Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
evol262
Nov 30, 2010
#!/usr/bin/perl

Powercrazy posted:

I'm talking specifically about a lab setup. If you are doing your CCNA and you are planning on going further, then learning what all those services are and how to deploy them is a good idea.

Obviously in the enterprise many of those services will be separate especially as the environment scales. For a home lab, all of that stuff can be deployed on a single router.

I don't see a reason why these services wouldn't be separate in an environment predicated on virtualization.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

devmd01
Mar 7, 2006

Elektronik
Supersonik
I legitimately am borrowing my T720 from work thank you very much. :colbert:

smokmnky
Jan 29, 2009
for a testing and learning lab only I don't see any reason not to just work on everything. Telling people not to try out t/ftp or anything else just because "it's 2013..." is short sighted. The point is to learn not conform to your one specific thought process.

ate shit on live tv
Feb 15, 2004

by Azathoth

evol262 posted:

I don't see a reason why these services wouldn't be separate in an environment predicated on virtualization.

Totally a possibility. Though then you run into the issue of access to your lab being dependent upon the function of the lab. I'd prefer the ability to completely isolate the lab devices, but still being able to access each one. So for example even though I'm running vsphere I wouldn't want to manage vsphere through a VM hosted on vsphere.

So for my lab since it's networking focused. I have all my network services plus console server on a single device I can access on my home network. by telneting to 10.1.10.254 and from there gong everywhere I need.

evol262
Nov 30, 2010
#!/usr/bin/perl

smokmnky posted:

for a testing and learning lab only I don't see any reason not to just work on everything. Telling people not to try out t/ftp or anything else just because "it's 2013..." is short sighted. The point is to learn not conform to your one specific thought process.

I'm not saying not to try out [T]FTP. I'm saying not to make it accessible on the same machine as the console server. Keep old, insecure protocols in their own DMZ in 2013. Set up a tftp helper for PXE (which is good practice for the CCNA anyway).

Powercrazy posted:

Totally a possibility. Though then you run into the issue of access to your lab being dependent upon the function of the lab. I'd prefer the ability to completely isolate the lab devices, but still being able to access each one. So for example even though I'm running vsphere I wouldn't want to manage vsphere through a VM hosted on vsphere.
A raspberry pi is $35 and will handily host these services, offering you segregation for 5W and $35, as well as being solid-state and instantly coming back on the moment you get power (in case of an outage).

Agrikk
Oct 17, 2003

Take care with that! We have not fully ascertained its function, and the ticking is accelerating.
There's CCNA in the title, but hopefully this thread is for IT labs of all types, including infrastructure builds and environment simulation.


My lab was originally this:



Until I the power bill started killing me, so I moved it into my colo space that I get for free by providing ad-hoc IT support for a friend. He gives me unmetered bandwidth on a 10mbit pipe, a half a cabinet and power.

So I built this:



But it's all my own gear so technically it's a private lab. I hope that's okay.

Cabling



The cabling might be hard to decipher, but basically I have VLANs for:
Local networking
Out of band management
iSCSI
Heartbeat.

Gear list

My current lab consists of a shitton of gear that I scored when everyone in my office was fired and the office itself closed down during a buyout. I was the last employee to go, kept around to dismantle and "eWaste" the gear and turn off the lights, so I eWasted a bunch of it into the trunk of my car:

Dell PowerConnect 6248P gigE switch
Sonicwall PRO 2040 Firewall / VPN concentrator
Five Supermicro AS-1012G-MTF 1U barebones servers with 1 8-core Opteron and 16GB RAM
- 2 ESXi 5.1 hypervisors
- 2 Windows Server 2008 R2 hosts
- 1 Windows Server 2008 R2 iSCSI target
Two HP ProLiant DL120 G6 servers with 1 Quad-core Xeon and 16GB RAM each
One HP Proliant DL160 G6 server with 2 quad-core Xeons and 48GB RAM

I realize that this list is absolutely rediculous for a "home lab" but I'm posting it to give another example of what's possible. This lab is basically unsustainable since any component failure would require a $500-1000 purchase from eBay to replace and I'm not willing to lay out that kind of dough. Still, I have the gear now so why not use it, eh? :D

Configuration

The two DL120 servers are configured with IIS/MySQL/PHP and run small web servers as well as what might be the longest continuously running Quake 2 Devastation server on the planet (mind the broken links - when I moved this part of the web site to a new host the links broke and I haven't bothered to update them yet). One of the DL120s also acts as my vSphere server for the 2-node iSCSI-based ESXi 5.1 HA cluster.

