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Just a cheap off-brand machine you build yourself from parts off NewEgg/Amazon/whatever. As opposed to a prebuilt machine from a big name like Dell or HP.
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Aug 8, 2013 18:41
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Different people have different needs and wants. But this is SH/SC and we have to turn everything into a rant  If you're an IT geek the thought of your own home server rack probably sounds cool and everyone gravitates toward that without always knowing the downsides. I think multiple posters in this thread have been burned by buying a sweet eBay server farm only to end up never using it because it's ear-piercingly loud and adds a small fortune to their power bill. So there's some backlash against that.Of course there are some people who know what they're getting into, and don't care. Maybe you can rack everything out in a detached garage where you'll never hear it. Or you want to play with Fiber Channel or something and you just can't do that easily with a couple white boxes. Fine, great, go hog wild. You are the 1% that doesn't need to be saved from your inner sperg because you actually have a reason to buy that poo poo.
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Aug 21, 2013 16:25
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smokmnky posted:ABR man, Always, Be, Ranting How many physical servers do you manage right now, and how many of those do you hope to virtualize? Do you already have any sort of SAN/central storage in place? Answers to questions like that will help posters decide if you need "loving Guru" or "Intro to VMware" level advice 
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Aug 23, 2013 03:34
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Dilbert As gently caress posted:Should have specified CISCO blades So far we really like our Cisco UCS blades, although the management software and paradigm is a little weird. Granted I'm not the primary guy that manages them, but the guy who is likes 'em too. The few C-series we bought as a trial (standard rack mount form factor), on the other hand, have been the worst shitshow known to man.
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Aug 23, 2013 03:59
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For the OP, I got some valuable info from evol262 in the "IT 2.0" thread. If you're studying for Red Hat's RHCSA/RHCE Linux certs, some of the published exam objectives include launching and managing VM's using the KVM hypervisor. If you want to practice this for free without buying new hardware or software, VMware Player is your best option. It supports running another VM host inside of itself (insert Yo Dawg image macro here), known as Nested Virtualization. So if you have enough horsepower, you can lab up everything you need for the exam right from your primary PC. The only special setup required is to edit the VM while it's powered down, browse to the CPU and make sure to check "Virtualize Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI". To test that it's working, from within your Linux VM, open a terminal and run "lsmod | grep kvm". You should see two modules, kvm and either kvm_intel or kvm_amd. If you see nothing, or just kvm, something's set up incorrectly. Pretty much VMware's entire product lineup (based on Google, ESXi 5.1+ and Workstation 9+ for sure) supports this feature. The great thing about Player is that it's free, and doesn't require dedicating an entire physical host like ESXi would. Some other popular products, notably Oracle VirtualBox, do not support nested virtualization. Nor will they anytime soon, based on public statements. I learned this the hard way after wasting several hours trying to get it working. Basically, if your goal is running "VM's inside VM's", VMware Player owns. All it requires is Windows or Linux as your host OS (no Mac support), and a 64-bit CPU released within the last few years. It's very bare-bones feature wise but it does the job.
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Aug 29, 2013 08:36
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I'm sure there are easier and more power solutions. However, as far as I know, Player's the only product that satisfies my two very specific goals of being 1) free, and 2) running on Windows. Longer term I definitely want to build a dedicated lab box, but I can build all the "lab" I need right now in VM's for free, which is good enough for me.
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Aug 29, 2013 16:16
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CrazyLittle posted:Not if you set it up wrong and don't make the services dependent on the host... Otherwise known as "how every monitoring system on earth is set up"  To be fair, it's drat hard to get all the dependencies right in any non-trivial environment. Though I'm talking more about the "core router is down, don't have all 1000 servers page me too" kind of dependencies.
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Sep 19, 2013 23:44
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If you can wait for ESXi 5.5, it removes the RAM limit on the free edition.
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Sep 20, 2013 01:45
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I've found that getting a switch for less than like 10 grand is the bigger impediment to dicking around with 10Gb. Looks like Netgear makes an 8 porter for ~$1k but that's more than I'm willing to spend on one piece of gear for the home lab.
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Oct 1, 2013 00:41
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Stealthgerbil posted:Anyone have any suggestions on getting a cheap enclosure or rack to use for my home lab? I want to be able to mount some cisco gear and my dell cs24-ty and my low power file server? I was also going to build or buy another server to use as a NAS and I want to complete the rack with a rack mounted UPS. I just am trying to avoid spending a ton of money on a rack or enclosure and I am not even sure what kind I need. If it's all standard rack width gear, Google for "ikea lack rack". Doesn't get cheaper than that
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Oct 6, 2013 02:24
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The PIX platform hit "end of sale" in 2008 and isn't comparable to an ASA other than "they're both firewalls". They don't even run the same OS. There is no reason to own one in your lab.
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Oct 17, 2013 15:57
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Moey posted:That is what I am shooting for with my next job. Where I moved to has 0 job market for IT stuff (outside of were I am working), but the living is great. One of my best friends does recruiting and HR for Lewan in Denver, if you ever want to move down out of the hills  Not that I would either, mountains own.
