB RAM (4 x 8GB RAM)
2 x 500GB HDD
2 x 2TB HDD
4 x Gbe NICs
1 x iLO

I took all of the 2TB HDDs and put them into a QNAP TS-469L NAS I bought for two 1.8TB RAID 1 LUNs. The 500GB are used for VM template storage and a NAS VM. The servers themselves are booting ESXi 5.1 from USB drives.

Right now the lab consists of:

Domain Controller
vCenter 5.1
VMware Horizon View 5.2
2 x nested ESXi VMs
NAS VM
VMWare Horizon Mirage
etc, etc..

I also picked up a Buffalo router with DD-WRT so I could setup VPN for management on the road as well as running View virtual desktops through my iPad or Slate 7.

Next up is to move everything onto one of the servers and up Atlantis Computing ILIO on the 2nd server. That will use the 32GB RAM like solid state memory for virtual desktops. The main point is to build experience with the technology. I can't believe how busy we've gotten with these Virtual Desktop stuff. I'm now on nine projects and we have 80+ projects in the pipeline. Busy times...

Pic of new lab. It put off a lot of heat and noise, so I ran a CAT6 out to the laundry room and put it all in there. I also have a script that shuts everything down at 11pm so it doesn't run all night doing nothing.

[racrguy]

I bet your wife is thrilled lol

[Sgt Beavis]

I bet your wife is thrilled lol

Actually she is. The money I bring if from this stuff allows her to be a stay at home Mom. I'm going to use this lab to upgrade my VCAP certs as well as finally nailing down my VCDX..


Then I can make FreightTrain type money..

[Tx Redneck]

See, what you should do when you're not using it is run f@h for 32035

Saved and Texan by the Grace of God, Redneck by choice.

[SonicblueGT03]

Pretty slick setup for home use! That's pretty much all I do all day, except on the server side (we have a VDI team too). I am a virtual machine.

[Sgt Beavis]

See, what you should do when you're not using it is run f@h for 32035

Saved and Texan by the Grace of God, Redneck by choice.

I would consider it but these machines eat quite a bit of power and thus $$$$. That's why they are shutdown at night. I might look at doing something like that during the day. I'll have to see how the lab does. I've got plenty of spare CPU capacity but I'm already looking to buy more RAM. These things have 24 memory slots

[Sgt Beavis]

Pretty slick setup for home use! That's pretty much all I do all day, except on the server side (we have a VDI team too). I am a virtual machine.

Cool deal. I've been doing this stuff since 2006 when I designed and built Perot Systems' first VMware cluster. It has done a damn good job of paying the bills since then.

I do mostly consulting and architect work for HP now. Not to shabby when you can do it from home in your PJs most of the time...

[Tx Redneck]

I would consider it but these machines eat quite a bit of power and thus $$$$. That's why they are shutdown at night. I might look at doing something like that during the day. I'll have to see how the lab does. I've got plenty of spare CPU capacity but I'm already looking to buy more RAM. These things have 24 memory slots

Cool beans bubba. I know all to well about the electricity usage side, I have a 3770k OC'd@4.2Ghz, FX8120 OC'd@4.3Ghz, GTX460SE OC'd and GTX260 Core 216 all on 24/7 running f@h. Both machines also serve dual purpose though, the FX based is also our "team build box/server" for Android development and the i7 box is our media server/family PC. They generate IMMENSE amounts of heat too...

Edit:If anyone has any 1866 ram 8-16Gigs they're willing to let go on the cheap, hit me up.

[SonicblueGT03]

Cool deal. I've been doing this stuff since 2006 when I designed and built Perot Systems' first VMware cluster. It has done a damn good job of paying the bills since then.

I do mostly consulting and architect work for HP now. Not to shabby when you can do it from home in your PJs most of the time...

Even better! I still have to go into the office 4 days a week, but working downtown has it's benefits. Especially when your company owns most of it.

[ceyko]

I'm about to go down the same path, but out of pocket and reimbursed for CCIE lab prep. So, not looking forward to it. Not anywhere near as advanced as that though, still need to buy all the other hardware for the lab on top of it.