Expert Reference Series of White Papers

Building a Home Lab

for VMware vSphere

1-800-COURSES www.globalknowledge.com
Building a Home Lab for
VMware vSphere
John Hales, Global Knowledge Instructor, A+, Network+, MCSE, MCDBA,
MCT, VCP, VCI, EMCSA

Introduction
Before virtualization, I had many computers around my house that required maintenance, upgrading, replace-
ment, etc., as well as the power to run all of the equipment. This was very time-consuming and expensive.
In 1999, I began using VMware Workstation 2.0 to create virtual machines (VMs) to study NetWare, NT 4.0,
Windows 2000, etc. Since that time, I have used it in all of my studies and reduced my lab equipment to two
computers, a server in the office and a laptop I use when traveling. Originally, ESX didn’t run in a VM, requiring
more hardware to study and learn ESX. As of ESX 3.5 and Workstation 6.5.2, it is possible to virtualize ESX in a
Workstation VM (or inside a vSphere server for that matter, but we won’t be discussing that in this whitepaper).

I often get asked by my students how to (relatively) inexpensively setup this kind of lab for study, and the result
is this whitepaper. When specific vendors are mentioned, it is not an endorsement, but rather just an example of
something that I have used and know works.

This whitepaper is broken down into three major sections; the first and most detailed is about the hardware
required, the second is about the Workstation configuration, and the third is about installing vSphere and Virtual
Center (VC). Note that this whitepaper is not intended to be an in-depth review of how to install and configure
vSphere, as that is taught in the VMware classes, and a VMware class is required for certification.

Lab Hardware
The biggest question that needs to be answered is whether to build your lab at a stationary location, such as
your home or a spare server at work, or whether it needs to be portable. In many cases, a stationary configura-
tion is sufficient, so the desktop/server route works well and is usually less expensive. If you need to do dem-
onstrations to customers, study at multiple locations, etc., then a laptop configuration may work better for you,
though it will probably cost more.

As far as minimum CPU requirements are concerned, you’ll need at least 2 cores (or CPUs) to be able to install
ESX and/or VC, but this will be very slow. I suggest a minimum of 4 cores (or CPUs) so there is enough CPU
power to run the VMs and the host operating system (OS). If you’re planning on creating and using I/O intensive
VMs. and/or running many VMs, and/or doing a lot on the host OS while VMs are running, you should consider
more than 4 cores. Remember that ESX 4.0 (vSphere) requires 64-bit capable CPUs to run, so be sure to pur-
chase 64-bit capable CPUs with either Intel VT or AMD-V support (both on the CPU and enabled in the BIOS).

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As far as minimum memory requirements are concerned, you’ll need at least 2 GB of RAM to be able to install
ESX and/or VC, but this will be extremely slow. I suggest 4 GB of RAM if you’re running a 32-bit guest OS
(which I wouldn’t recommend, but will work if you have to) or 8 – 12 GB of RAM if you’re running a 64-bit OS.
The actual requirements will vary depending on what you choose to install (both for VMs as well as VMs inside
the ESX VMs), but I base this on the following configuration.

VM Number Purpose
ESX 4.0 2 2 VMs allow for VMotion, HA, DRS, etc. to be used and studied.
Virtual Center 1 Most businesses use VC for management tasks, and you’ll be
tested on using VC.
Openfiler or other iSCSI 1 VMotion, HA, DRS, etc. to be used; in short, shared storage is used
or NAS VM frequently. In addition, you’ll want to learn more about iSCSI if you
haven’t already and Openfiler is a free way to do so.

In addition, remember that the host OS will require some resources (typically, the better part of a core and 1–2
GB of RAM, depending on what you want to do).

Desktop / Server
The big question here is what kind of performance you require. If it is purely for study and performance, it
doesn’t matter, a desktop will be sufficient, assuming the specs below are met. On the other hand, if you will be
doing a lot of work and/or performance is a bigger factor, consider getting a high-end workstation or a server so
you can have more disk drives installed for better I/O performance.

I use my computer for many learning projects as well as development projects for custom courseware and de-
sign projects, so I chose a server for my lab setup. Specifically, I bought a tower server over a rack mount version
as I wanted the maximum number of disk drives possible. My server is a Dell PowerEdge 2900, but most vendors
have equivalent models, or you could build one yourself. I am also primarily a Windows user, so I created my
server with Windows Vista in mind (it was deployed before Windows 7 became available). I outfitted my server
as follows.