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Nov 15, 2013 17:27
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I'm a fan of the HP 1810 series if you want a cheap, managed gigabit switch. It's not gonna help you on anything vendor specific like the CCNA but they do support things like VLAN's, jumbo frames, link aggregation, and spanning-tree if you just want to learn the concepts (or actually want to use those features in your lab). You can get an 8 porter for under $100. Docjowles fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Dec 10, 2013 |
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Dec 10, 2013 17:34
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mAlfunkti0n posted:whalla 
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Dec 28, 2013 22:46
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edit: nm I am bad at reading
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Jan 27, 2014 04:18
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64GB seems like a lot, have you done the math on what you plan to run? And do you honestly need 4TB of storage? SSD pricing is really coming down, you might consider one 512+ GB SSD instead of shelling out for 5 spinning disks plus a RAID controller. Unless your "lab" is actually being used as a home media server or backup target.
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Feb 11, 2014 01:19
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Methanar posted:Can anyone recommend the use of this book in studying for a CCNA/networking in general? If not what would be a better suggestion. http://www.amazon.com/CCNA-Routing-Switching-Study-Guide/dp/1118749618 If you actually intend to pass the CCNA (as opposed to just messing around and learning a thing or two about networking, which is a fine goal too!) you should probably invest in a book or two.
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Feb 25, 2014 00:00
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Dilbert As gently caress posted:IN some shuttle builds or cases all you have is 1 or 2 PCI slots; If you buy the 4port nics from ebay and go with broadcom you usually don't pay that much more http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-BROADC...=item338b5aeabc I thought Broadcom NICs were notoriously awful, especially in conjunction with VMware? Is that not the case, or just not worth worrying about on the home lab level?
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Feb 25, 2014 21:09
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Ghetto QoS: unplugging the ethernet cable of whichever services you're not using right this second 
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Apr 11, 2014 16:44
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insidius posted:I have two Micro ATX cases now but am still figuring out boards and CPU's. If your top two concerns are core count and price, AMD is a decent choice. They can't touch the performance of Intel chips but in a home lab environment do you care? That's not a rhetorical question; maybe you do But if your main goal is to cram as many VM's as possible onto a box for the lowest cost, and they are going to be sitting idle most of the time, it may not make sense to pay top dollar for throughput instead of core count.
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May 13, 2014 05:42
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GobiasIndustries posted:Would a 120gb SSD be enough for an OS drive to install CentOS for starting to study for my RHCSA? I've got a 1tb drive I can plug in as a dedicated data drive if need be. X4 Phenom II processor, 8 gigs of ram. Yup. That hardware is more than adequate.
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Jun 4, 2014 03:27
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Or maybe targeting yourself with metasploit?
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Jun 29, 2014 01:55
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What ever happened with the new GNS3 with full switching support that was up on Kickstarter? I tried Googleing for some updates on the project and didn't find much. I see they've put up a snazzy new website but it is so overwhelmingly full of marketing bullshit that I have no idea what is going on. And any links like News or FAQ seem to require me to register an account just to view it 
Docjowles fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Feb 2, 2015 |
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Feb 2, 2015 23:23
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In terms of just the firmware, nah. It's totally generic. The configs are stored separately. edit: the legality of grabbing that firmware is a separate issue, but you didn't ask about that 
Docjowles fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Jul 17, 2016 |
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Jul 17, 2016 19:08
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Have you looked into the Intel NUC line? They're designed for low noise and power draw. They can go up to 32GB, but are only dual core and don't have a lot of drive bays. If you're only looking to run a handful of VM's it could be a good fit.
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Jan 24, 2017 19:00
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If you have never gotten hands on with rack mount gear ever, and won't have the chance at work, there is some value in that I guess. Take the thing apart and put it back together a few times. Marvel at how cool and good hot swappable parts are. I just ripped out a hard drive or PSU, and the thing stayed up!! Then check your power bill, or realize you can hear the thing running from across the street. Resell it on eBay and build a bigger lab out of desktops or NUCs. Is there an IT work room/lovely closet at your office where you could stash the thing and mess with it, instead of having to run it in your home?
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Jun 30, 2017 04:39
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Also I just realized that I left "get super drunk, order a set of rails at random, and force them into the rack any way you can" off the list of important rackmount server activities. Because lord knows whoever built the racks you're going to be servicing some day did exactly that. Coming out of the data center looking like you just lost a bare-knuckle boxing match is a critical career milestone.
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Jul 1, 2017 04:17
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Not that it matters for a home lab, but has Force10 stuff gotten better? At my last job we had some old Force10 gear and it was Real Bad. Lots of weird bugs, and features that did not behave at all how the documentation indicated they should. Granted this was like 2014 and the devices were already 3-4 years old at that time, so I'd hope they've improved somewhat in the last 7 years. We ripped them all out for Juniper QFX series and never looked back.
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Sep 23, 2017 01:53
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