The DL180 server is an iSCSI target for the Hyper-V nodes and the ESXi nodes (below) as well as a Folding@Home rig. There is a dedicated LAN link, plus a pair of iSCSI links in round-robin load balancing for the target software.

One of the Supermicro boxes is also configured as low-performance iSCSI storage, plus basic CIFS file sharing.

ESXi 5.1 cluster
- iSCSI based
- 2 Supermicro servers (16-cores, 32GB total)
VMs:
- Windows 2008 R2 Domain controller
- 2 SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services servers on Server 2008 R2
- 2 CentOS Folding@Home servers

Windows Server Failover Cluster Click here for a pic of the failover cluster manager.
- iSCSI based
- 2 Supermicro servers (16-cores, 32GB total)
- SQL Server 2008 R2 failover Cluster
- SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services cluster
- Hyper-V cluster
VMs:
- Exchange 2010 Server
- Windows 2008 R2 Domain controller


This lab is pretty much my Swiss Army knife, allowing me to mess around with iSCSI, basic networking, VPN tunneling, ESX, Hyper-V and database stuff. I don't have the biggest virtual environment, but it's enough for me to stand up random virtual appliances, do high-availability stuff and/or tinker with different OSes as my interests dictate.

wolrah
May 8, 2006
what?

Judge Schnoopy posted:

I've tried multiple, each with the same result. Even with the image file blank (no image selected) if I select 'test image' it gives me the blue screen. That leads me to believe it's gns3 causing my troubles. The program works fine without any routers added but then it's kind of useless.

No, if you're getting a blue screen or any other OS's equivalent it's almost never a user-level program. Not on any modern system, which Windows 7 certainly is. That means hardware or drivers, almost 100% of the time. If you're overclocked or running any oddball drivers (modified sound or GPU drivers, unusual peripherals, etc.) try disabling those first. If it still blue screens, start looking in to your hardware.

Indecision1991
Sep 13, 2012

Agrikk posted:

There's CCNA in the title, but hopefully this thread is for IT labs of all types, including infrastructure builds and environment simulation.


My lab was originally this:



Until I the power bill started killing me, so I moved it into my colo space that I get for free by providing ad-hoc IT support for a friend. He gives me unmetered bandwidth on a 10mbit pipe, a half a cabinet and power.

So I built this:



But it's all my own gear so technically it's a private lab. I hope that's okay.

Cabling



The cabling might be hard to decipher, but basically I have VLANs for:
Local networking
Out of band management
iSCSI
Heartbeat.

Gear list

My current lab consists of a shitton of gear that I scored when everyone in my office was fired and the office itself closed down during a buyout. I was the last employee to go, kept around to dismantle and "eWaste" the gear and turn off the lights, so I eWasted a bunch of it into the trunk of my car:

Dell PowerConnect 6248P gigE switch
Sonicwall PRO 2040 Firewall / VPN concentrator
Five Supermicro AS-1012G-MTF 1U barebones servers with 1 8-core Opteron and 16GB RAM
- 2 ESXi 5.1 hypervisors
- 2 Windows Server 2008 R2 hosts
- 1 Windows Server 2008 R2 iSCSI target
Two HP ProLiant DL120 G6 servers with 1 Quad-core Xeon and 16GB RAM each
One HP Proliant DL160 G6 server with 2 quad-core Xeons and 48GB RAM

I realize that this list is absolutely rediculous for a "home lab" but I'm posting it to give another example of what's possible. This lab is basically unsustainable since any component failure would require a $500-1000 purchase from eBay to replace and I'm not willing to lay out that kind of dough. Still, I have the gear now so why not use it, eh? :D

Configuration

The two DL120 servers are configured with IIS/MySQL/PHP and run small web servers as well as what might be the longest continuously running Quake 2 Devastation server on the planet (mind the broken links - when I moved this part of the web site to a new host the links broke and I haven't bothered to update them yet). One of the DL120s also acts as my vSphere server for the 2-node iSCSI-based ESXi 5.1 HA cluster.

The DL180 server is an iSCSI target for the Hyper-V nodes and the ESXi nodes (below) as well as a Folding@Home rig. There is a dedicated LAN link, plus a pair of iSCSI links in round-robin load balancing for the target software.