Component Number Reason Recommendation

Xeon 5355 (Quad 2 I wanted the most CPUs possible
Core, 2.66 GHz, 12 so I could run multiple VMs at the
MB L2 cache) same time; I also wanted the most
L2 cache available to make them as
efficient as possible, given that the
host OS, many VMs, and often Of-
fice applications and web browsers
would all be used at the same time.
RAM 16 GB I wanted the ability to run multiple
VMs at once with RAM left over for
Office, Acrobat, Web Browsers, etc.
Buy the latest CPU family with the
most cores and L2 cache at the
fastest speeds in demanding envi-
ronments. Windows only supports
2 physical sockets, so more physi-
cal CPUs will be wasted money in
Windows host environments.
Get at least 8 GB, 12-16 GB would
give you more room for more VMs
and/or larger VMs.

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 Component Number Reason Recommendation
1 Gb Ethernet NICs 3 Came with server; minimum of 2 (1 Get a 3rd if using NAS or iSCSI not
for host I/O and 1 for VM I/O would in a VM on the same computer.
be OK.
146 GB 15K RPM 10 This was all the server would take Get the fastest, smallest drives
SCSI HD or I would have purchased more. I available and get lots of them for
have 2 in RAID 1 for the host OS, 7 in good I/O performance. Get SCSI or
RAID 5 for VMs and 1 hot spare. SAS drives if possible (15K vs. 7200
RPM).
Monitors 2 I can see multiple VMs at once this 2 or more monitors will make it
way, for example 1 for the ESX serv- much easier to study; I’d suggest
ers and 1 for VC or 1 for the VMs and at least 2 monitors if you have
1 for documentation, email, etc. paper documentation and training
Note that on my server, I needed to materials or at least 3 monitors if
get an x16 to x8 PCIe adapter as my the documentation and/or train-
server didn’t come with an x16 slot ing materials are in an electronic
and all video cards are x16 (search format.
for x16 to x8 adapter for companies
that sell this kind of product). Note
as well that the riser card may make
ports near the top of the video card
inaccessible, so choose your video
card carefully. This isn’t an issue for
most desktops.
Choose a video card that supports
the type of connection your monitors
will use (HDMI or VGA) as well as
the number of monitors you want to
use.

My server configuration retailed for about $12,000, but I got most of it from various online sources for under
$5,000. A quick online search for this paper returned desktops with 1 – 2 hard drives, 8 GB of RAM and a quad
core processor without a monitor for $1,000 or less.

Laptop
If portability is important to you, consider a laptop instead. The laptop should support a quad core CPU and at
least 2 hard drives and 8 GB of RAM. For my lab, I chose a Dell Precision M6400 laptop (which supports 2 hard
drives and up to 16 GB of RAM). The M6500 supports up to 3 hard drives (in RAID 5 if desired) and core i7 pro-
cessors. As with the desktops and servers described above, you’ll need a substantial system to run well. A laptop
with these specifications will typically cost more than $3,000.

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As very few laptops support SCSI, be sure to get either a 7200 RPM SATA II hard drive or, better yet, a solid state
drive (or possibly one of each so you can put the demanding VMs and applications on fast storage and use the
slower, cheaper storage to store other VMs and applications, possibly even the host OS).

Plugging in an external monitor may make it much easier to study, as mentioned above, so consider a laptop
with at least one external VGA or HDMI port or a docking station that supports one or more such ports.

VMware Workstation Installation

One of the benefits of earning your VCP (VMware Certified Professional) is a copy of VMware Workstation.
This is a great benefit, but not very helpful while you are studying to pass the exam. You can get an evalua-
tion copy of the software from VMware that is good for 30 days. It is available at https://www.vmware.com/
tryvmware/?p=workstation&lp=1, or you can purchase the software for less than $200 (or upgrade for less than
$100). Students and educators can get it even cheaper if they qualify for the academic discount.

Workstation is available in versions for both Windows (XP, 2003, 2008, Vista, and 7, both 32-bit and 64-bit) and
Linux (including Asianux, CentOS, Red Hat, SUSE, and Ubuntu, both 32- and 64-bit). For a complete list, go to
http://pubs.vmware.com/ws7_ace26/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm?context=ws_user&file=intro_sys-
reqs_ws.html). The application itself requires 200 MB (for Linux) or 1.5 GB (for Windows) of disk space.

VMware Workstation version 7 supports up to 32 GB of RAM per VM with the total RAM for all VMs limited
only by available host memory. It also has better processor support and many new and upgraded features over
Workstation 6.

