Lab Equipment for Vmware Learning

[IsmailHaider85]

Hi all,

I am plan to building VMware Lab in Which I can test most of the features, Can you suggest me cost effective equipment to build labs.

[weinstein5]

IMO the most cost effective method of building a lab for testing/learning is to use a powerful workstation and with VMware Player or Workstation to build your vSphere environment virtually -

[joviyach]

I've done this the way weinstein5 suggests, and it works well, but if I had a place to put it I might also do this with an old Dell 1950 or two purchased from EBay too.

[IsmailHaider85]

Actually I want to 10 Virtual machines, so I can test the features also, like v motion HA,HeartBeat...

Dell poweredge T310 with 32 B RAM, will it work ? or If I buy Laptop with 32 GB RAM

Whats your opinion ?

[joviyach]

If I had a place to put the server (and could afford it), that is what I would do. I don't know if a laptop has the horsepower from a CPU standpoint to have 10 VMs powered on at the same time, and still perform at an acceptable level.

[IsmailHaider85]

I want to build a Could at home and can access from anywhere so I think its good If I can buy Desktop Server, IF you can guide me which server I have to choose and how much RAM

[joviyach]

That depends on the budget.

I would purchase one or two older Dell or HP servers from EBay, with as much RAM in them as possible. I think you could get two Gen2 or Gen3 Dell 1950s for between $500 - $700 total, with 16 GB of RAM each. Those would work. I have used them for dev environments in the past. Shove some large, cheap SATA drives in them if they don't already come with drives, and you'll be all set.