One of the Supermicro boxes is also configured as low-performance iSCSI storage, plus basic CIFS file sharing.

ESXi 5.1 cluster
- iSCSI based
- 2 Supermicro servers (16-cores, 32GB total)
VMs:
- Windows 2008 R2 Domain controller
- 2 SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services servers on Server 2008 R2
- 2 CentOS Folding@Home servers

Windows Server Failover Cluster Click here for a pic of the failover cluster manager.
- iSCSI based
- 2 Supermicro servers (16-cores, 32GB total)
- SQL Server 2008 R2 failover Cluster
- SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services cluster
- Hyper-V cluster
VMs:
- Exchange 2010 Server
- Windows 2008 R2 Domain controller


This lab is pretty much my Swiss Army knife, allowing me to mess around with iSCSI, basic networking, VPN tunneling, ESX, Hyper-V and database stuff. I don't have the biggest virtual environment, but it's enough for me to stand up random virtual appliances, do high-availability stuff and/or tinker with different OSes as my interests dictate.

This is sorta what I want to run at home but with a lot less equipment. I would like to virtualize as much as possible since I am taking some vmware classes and want to keep up the momentum. I was thinking of a single server with beefy specs to use for ESXi, I know I can find 3+ year old equipment with decent specs for 400-500, I may even be getting a free server from an old boss. The networking is my weakest point but I do plan to buy some routers/switches within the next 6 months for practice. Do you think it would be a good idea for me to host a small single server with 2 routers and 3 switches?All for practice of course.

evol262
Nov 30, 2010
#!/usr/bin/perl

Indecision1991 posted:

This is sorta what I want to run at home but with a lot less equipment. I would like to virtualize as much as possible since I am taking some vmware classes and want to keep up the momentum. I was thinking of a single server with beefy specs to use for ESXi, I know I can find 3+ year old equipment with decent specs for 400-500, I may even be getting a free server from an old boss. The networking is my weakest point but I do plan to buy some routers/switches within the next 6 months for practice. Do you think it would be a good idea for me to host a small single server with 2 routers and 3 switches?All for practice of course.

I always think two servers with lower specs (but lots of memory, which is cheap) are better than one, so you're not screwed with a hardware failure and you can play around with clustering without nesting ESXi instances.

But, yes, an environment like that (2 routers, 2 servers, 2 switches) is a good idea.

Agrikk
Oct 17, 2003

Take care with that! We have not fully ascertained its function, and the ticking is accelerating.

Indecision1991 posted:

This is sorta what I want to run at home but with a lot less equipment. I would like to virtualize as much as possible since I am taking some vmware classes and want to keep up the momentum. I was thinking of a single server with beefy specs to use for ESXi, I know I can find 3+ year old equipment with decent specs for 400-500, I may even be getting a free server from an old boss. The networking is my weakest point but I do plan to buy some routers/switches within the next 6 months for practice. Do you think it would be a good idea for me to host a small single server with 2 routers and 3 switches?All for practice of course.

I think it is silly for IT folks to not have an IT lab in their home. It is very easy to get rusty on skills that you don't use every day and having the right gear handy is a great way to brush up on stuff (especially before interviews, etc).

If I were to build a simple lab, I would build a white box ESXi host, stuff a bunch of nics in it, and then plug those nics into a router or two and a managed switch capable of multiple vlans.

Stay away from the temptation to buy old servers (but free can be good!): They tend to be noisier and more power hungry than a whitebox build and you typically get more bang for your buck on a home built (plus you get more hardware experience).

Here's a decent home ESXi server for around $550:

ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0 AM3+ AMD 970 - $85
AMD FX-8120 Zambezi 3.1 GHz Eight-Core Desktop Processor - $150
2x8GB DDR3 SDRAM (16GB total) - $170
Rosewill capstone-550 80 PLUS GOLD power supply - $70
ATI Rage XL Pro 8BM PCI — $8 eBay
3 network cards: 2xPCI-e 1GB, 1xPCI 1GB — $~24 eBay
Computer case - $50

You surely have old SATA hard drives floating around, right? Buy a USB key ($8) to install ESXi on and use your SATA HDs for storage.

Make sure to buy the RAM in two sticks of 8GB each, so you can upgrade to 32GB at a later date by purchasing two more 8gb sticks when you can afford it.

