How can I setup a virtual tech lab.

GeeJay

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Croydon
Hi there ;)

I am looking to setup some sort of a virtual lab at home to help teach myself about servers, network etc. I am currently doing a MTA Server fundamentals course but it is hard for me to learn by just sitting watching online videos all day. I wondered if it is possible to setup virtual environments similar to a company network, a number of servers, client PCs and various operating systems. Is this possible?

Practical learning is the best way for me and I need the experience to build my skillset for future IT roles. (Finishing up a short term contract in Desktop Support real soon).

Any advice would be grateful.
 
Yes, very possible all you need is a decently fast desktop / laptop. I did this while studying for my MCSA.

1. Install vmware player - it's free you just have to register an account with VMware: https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/free
2. Create a virtual server
3. Mount the server ISO you are wanting to use
4. Boot the virtual server to that ISO - install the OS
5. Configure the server as you would want

Some things i've found in studying for my MCSA, give your Domain Controller as much memory as you possible can afford. Anything under 2 GB will be painfully slow for you. You can also afford to give it more CPU even if you only have a quad core on your home PC. The CPU scheduler in vmware does a good job of ensuring CPU doesn't get too busy.

I would also suggest if you are going to install WSUS (i don't know what you are specifically studying for) put WSUS on it's own server.

You can follow the above steps to configure multiple servers and workstations. If you go into the vmware NIC properties in the application you can actually segment your network (virtual network) so that the virtual servers can communicate with each other and you can segment things like DHCP on the virtual network and not mess up your desktop network.
 
That sounds brilliant,

I have both a fast PC and laptop, I could install VMware on both machines, run the install the server ISO and get them to communicate with each other. The only thing my PC hard drive is SSD so there isn't much space, I do have a large NAS so can I run the virtual server on that? My laptop has much more storage though....both machines have 8GB of ram and i5 processors.
 
You'll want to install all the VM's that you are working with on one machine - otherwise networking becomes a nightmare because you are going to have to bridge the nic that your computer uses with the vmnic that vmware is using. Much simpler to just put it on the same computer.

The NAS would work - i don't know the speed of the drives in your NAS but yes you can simply install the vmware player application locally and when you configure the virtual servers just point the files to the NAS. I have a RAID setup on my desktop b/c i too have SSD for the C drive. Works perfectly.

I would suggest coming up with a game plan first before plugging away. I've found if you map out your domain, users, passwords, networking, ect in an excel spreadsheet you won't have to 're-deploy' your environment over and over again b/c something didn't work out or you want to change something.

I have an excel spreadsheet with my lab domain information in it mapping out what vms are on it, what user names (in case you don't log in for months and forget your pw), what IP's to use (so that after deploying 5 machines you aren't double backing and re-iping things) and what features / roles are on each server.
 
I hear that.....I'll keep all the VMs on my desktop then. No problem.

My NAS will be configured for RAID 1, as soon as my 2nd HDD arrives, (mainly keep it for my music but it has plenty of space for my lab.

I'll definitely create a spreadsheet with all the domain info, I usually do that sort of thing becasue I like to stay organised.

Thank you very much for your help.....I knew it was a good idea joining a techforum, no doubt I'll be coming to you for more help. lol

Feel free to drop anymore information you think I might need......I can't wait to get started.
 
Good luck - check back with any issues or questions you may have. Not sure how much space your NAS has, but during the virtual machine creation you can make the drives thin provisioned which will save you space.
 
Slightly stuck with configuring my first CV on the network.

I have to reserve IP address using DHCP reservation on on my home router. (Virgin Media Broadband) to assign my first server with a static IP.

I'm not entirely sure what it supposed to be set as default gateway and DNS server. I would have thought one of them would be the address of my router.....DNS = 192.168.0.1 for example. The thing is I did this before last year, but I completely forgot how I did.

Any help will be appreciated.
 
Slightly stuck with configuring my first CV on the network.

I have to reserve IP address using DHCP reservation on on my home router. (Virgin Media Broadband) to assign my first server with a static IP.

I'm not entirely sure what it supposed to be set as default gateway and DNS server. I would have thought one of them would be the address of my router.....DNS = 192.168.0.1 for example. The thing is I did this before last year, but I completely forgot how I did.

Any help will be appreciated.

This is the learning part ;) but your setup is virtual so shouldn't speaking to your real network, so dont worry about VM router...

Create 2 servers, 1 for DC with DNS and 1 for DHCP..

Configure your DC (including setting a static IP say 192.168.0.2) and promote it, this will prompt you to config DNS (if server 2012 version).

then config DHCP server..
 
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I have to reserve IP address using DHCP reservation on on my home router. (Virgin Media Broadband) to assign my first server with a static IP.

If your router is 192.168.0.1, then your reserved IP should be something in the router's DHCP pool, which is typically 192.168.0.2 - 192.168.0.254 (should be able to pick any of those in that range to reserve). If this is a cellular device, it may have a limited range of IP addresses, which I have seen is usually 10 devices, so it would be from 192.168.0.2 - 192.168.0.11 instead. Be mindful that if you reserve an IP address, no other device will be assigned that address and you may knock something else off of your network.

I'm not entirely sure what it supposed to be set as default gateway and DNS server. I would have thought one of them would be the address of my router.....DNS = 192.168.0.1 for example. The thing is I did this before last year, but I completely forgot how I did.

The default gateway should be your router's IP address (typically 192.168.0.1 for example). DNS is usually automatically assigned by your ISP, but you can also override that. Google's DNS servers are a good starting point and are 8.8.8.8 for DNS1 and 8.8.4.4 for DNS2. Hope that helps.
 
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