The application itself installs like most other Windows or Linux applications so the specifics won’t be described
here. Online versions of the manual are available on VMware’s web site at http://www.vmware.com/support/
pubs/ws_pubs.html.

For those who use a MAC instead of a PC, check out VMware Fusion instead. It is similar to Workstation, and
there are many on the Internet who have had success using it instead of Workstation. This is, however, beyond
the scope of this document.

Modifying the .vmx File for vSphere

To install ESX, simply create a VM with the host OS set to “Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 64-bit” with at least 2 GB
of RAM, a SCSI virtual hard disk of at least 10-15 GB, more if you plan on installing many or large VMs inside
the ESX VM and are not using shared storage (such as the Openfiler iSCSI appliance). Be sure that all VMs that
you want to talk to each other share a common network (typically, all will be set either to Use bridged net-
working if you want to see the VMs from other PCs on the network or Use host-only networking if you want to
restrict access to the vSphere VMs [and any VMs inside them] to the host the vSphere and other VMs run on). In
addition, the floppy, USB controller, and sound cards can be removed as they will not be used by ESX.

Copyright ©2010 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved. 5

While this configuration will indeed install correctly, you will not be able to power on any VMs inside the
vSphere VM. To be able to do so, power off the vSphere VM, browse to the directory containing the VM on the
host hard drive and open the associated .vmx file with Notepad, VI, nano, etc.

Make the following addition to this file:

monitor_control.restrict_backdoor=TRUE

Save and close the .vmx file and restart the VM. You should now be able to power on VMs inside the vSphere
VM.

No special .vmx settings are required for the VMs that run Virtual Center, and the Openfiler appliance comes
with the proper .vmx file if you choose to download the VMware version of Openfiler.

Installing vSphere Servers and Virtual Center

Once the VM for vSphere is created, simply attach the ESX 4.0 DVD as an .ISO image to the virtual CD/DVD drive
and install it like you would with a physical server. Once ESX is installed, you can run it like a physical server and
create VMs inside it as desired (though all VMs inside the vSphere VM must be 32-bit VMs as 64-bit hardware
virtualization support isn’t replicated into the VMs).

Create a VM for Virtual Center per the standard VC requirements and install it like you would in any other physi-
cal or virtual environment.

If you wish to use the Openfiler appliance, refer to the document How to Configure Openfiler iSCSI Storage for
VMware ESX 4 listed in the references section.

Summary
Carefully select hardware powerful enough to run ESX as a VM. Remember that you’ll probably want more than
2 cores, 4 GB of RAM or more, and x64 CPUs with Intel-VT or AMD-V support and enabled in the BIOS. The cost
of such a system will be far lower than purchasing several systems and recreating the environment with physical
systems, networking equipment, etc.

Done properly, you should be able to reproduce the training environment and run the labs from the courses you
take. It is even possible to do advanced configurations, such as VMware View designs and SRM inside virtual
machines hosted on a single host.

Copyright ©2010 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved. 6

Learn More
Learn more about how you can improve productivity, enhance efficiency, and sharpen your competitive edge.
Check out the following Global Knowledge courses:
VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage
VMware vSphere: Fast Track
VMware vSphere: Troubleshooting

For more information or to register, visit www.globalknowledge.com or call 1-800-COURSES to speak with a
sales representative.

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About the author

John Hales, VCP, VCI, is a VMware instructor at Global Knowledge, teaching all of the vSphere classes that
Global Knowledge offers. John is also the author of many books, from involved technical books from Sybex to
exam preparation books, to many quick reference guides from BarCharts, in addition to custom courseware for
individual customers. John has various certifications, including the VMware VCP and VCI, the Microsoft MCSE,
MCDBA, and MCT, the EMC EMCSA (Storage Administrator for EMC Clariion SANs), and the CompTIA A+ and
Network+. John lives with his wife and children in Sunrise, Florida.

References
How to Configure Openfiler iSCSI Storage for VMware ESX 4 http://xtravirt.com/xd10119
How to Install VMware ESX 4.0 on Workstation 6.5.2 as a VM http://xtravirt.com/xd10089
Installing ESX 4.0 on VMware Fusion http://www.van-lieshout.com/2009/06/installing-esx-40-on-vmware-fusion/
SRM in a Box http://tendam.wordpress.com/2008/11/18/srm-in-a-box-final-release-the-complete-setup/
Upgrading an ESX 3.x virtual machine to ESX 4.0 http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.
do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1010675

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