Building my 1st VMware Home Lab

 

After many weeks of reading and scoping out other setups on the web from big names like Duncan Epping, Chris Wahl, Hersey Cartwright, Eric Shanks and Phil Jaenke, I made my picks based on my budget and best choices for VMware compatible hardware. I took a little bit of knowledge from each of these veterans and my skill to build up a nice little starter lab for my home. Be sure to visit these guys for some great resources and tips on making the best with a small or large budget!

 

With my VCP5 test scheduled for Monday afternoon this setup comes a little bit late but much needed for my further progress with my intended VMware certification paths. I recently built up a Baby Dragon II designed lab at the office to get some practice of how everything should work in a small box. That helped me understand what I wanted to begin with at home and what I could afford to build on a small budget. I am also using Autolab that has helped me nest my ESXi lab within my physical ESXi Host build. Autolab can be used with VMware Fusion, Workstation or ESXi. It makes for a very fast lab deployment and could really run within a Win7 laptop if you wanted! Sweet, I know.

 

OK, Need to run and finish up some stuff as well as more practice tests before tomorrows exam. Pics posted later this week after my VCP test is out of the way.