Home Lab Start-up.....

Virtualization allows you to do a lot with a little. Overcommiting is your friend (if you plan well). a Domain Controller needs very little resources and most server loads are very predicable (unlikely desktops which is why VDI is a pain)

Sparkum

When I started homelabbing I went big,
Dell 1950, 2950, 2950, and a MD1000

Running dozens of VM's huge learning experience crammed tons into a short amount of time.

Later realized it was giant overkill, built a whitebox server its a quad core 3.6GHz 16GB of ram in a 15 bay chassis.

More than I need, I just actually delete VM's instead of running 40 at once lol.

PSX_Defector

I just bought an HP Proliant ML10. Only 239 bucks on Newegg. Had to spend another $180 for some ECC RAM, but meh. My previous test box was my old AMD quad core machine. Although I could stack it with RAM cheaper, I forget how good it is to have a decent actual server in the house. Using out of band tools made things a lot easier to setup, iLO/DRAC is a necessary thing.

vmware new.jpg

thanksajdotcom

Desktop, 2 monitors, Linux, HP

Also, *lab and *bear. "Bare with you" means something completely different...

@PSX_Defector said:

I just bought an HP Proliant ML10. Only 239 bucks on Newegg. Had to spend another $180 for some ECC RAM, but meh. My previous test box was my old AMD quad core machine. Although I could stack it with RAM cheaper, I forget how good it is to have a decent actual server in the house. Using out of band tools made things a lot easier to setup, iLO/DRAC is a necessary thing.

I used to use a bunch of servers. I got tired of the noise. Granted once I finish up these video contracts I could move my HP z8020 that has 24 cores, 192GB of ram to make a very slient ESXi host. Expect the free version is only licensed for one CPU.

thanksajdotcom

@thecreativeone91 said:

@PSX_Defector said:

I just bought an HP Proliant ML10. Only 239 bucks on Newegg. Had to spend another $180 for some ECC RAM, but meh. My previous test box was my old AMD quad core machine. Although I could stack it with RAM cheaper, I forget how good it is to have a decent actual server in the house. Using out of band tools made things a lot easier to setup, iLO/DRAC is a necessary thing.

I used to use a bunch of servers. I got tired of the noise. Granted once I finish up these video contracts I could move my HP z8020 that has 24 cores, 192GB of ram to make a very slient ESXi host. Expect the free version is only licensed for one CPU.

*except

PSX_Defector

@thecreativeone91 said:

@PSX_Defector said:

I just bought an HP Proliant ML10. Only 239 bucks on Newegg. Had to spend another $180 for some ECC RAM, but meh. My previous test box was my old AMD quad core machine. Although I could stack it with RAM cheaper, I forget how good it is to have a decent actual server in the house. Using out of band tools made things a lot easier to setup, iLO/DRAC is a necessary thing.

I used to use a bunch of servers. I got tired of the noise. Granted once I finish up these video contracts I could move my HP z8020 that has 24 cores, 192GB of ram to make a very slient ESXi host. Expect the free version is only licensed for one CPU.

http://www.vmug.com/p/cm/ld/fid=8792

$200. Quit yer bitchin'!

PSX_Defector

@thecreativeone91

And it looks like they changed the free license to allow lots o' RAM and multiple processors as well.

http://www.vladan.fr/esxi-5-5-free-version-details/

@PSX_Defector said:

@thecreativeone91

And it looks like they changed the free license to allow lots o' RAM and multiple processors as well.

http://www.vladan.fr/esxi-5-5-free-version-details/

Mine still says one physical cpu. Not that I'm complaining it works fine for me.

@thanksajdotcom do you want people to hate you?

scottalanmiller

@Hubtech said:

@thanksajdotcom do you want people to hate you?

@scottalanmiller said:

@Hubtech said:

@thanksajdotcom do you want people to hate you?

don't get it.

scottalanmiller

scottalanmiller

@Hubtech grammar nazi

@scottalanmiller said:

ah, grammar Nazi. gotcha

scottalanmiller

For a home lab I agree with a lot of the above, a server is the absolute best way about it if possible. And here is why....