Then as your funding allows, buy a used Dell PowerConnect 2716 switch (~$80) and maybe a Cisco 2621 (dual-port fast ethernet) ($90) to allow you to route between VMs and vlans using hardware.

Until you can get networking hardware, I think there are open source router appliances available for vmware that will get you designing your very own overcomplicated home network in no time...

Dilbert As FUCK
Sep 8, 2007

by Cowcaster
Pillbug

Indecision1991 posted:

This is sorta what I want to run at home but with a lot less equipment. I would like to virtualize as much as possible since I am taking some vmware classes and want to keep up the momentum. I was thinking of a single server with beefy specs to use for ESXi, I know I can find 3+ year old equipment with decent specs for 400-500, I may even be getting a free server from an old boss. The networking is my weakest point but I do plan to buy some routers/switches within the next 6 months for practice. Do you think it would be a good idea for me to host a small single server with 2 routers and 3 switches?All for practice of course.

Remember, You can run ESXi inside ESXi, there are some virtual routers and switches out there where you can make some really interesting virtual network which can mimic things like WAN latency/speed, failures, and many other things you won't have to spend a buck on.

My advice start with one host, then move to another when you realize the host you are working on is not fitting the bill.

Indecision1991
Sep 13, 2012

Dilbert As gently caress posted:

Remember, You can run ESXi inside ESXi, there are some virtual routers and switches out there where you can make some really interesting virtual network which can mimic things like WAN latency/speed, failures, and many other things you won't have to spend a buck on.

My advice start with one host, then move to another when you realize the host you are working on is not fitting the bill.

I was originally looking at something like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251269644666

I have spare 500GB Sata drives I wanted to throw into it. Eventually I would want to add a second host but want to make sure I understand basics before I put money into it.


Agrikk posted:

I think it is silly for IT folks to not have an IT lab in their home. It is very easy to get rusty on skills that you don't use every day and having the right gear handy is a great way to brush up on stuff (especially before interviews, etc).

If I were to build a simple lab, I would build a white box ESXi host, stuff a bunch of nics in it, and then plug those nics into a router or two and a managed switch capable of multiple vlans.

Stay away from the temptation to buy old servers (but free can be good!): They tend to be noisier and more power hungry than a whitebox build and you typically get more bang for your buck on a home built (plus you get more hardware experience).

Here's a decent home ESXi server for around $550:

ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0 AM3+ AMD 970 - $85
AMD FX-8120 Zambezi 3.1 GHz Eight-Core Desktop Processor - $150
2x8GB DDR3 SDRAM (16GB total) - $170
Rosewill capstone-550 80 PLUS GOLD power supply - $70
ATI Rage XL Pro 8BM PCI — $8 eBay
3 network cards: 2xPCI-e 1GB, 1xPCI 1GB — $~24 eBay
Computer case - $50

You surely have old SATA hard drives floating around, right? Buy a USB key ($8) to install ESXi on and use your SATA HDs for storage.

Make sure to buy the RAM in two sticks of 8GB each, so you can upgrade to 32GB at a later date by purchasing two more 8gb sticks when you can afford it.

Then as your funding allows, buy a used Dell PowerConnect 2716 switch (~$80) and maybe a Cisco 2621 (dual-port fast ethernet) ($90) to allow you to route between VMs and vlans using hardware.

Until you can get networking hardware, I think there are open source router appliances available for vmware that will get you designing your very own overcomplicated home network in no time...

I agree, I already have a really beefy gaming system and am the family IT guy so I build and repair their stuff all the time, so I feel like hardware I am decent on all ready. I also have some old 2950(not sure of model, at work right now) switches from a previous job so I already have a head start on that.

evol262 posted:

I always think two servers with lower specs (but lots of memory, which is cheap) are better than one, so you're not screwed with a hardware failure and you can play around with clustering without nesting ESXi instances.

But, yes, an environment like that (2 routers, 2 servers, 2 switches) is a good idea.

I would normally agree but was thinking of the following server as my starting point.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251269644666

I have older sata drives I will use so it not coming with any HDD is fine.

Dilbert As FUCK
Sep 8, 2007

by Cowcaster
Pillbug

Indecision1991 posted:

I was originally looking at something like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251269644666

This is my lab


It does basically everything I needed for the VCAP-DCA/VCP5/VCP5-DT(VDI)


AND MORE.

It is neat and easy, all in a one box, and costs a lot less.

