In a first part I described how to create HomeLab in a Box based on Linux or Windows host OS and VMware Workstation.
How to set up a Home LAB for vSpehre 4 and vSphere5 – part 1
In second part of my series, I will describe how to create a HomeLab in a box but running on ESXi 5.1 as host platform. The approach is to have stable, universal, low cost platform on which one can build, test and develop various type of systems and configurations. HomeLab base components:
- as a host platform is vSphere 5.1.1 Free version
- homelab virtual infrastructure – AD, DNS, storage appliance, router and FW appliance – provides basic and common services for every virtual lab,
- vSphere virtual infra or any other virtual infra as a test environment
- physical network – provides connectivity outside the box
- virtual network – provides connectivity within virtual lab environments
HomeLab logical design
Requirements:
- Hardware
- Desktop computer, server which supports ESXi5.1 – HERE you can find tested hardware for vSphere ESXi5 and ESXi5.1.1 HomeLab
- Software,
- VMware ESXi5 .1 free or paid version
- vSphere 5.1 installation packages
- Windows 2003, 2008 or 2012 installation ISO
- Storage virtual appliance – How to configure OpenFiler virtual storage appliance
- Prepare IP address and host name matrix for vSphere LAB
- 1 x AD controller
- 1 x vCenter server
- 3 x ESXi servers mgmt interface (1 for host system and 2 for nested)
- 2 x ESXi vMotion interface (only for nested ESXi systems)
- 2 x ESXi iSCSI or NFS vmk interface (only for nested ESXi systems
- 1 x storage appliance
- 1 x router and firewall appliance
- 1 x SQL server (optional)
- 1x vCenter SSO server (optional)
Step by step instruction:
- Install ESXi on host hardware
- Prepare ESXi host system to pass virtualization instructions to nested (virtualized – ESxi installed on VM) ESXi servers
- Nested ESXi 5.5 on vSphere 5.1
- Deploy VM with Windows Server system
- Create Active directory domain
- Create DNS with reverse lookup zones
- Create DNS entries for vSphere homelab
- Create MSSQL or Oracle server for DB hosting
- Deploy and install vCenter server on VM – link here
- Deploy and configure virtual storage appliance – OpenFiler
- Deploy and configure modern storage appliance – Nexenta
- Deploy virtual firewall and router
- Deploy nested ESXi servers
- Connect ESXi nested servers to vCenter server
- Connect iSCSI or NFS shared storage to ESXi nested servers
DONE, basic vSphere homelab configuration is done, how one should be able to connect to vCenter server, deploy new VM, vMotion, storage vMotion, Fault Tolerance and many many more.
Based on above configuration one can deploy vCloud Director, VMware View, VMware Site Recovery Manger, vCloud Suite, Hypper-V 2012 and more.
vSphere HomeLab physical design