You get experience working with servers. I recommend slightly older, enterprise servers over newer "consumer" or SMB servers. The hardware in an ML10 or a Proliant Micro is basically desktop hardware. You want to deal with older SAS drives, hardware RAID controllers, hot swap bays and other things that come with "real" servers. If you have the money, talk to @xByteSean and see what xByte can do for you as far as a very cheap, very low end "real" server.
Not only do you get experience on "real" servers which equates to very useful knowledge (you have no idea how much having your own really helps in real life) but putting "I have a real server at home" on your resume looks amazing. It sets you head and shoulders above 99% of the competition when it comes to how serious you are about your home learning and how much investment and effort you are willing to put in.
They are designed to be run headless, no need for monitors. "Real" IT, beyond desktop support, is done remotely. Treat your lab the same way. Whether it is your own datacenter or the cloud, you don't expect to be sitting at your server(s) to work on them. Get out of the habit and force yourself to work as if the servers are on the moon.
They are designed to run around the clock, stuck in a closet.
Bragging rights.

scottalanmiller

Other home lab suggestions:

Do you own your home? If so, wire that b1$@h up! Run CAT5e or CAT6 everywhere. I've done this in every house I ever owned. Sure, cabling itself is not an IT skill, it's an electrician skill, but it is a crossover one that is good to understand even if you never do it as part of a job. Learn about type A and type B terminations. Make the wall jacks nice. Organize the cables as they go through your attic or basement. Label everything. Make it look like the best business setup you could image. Don't run one line to a room, run four or six. Put in nice wall jacks. (Thanks to @bsouder for doing the wiring in my Texas home - it is crazy impressive!)
Ready for more home networking beyond just cabling? Look to add PoE for your wireless and VoIP devices!
Put in a real switch, something smart or managed!
Put in separate router/firewall and access point(s).
Build a home PBX and put in VoIP phones.

Raise the "home line" on your business:

http://www.storagecraft.com/blog/balancing-tech/

coliver

@BMarie Do you currently have a laptop/desktop at home? I would invest in a server before investing in either of those if you still have a working on in your house. If you go with a dedicated box for a server you don't need additional monitors, although it is really nice to have for your workstation, allowing you to have more then one console open at the same time. I would look at virtualization first before you try doing anything else. Personally I use XenServer for my home lab, although there is also a free version of ESXi and Hyper-V. XenServer isn't used very often in the SMB space, which I find odd since it really is fantastic. You can then deploy as many linux or windows boxes on top of your VM host as you want.

I have no brand loyalty, I use a little whitebox with a quad core processor and 16 GB of RAM... I wish I had the money to invest in a real server as my little box is a bit too small... Although it may be because I am running two memory hungry apps on it.

scottalanmiller

Every area of IT that you might do at work you can do at home.

Networking. Build an awesome, monitored, managed network at home.
Servers. Active Directory, Internet Proxy, Web Filtering, Logging, File Server, Email, PBX, all at home.
Security. UTM, firewall, managed AV (Webroot will help you out, @nic).
Streaming Video. Because, why not.
Storage. NAS, SAN, "cloud storage" like ownCloud.
Server OS. Linux, FreeBSD, Windows.
Desktop OS. Windows, Mac (expensive but good to have), Linux, ChromeOS.
Surveillance. Video cameras watching your place.
Physical. Put in a real rack and other "enterprise" containers for your gear. Do it right!

scottalanmiller

@coliver said:

I have no brand loyalty, I use a little whitebox with a quad core processor and 16 GB of RAM... I wish I had the money to invest in a real server as my little box is a bit too small... Although it may be because I am running two memory hungry apps on it.

I have a bit bigger budget than most, but I did most of my home lab stuff before I had the big budget. My extensive lab had a lot to do with me later getting the big budget.

I have real HP, Dell, Sun / Oracle and SuperMicro servers at home, no whiteboxes (used to have a few of those and an IBM server too.) I have Intel, AMD, Sparc and Itanium based servers. ARM soon too, I hope. All rack mount with a real rack.