Here is my friends build, he had little to no trouble doing much of his virtualization as well
http://www.vhersey.com/2012/12/the-home-lab-black-friday-upgrade/

Dilbert As FUCK fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Aug 7, 2013

evol262
Nov 30, 2010
#!/usr/bin/perl
Unless you've done this before and know what you're doing, you almost certainly do not want a 1U with a 5 year old Xeon, no matter how enticing it looks on paper, especially if you want to do nested virt (which has improved dramatically from the hardware side in the last 5 years).

Indecision1991
Sep 13, 2012

Dilbert As gently caress posted:

This is my lab


It does basically everything I needed for the VCAP-DCA/VCP5/VCP5-DT(VDI)


AND MORE.

It is neat and easy, all in a one box, and costs a lot less.

So do you think that server I link will be able to do pretty much all the stuff you are doing? I would thin spec wise its above and beyond your system but is the price decent for the hardware?

Indecision1991
Sep 13, 2012

evol262 posted:

Unless you've done this before and know what you're doing, you almost certainly do not want a 1U with a 5 year old Xeon, no matter how enticing it looks on paper, especially if you want to do nested virt (which has improved dramatically from the hardware side in the last 5 years).

Good point, I am simply looking at the specs and not thinking about the improvements that current hardware has over older stuff. I am just confused I guess, I would be fine using a white box, i have a ton of old drives i can use including an ssd. At the same time having some old refurbished systems to play around with still sounds, to me, like a decent idea.

Edit: should have added onto my last comment, I cant delete this one so I apologize for the double post.

Dilbert As FUCK
Sep 8, 2007

by Cowcaster
Pillbug

Indecision1991 posted:

So do you think that server I link will be able to do pretty much all the stuff you are doing? I would thin spec wise its above and beyond your system but is the price decent for the hardware?

It will probably work, however I am not sure if any off the shelf drives will work in dell servers. Some vendors drive lock where the HDD's won't be accessible. And storage is probably where you'll see some of the most slowdowns in a VMware lab.

evol262
Nov 30, 2010
#!/usr/bin/perl

Indecision1991 posted:

Good point, I am simply looking at the specs and not thinking about the improvements that current hardware has over older stuff. I am just confused I guess, I would be fine using a white box, i have a ton of old drives i can use including an ssd. At the same time having some old refurbished systems to play around with still sounds, to me, like a decent idea.

Edit: should have added onto my last comment, I cant delete this one so I apologize for the double post.

It's loud, and it sucks power. It's loud. I cannot emphasize enough how piercing 40mm fans in a home environment. While you're getting 8 cores and 72GB of memory for the cost of a Haswell i5 and 32gb of memory, really ask yourself whether the tradeoff in noise, heat, and power consumption is worth it.

Indecision1991
Sep 13, 2012

Dilbert As gently caress posted:

It will probably work, however I am not sure if any off the shelf drives will work in dell servers. Some vendors drive lock where the HDD's won't be accessible. And storage is probably where you'll see some of the most slowdowns in a VMware lab.

This is another question I was going to ask, if off the shelf drives would work as long as they fit in the hdd trays.

Dilbert As FUCK
Sep 8, 2007

by Cowcaster
Pillbug

Indecision1991 posted:

This is another question I was going to ask, if off the shelf drives would work as long as they fit in the hdd trays.

Most likely not. You probably want to look into something that Agrikk posted, or if you want do tell your budget and I can post a whitebox build.

Indecision1991
Sep 13, 2012

Dilbert As gently caress posted:

Most likely not. You probably want to look into something that Agrikk posted, or if you want do tell your budget and I can post a whitebox build.

Budget is around 600-700 for a white box since I can buy components over time. If I were to buy a refurb server I would say a budget of 500 since its a single big purchase.

Agrikk
Oct 17, 2003

Take care with that! We have not fully ascertained its function, and the ticking is accelerating.

Indecision1991 posted:

Good point, I am simply looking at the specs and not thinking about the improvements that current hardware has over older stuff. I am just confused I guess, I would be fine using a white box, i have a ton of old drives i can use including an ssd. At the same time having some old refurbished systems to play around with still sounds, to me, like a decent idea.


So there are a bunch of people telling you why this is a bad idea, but if you want to do the goon-in-the-well thing, be my guest. :D It sounds like you are kinda stoked on the idea of having Enterprise Server Gear in your house so go hog wild.

