MCITP Server Admin hardware/

Dashik

Dashik

Dashik

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18 Oct 2002
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Location
Dunbar
Hi guys,

For a variety of reasons I need to recertify back into IT.

Im literally at the start of properly looking into this but figure someone might save me a lot of time and effort if they have done somethign similar and are generous enough to share there experiance :D

So in the long run I want to be doing Server Administration and support and setup of MS Exchange and Active Directory and VOIP. In central Scotland that should (with previous experience) make me reasonably employable :D

So to start with I need to get some additional hardware so I can setup and practice at home.

I have a beast of a games machine so that's not too bad.
Cable broadband with netgear wired/wireless router


As ever finances are limited ;)

I'm going to do the 3 exams for MCITP Server Administrator first. Followed by Exchange and CCNA then some Viop stuff I think.

Here's the questions.

Can anyone tell me if I need an additional one or two boxes to use for the Server Admin exams? I've been trying to find out but its not very clear and until the materials arrive its hard to get definitive answer.
Can i get away with one box initially and add the second at a later date?


System requirements for Win server 2008 are quite modest.

Processor

• Minimum: 1 GHz (x86 processor) or 1.4 GHz (x64 processor)
• Recommended: 2 GHz or faster
Note: An Intel Itanium 2 processor is required for Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-Based Systems

Memory

• Minimum: 512 MB RAM
• Recommended: 2 GB RAM or greater
• Maximum (32-bit systems): 4 GB (Standard) or 64 GB (Enterprise and Datacenter)
• Maximum (64-bit systems): 32 GB (Standard) or 1 TB (Enterprise and Datacenter) or 2 TB (Itanium-Based Systems)

Available Disk Space

• Minimum: 10 GB
• Recommended: 40 GB or greater

I have 2 24" dell monitors currently and a spare 19" monitor kicking around. A keyboard/mouse switch should sort the access to one or more of the boxes. I Have a spare 500gb hdd kicking around and another under warrenty that can get replaced so im thinking of buying just a box.

So can anyone advise me, do I?

A - Buy 1 or 2 cheap barebone desktop pc's such as http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-269-OK&groupid=43&catid=1817&subcat= and throw a -

cpu, http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-351-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=567
hdd - already have a 500gb kicking around. Also a spare 150gb raptor to be replaced under warrenty.
2 or 4 GB ram - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-096-GL&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=813

into the box :D

B - Get an HP Microserver - Will the HP Microserver cope with Server 2008 and be ok for training purposes?

in either case I'll network them through the Netgear router in the short term then pickup some Cisco hardware later on.

As ever thanks in advance for any help :D

James.
 
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Buy a barebone's pc with 8GB ram. OS + Virtual box and virtualize the lot. Having snapshots will help a lot. :)

I bought a barebones AMD X4, 8GB ram and can run 8 VM's on it.
 
Thanks for the reply. Could you be a little more specific please?

I take it its a case of just set the one box up and run several virtual machines all with there own OS and ID's and then just switch between as required? sounds like a neat solution.
 
Pretty much, it'll also give you some experience, albeit it a little, in virtualisation which is pretty important nowadays in the world of server support.

So you have one box thats pretty beefy spec wise which will then run your host virtual machines.
 
As discussed in other threads I'd personally go down the route of having a server (memory and hard drive space are the most important factor) and then virtualising the lot rather than having an operating system thats running the virtual software as you'll just waste resources running that.


M.
 
So Ideally a multicore processor, large chunk of ram and a reasonable HDD, network that to my main pc and run virtual servers on the box using say Virtualbox? Or EXSi :D
 
I see you've seen the other thread I was on about as you've posted in it. :D

I'd suggest ESXi and then use another computer (assuming you have a network between the two) to connect to it. Virtual Box is something that would run on top of Windows rather than a complete Hypervisor.

For example. ESXi will run using around 640MB RAM (then the virtual machines will share the rest of the resources).

Virtual Box will run on top of the Operating System so your OS will take around 2GB RAM (then the virtual machines access the rest of the resources but Windows will also be using them to).



M.
 
Check the Hardware Compatibility List on VMware.com and find something compatible - it shouldn't cost a lot of money to be honest. You don't need to go overboard (though have a rough idea of how many servers you want to run first - I'd suggest you're going to be running, at any one time, around 3 servers and 2 clients - possibly more on the later modules).



M.
 
Might be worth having a scout around to see if there any 2nd hand HP ProLiant ML115 G5s about. They are very popular small ESXi boxes - Opteron Quad Core and max of 8GB RAM.

The TechHead site has lots of good stuff about running ESXi from an internal USB stick and other VMware stuff.
 
Honestly, for MCITP training I'd recommend installing 2K8R2 SP1 and running Hyper-V for your virtuals. Yes, you use some resources running the OS rather than dedicating 95% of them to the virtuals (ala ESXi) but it's not wasted as you need to know how to configure and use Hyper-V for some of the exams. Plus there are other items such as BitLocker that you need a physical to properly test.

With regards to the hardware, the key item is RAM (aim for 8GB), but number of hard disks is a close second. It's not the capacity (your virtuals will be tiny) it's the spindles the virtuals are split across. Aim for a minimum of 2 but possibly even a third if you're planning on running 6 or more virtuals.

The actual exams themselves have now been geared towards R2 so don't waste your time installing vanilla 2008. I'd install R2 (no service pack) on your virtuals initially and then use WSUS or something to test out deploying SP1.

Bear in mind the shift to of focus to R2 when reading your ebooks as well as they're likely to reference only 2008. What I do is use the training books to get an understanding of the basic technology, then browse the net for how it's changed in R2 and the key differences etc. Things like Terminal Services (now Remote Desktop Services) have been fully overhauled and there are also completely new things such as VDI (Virtual Desktop Pools, RemoteFX etc) that the books just won't cover.

Good luck with getting it all together anyway, and if you have any further questions either surrounding setting up the lab, the exam content, or the technologies involved in 2008 R2, fire away!
 
Ok so I can either build a server from components, or get a brand one, What about the HP Proliant Microserver? I see its available with £100 if ordered today. That might not happen with time constraints.

Another contender is the HP ProLiant ML110 G, its around £200 and would just need some memory.


I'm looking to be to get a box to run both ESXi and Hyper-V as that would make sense.

Long gone are the days of chucking a nic into a desktop box and calling it a server lol D:
 
Dashik said:
Another contender is the HP ProLiant ML110 G, its around £200 and would just need some memory.
Click to expand...

If you're serious about this that's what I'd be looking at.

Dashik said:
I'm looking to be to get a box to run both ESXi and Hyper-V as that would make sense.
Click to expand...

Whilst you can install 2K8R2 and enable the Hyper-V role on an ESXi virtual, it won't start up and consequently you won't be able to use it. If you want to use Hyper-V, you need 2K8R2 installed on a physical unfortunately.
 
Oh I'm serious.

I think I could have worded my answer better, I'm looking for a box that is capable of running both Hyper-V or ESXi. Not necessarily at the same time. Its not a problem if the machine needs wiped to run either. So it's looking more like the HP ML110 G6 but I'll go for the dual core version. I don't think I need the Xeon version at twice the price for home training :D
 
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