A Lab, A Cert, and a Sub

I have been kicking around the plan to build a new lab at home. While in days past this would have been created out of old equipment lying around the house, that just cant be the case here.

In the push to further my career, I have been wanting to build a new VMWare lab. VMWare has released ESXi 4.1 Hypervisor as part of the latest free edition (YAAA VMWARE). From there I wish to expand a lab that will include Domain Controller, File Server, Media Server (different than file) and what else maybe needed. I am also planning to use Linux and Windows to keep the knowledge broad.

I have been reviewing my own hardware lying around the house. I end that sentence as is, because well... my old hardware just wont cut it. I can build a few windows 2003 Domain Controllers or Printer Servers out of them. That might be it. The only other use they may have is as a form of SAN and iSCSI storage. Plenty of free OSes out there to make this old hardware into Storage. Sounds like a plan for now. In the mean time I have been reviewing the best way to create a lab for VMWare. I have been looking at AMD Chips with quad or six core to save money. Came to an interesting turn. The extra power that is in the Phenom AMD chips are wasted when used as a VMWare Host Server. The technical players on the interwebs are stating save my money and get an ATHLON II X4 proc. Not something I had looked into. So I am looking at a rig with AMD Athlon II X4, 8GB-16GB of Memory and a ton of slots for hard drives. I have 2TBs of storage just waiting to be used.

Which brings me to possibility of going for VM Certification. I have been thinking about it for a while. Not as many people out there with VM Certs. Major issue with it, the classes are required and they are not cheap. I have read they are close to $3,000. Not chump change. However it would be a another feather in the cap as it were.

Along with the Cert I have also decided to get a subscription to Microsoft TechNet. With the building of my lab, I will need lots of OSes even ones from Microsoft. I do prefer to get them legally. Microsoft Tech Net subscription fits perfectly into a VMWare Lab. The idea was on VM's web site in the forums posted by several people. The cost of the subscription for download only is $160 with my company's discount. That alone would pay for my wife's pc upgrade to Windows 7. I get all the OSes I wanted with that subscription. Get all the SQL DBs as well. After all that has gone down with Oracle owning MySQL these days, I still feel that its Microsoft boon. I am seeing MS SQL show up in a lot more places than Oracle. It wouldnt hurt to have a few DBs in the house, plus it comes with the subscription.

All it now comes down too is cash. Need the subscription, need the hardware and need the classes. Looks like 2011 will be a long road for me technical wise. Time to see where it takes me.

-Boston Tech Guy Out.