Trust us, though. It will arrive in the mail and you will put your dives in and fire it up and get all kinds of excited about it. For about two weeks. Then eventually the fan noise will get annoying and you will start thinking about where you could put it to dampen the sound. Then you will start powering it off to get relief from the noise and power bill. Then you will be slightly irritated every time you want to try something and you have to wait while it powers on. Then you'll start browsing ebay to find out how much you can sell it for while you part out your new white box. The one with the efficient power supply, new processor and large, silent fans.

edit:

evol262 posted:

It's loud, and it sucks power. It's loud. I cannot emphasize enough how piercing 40mm fans in a home environment.

Nth-ing this. You think you know how loud 40mm fans are, because you sit next to some gear in an office and are used to the noise. But offices have a lot of background ambient noise that give context to server noise. The AC is blowing, there's people rattling around in the break room. Cubicle conversations, etc.

You will get your new server home to your nice quiet house and no matter where you are or what you are doing you will always, always hear those 40mm fans.

Agrikk fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Aug 7, 2013

evol262
Nov 30, 2010
#!/usr/bin/perl

Indecision1991 posted:

Budget is around 600-700 for a white box since I can buy components over time. If I were to buy a refurb server I would say a budget of 500 since its a single big purchase.

Or buy:

i5 Haswell - $190
32GB memory - $108 x2
Motherboard - $70

You have drives. You probably have a case/PSU as well. If not, it's ~$50 extra. So it's $500 for new, quiet hardware. And you probably don't need 72GB of memory anyway. Especially not in a 1U.

Indecision1991
Sep 13, 2012

Agrikk posted:

So there are a bunch of people telling you why this is a bad idea, but if you want to do the goon-in-the-well thing, be my guest. :D It sounds like you are kinda stoked on the idea of having Enterprise Server Gear in your house so go hog wild.

Trust us, though. It will arrive in the mail and you will put your dives in and fire it up and get all kinds of excited about it. For about two weeks. Then eventually the fan noise will get annoying and you will start thinking about where you could put it to dampen the sound. Then you will start powering it off to get relief from the noise and power bill. Then you will be slightly irritated every time you want to try something and you have to wait while it powers on. Then you'll start browsing ebay to find out how much you can sell it for while you part out your new white box. The one with the efficient power supply, new processor and large, silent fans.

You are 100% right, I did respond to Dilbert to see what he suggest on a whitebox. At the end of the day I will get tired of the increased bill and the loudness. I am by no means asking for advice then resisting it, so I apologize if it seems that way.

Edit:

Evol, your build looks good and I will definitely be building myself a white box. Should a server come my way for free from the old boss I will still gladly accept it but I will rather stick with new, quiet, power efficient hardware.

Indecision1991 fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Aug 7, 2013

Sefal
Nov 8, 2011
Fun Shoe
I haven't build a lab yet. I think it is absolutely essential to have my own lab so I can keep up and learn more.
I am familiar with Oracle virtual box. but I am looking to buy something like this
http://www.ebay.com/itm/251269644666
I got all the Microsoft licenses I need from my school. (dreamspark)
I also want to learn about differential and incremental back ups. (I know how to do full back ups efficiently now and I know the difference between incremental and differential. I don't know how to implement them.)
I think I need to use tapes for this. I have zero experience with tapes

I also need to learn more about how to manage network cables. like how do I get 1 switch to connect to 20 computers in different rooms. the cables should go through the wall right?. I have no idea how to do this. I am willing to learn this at my home by drilling holes or however it is done.
I know nothing about Cisco at the moment but I want to learn it as soon as possible so that is also a must for me.
I also need to learn how to make a VPN.

These are the things I know I want to know. there is so much I don't know yet outside of this. I want to build a machine that can let me learn all things and more.
Is this reasonable to build and if so could you guys point me in the right direction?

Agrikk
Oct 17, 2003

Take care with that! We have not fully ascertained its function, and the ticking is accelerating.

Indecision1991 posted:

You are 100% right, I did respond to Dilbert to see what he suggest on a whitebox. At the end of the day I will get tired of the increased bill and the loudness. I am by no means asking for advice then resisting it, so I apologize if it seems that way.

No harm, no foul. :)

Get this one up and running and get your lab solid. If you do score the free server from work, that can be your second ESX host for extra capacity and goofing off space.

