How to Setup Virtual Lab in college Environment

[aaanserali]

Hi guys,

    I m a network person last one month  itself i started to learn vmware,and also  I want to make new virtual lab in college environment, i plan to use vmware esxi free server to create virtual machines and connected this machines via Thin client ,

    I know to use vmware esxi , and also i having idea about this, but some  confussion to implement this setup ,

my question is how to make this setup , i hope u guys understand needs,.

And one more thing is  i want to setup this low cost because colleges are don't spent more money to buy licensed vmware server, thats why i m going to user free version ,

I m going to use Vmware esxi 4.1 (hybervisor) free version , can i do this via this version and also going to create around 200 virtual machines ,

1.How many physical servers requires to do this.

2.Can i create 200 virtual machines using vmware esxi 4.1.

3.How to store datas and vm images.

4.Can i take installed vms Remotely via thin client.

5. Is there any alternative solution to setup this lab.

Please help friends your small tips that will  help me lot, i m waiting for your reply , thank you guys.

Regards,

[weinstein5]

Welcome to the Community -

1. It will depend on the CPUs and Memory you are going to out into the ESXi server and the load the VMs are going to carry -
2. Yes you can run 200 VMs on ESXi 4.1
3. the VMs can either stored locally or on shared such as a SAN or NAS/NFS - the data is stored in the VM's cirtual disk.
4. The VMs are accessed remotely by the thin client but you cannot check it out and take it with you -
5. If you are looking for a virtual desktop solution you might want to look at VMware View but this is not free.

[aaanserali]

can u tell me licenced price of vmware view

[JLackman]

Here is another approach to consider;

Use the 60 day evaluation version.  The ESX setup is fairly simple and if you're looking for experience rebuilding the install every 60 days is not that hard, and good training. You can do it in just a few hours.

Here is a good reliable environment to consider if you have any hardware available;

1. Two servers for ESX hosts (I got my hands on some HP G5s) Make sure they are IVT enabled and support virtualization. These need memory and CPU, but minimal drive space.
2. One server to run Windows (or Linux) and be your iSCSI storage host. This one needs as much storage as you can find.

This three server environment would run 5.x, and would also support 200 VMs assuming you have enough memory.

Good luck!

[999abdulwahab]

Hi,

If you are planning to build VMWare virtual lab infrastructure in your college, my advise would be :

A Server / Laptop with Intel i5, minimum 8 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD and atleast 1 NIC...

1. Install VMware Workstation 8.x / 9.x on Windows XP/7/8

2. Minimum 2 ESXi 5.1 hosts for complete vmware related labs except Fault Tolerance.

    Each ESXi would require minimum 2 GB RAM and 2 Cores for successful installation

3. vCenter Server 5.1 minimum requirement 1 Core and 4 GB RAM

4. vSphere Client on top any windows os, remember its a client component to manage ESXi from vCenter Server.

5. For shared storage you can use Openfiler, HP Virtual Appliance NAS/SAN

6. AD/DNS/DHCP dedicated VM

Regards,

Abdul Wahab

Instructor - VMware/Hyper-V/Citrix, SAN/NAS and Cisco Data Center (CCNA DC/CCCP DC/CCIE DC)

Netmetric Infosolutions Pvt Ltd

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[yongrichards]

What's the crucial difference between VMWare virtual lab infrastructure build for college and office? We've executed the same steps to build VMWare in custom writing office.