Agrikk
Oct 17, 2003

Take care with that! We have not fully ascertained its function, and the ticking is accelerating.

Sefal posted:


I am familiar with Oracle virtual box. but I am looking to buy something like this
http://www.ebay.com/itm/251269644666



Ah hah hah hah holy poo poo!

Look at the previous set of posts on this exact page:

Indecision1991 posted:

I was originally looking at something like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251269644666


Then read our responses. :)

Indecision1991
Sep 13, 2012

Agrikk posted:

Ah hah hah hah holy poo poo!

Look at the previous set of posts on this exact page:


Then read our responses. :)

Maybe its my second account and I am just setting up a troll train? Nah jk'ing...either way thanks for the input, will wait for dilberts white box recommendation and begin to spec out a white box. If a server does fall on my lap ill just use it to mess with, nothing serious.

Agrikk
Oct 17, 2003

Take care with that! We have not fully ascertained its function, and the ticking is accelerating.
The Home Lab Thread: Please don't talk to us about http://www.ebay.com/itm/251269644666

Indecision1991
Sep 13, 2012

Agrikk posted:

The Home Lab Thread: Please don't talk to us about http://www.ebay.com/itm/251269644666

OP should put this with bold letters.

Sepist
Dec 26, 2005

FUCK BITCHES, ROUTE PACKETS

Gravy Boat 2k
Updated the OP with an example of how loud they are

Indecision1991
Sep 13, 2012

Sepist posted:

Updated the OP with an example of how loud they are

TBH, I did do some research on the C1100 before posting here and found this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xToSKwWFO_o

So yes it is loud to start up but once it gets going it tones itself down. :ohdear:

Either way, its not for everyone and I think we have made this clear so lets move onto helping others.

thebigcow
Jan 3, 2001

Bully!
I have a 1U Dell but I put it in the basement at work where they can pay for the power. If I'm in after hours I can hear it through the floor boards.

Indecision1991
Sep 13, 2012

thebigcow posted:

I have a 1U Dell but I put it in the basement at work where they can pay for the power. If I'm in after hours I can hear it through the floor boards.

I was playing devils advocate in that it doesn't sound like a jet :devil:. Besides what home lab is going to be on 24/7? A home lab is a home lab, not a production environment that needs 99.999% up time and is being pushed hard all day long.

devmd01
Mar 7, 2006

Elektronik
Supersonik
On the other hand, if you manage to borrow a modern tower server from work, it'll probably be quieter than your normal desktop. The T720 I have is hilariously quiet for how many fans and hard drives it has.

...until it ramps up when it's 90 degrees in the garage. :unsmigghh:

Maniblack
Mar 4, 2008
This thread is just what I needed to find. I've moved into a new place and have room for a lab so I've decided that I want to setup a rack and get some experience on enterprise grade hardware.

But now after reading the last few posts, I'm less and less enthralled by the idea of that server hardware. Can someone explain to the rookie what a "white-box" is?

Docjowles
Apr 9, 2009

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.

Dilbert As FUCK
Sep 8, 2007

by Cowcaster
Pillbug

Indecision1991 posted:

Maybe its my second account and I am just setting up a troll train? Nah jk'ing...either way thanks for the input, will wait for dilberts white box recommendation and begin to spec out a white box. If a server does fall on my lap ill just use it to mess with, nothing serious.

Here is what I would look into

Intel build:
mobo/case/psu http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856101117
CPU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116782
Memory(2) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104361
Cost: 645

Pro's
Intel-VT/D
Low power
Quiet
small
easy to setup and roll
Con's
Low internal disks
Budget doesn't include drives

AMD Build
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157394
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119269
HDD(2): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136771
Ram(2): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104361
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113286
SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211718
Cost 666

Pro's very similar to my setup that I visio's
Con's
Bit more expensive and a bit bulkier, also would need a video card to setup ESXi temporarily

evol262
Nov 30, 2010
#!/usr/bin/perl

Dilbert As gently caress posted:

Pro's very similar to my setup that I visio's
Con's
Bit more expensive and a bit bulkier, also would need a video card to setup ESXi temporarily

More expensive because it includes a SSD and 2 disks. And it has two more cores. You could easily replace that with something FM2 which would draw less power and provide video for the same price.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Indecision1991
Sep 13, 2012
Thanks guys, I appreciate all the input everyone has provided.

  • Locked thread