VMware vSphere ‘Whitebox’ Server Lab Setup – Part 3
Posted on 04.Jan 2011 by Ray Heffer in ESXi, Home Lab, Tutorials, VMware, VMwareThe third part of this series continues with the vSphere build on my whitebox server, the Asus Rampage II Extreme with Intel Core i7 2.8Ghz and a 120GB SSD. Following on from the video in part 2 where we installed ESXi on to the USB drive, we are now ready to access the physical ESXi host and start creating some virtual machines. Since this is a home vSphere lab environment, accessing the lab from anywhere (not just at home) is a major advantage for me, so I’ll be taking you through the steps to create a Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 virtual machine with an RD Gateway (Remote Desktop Gateway). We will also need shared storage in order to use vMotion, so I will also guide you through the setup of an OpenFiler iSCSI virtual SAN.
To Do List:
If you have followed part 2 then your physical ESXi host should be up and running and sitting in your garage, shed, spare room (wherever its new home is!). You can now switch on your laptop or desktop PC, get a warm drink and we will get the vSphere lab configured!
Note: I’d also like to mention that whilst I decided to install VMware ESXi 4.1 to a USB drive, there is no reason you can’t install the full ESX 4.1 (with Service Console) to the local SSD drive.
- Download and install the vSphere client
- Creating the core virtual machines:
- Domain Controller
- vCenter server
- RD Gateway
- OpenFiler SAN
- Finally create virtual ESXi hosts.
vSphere Lab Environment Topology:
A note on licensing
You will also notice that the ESXi server will automatically assign a 60-day evaluation license. Although you can register for a free ESXi license, the free edition will be extremely limited in features and totally unsuitable unless you simply wish to run virtual machines.
I will be assuming that all licenses for your home lab will either be evaluation or purchased. The downside of evaluation licensing of course is that you’ll have to re-install your environment every 60 days.
Download and Install the vSphere Client
- Navigate to https://<ESXi-IP-ADDRESS> (E.g. https://192.168.4.10)
- Download vSphere Client and install!
- Select “Install this certificate and do not display any security warnings” then click Ignore.
When you launch the vSphere Client, you’ll need to enter the IP address of the ESXi host followed by the username (root) and password. You should have this information following the installation and initial configuration in part 2. You will receive a security warning stating that the SSL certificate is untrusted.
Creating the core virtual machines:
I’ve called these the ‘core’ virtual machines as these are the VM’s that make up the home lab and provide the core functionality. I won’t be guiding you through the steps to create virtual machines, as this article is aimed at someone with at least a basic understanding of creating a VM, however, I will be summarising the configuration required.
The following specifications are well below the recommended, however, this is what I have used in my lab environment and it works well for me. All virtual machine hardware is version 7.
| Domain Controller | |
| Operating System | Windows Server 2008 / R2 (64-bit) |
| No. of vCPU’s | 1 |
| Virtual RAM | 1024MB |
| Hard disk | 40GB (Thin) |
| SCSI Controller | LSI Logic SAS |
| Network Adapter | 1 x E1000 |
I created a domain controller on Windows Server 2008 R2 and added (A) records for CORE-ESX, and ESX01 – 05. Nothing more to this stage.
| vCenter | |
| Operating System | Windows Server 2008 / R2 (64-bit) |
| No. of vCPU’s | 1 |
| Virtual RAM | 2048MB |
| Hard disk | 40GB (Thin) |
| SCSI Controller | LSI Logic SAS |
| Network Adapter | 1 x E1000 |
Build a virtual machine running Windows Server 2008 R2 and join it to your domain. Next, install vCenter with Microsoft SQL 2005 Express. I won’t detail the steps required to install VMware vCenter, just follow the installation defaults.
| RD Gateway | |
| Operating System | Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit) |
| No. of vCPU’s | 1 |
| Virtual RAM | 1024MB |
| Hard disk | 40GB (Thin) |
| SCSI Controller | LSI Logic SAS |
| Network Adapter | 1 x E1000 |
The RD Gateway server enables me to securely connect over port 443 to any of my machines. It only takes a few minutes to setup, and it gives me the flexibility to connect from anywhere. Read my article on installing and configuring the RD Gateway here.
Installing & Configuring the Openfiler SAN:
The Openfiler SAN is a virtual appliance and can be downloaded from www.openfiler.com. As a virtual appliance you just need to upload it to your datastore and add it to the ESXi server (browse datastore and add to inventory), no configuration of the virtual machine hardware is necessary. For your information here is the configuration of the Openfiler:
| Openfiler SAN | VM Version 4 |
| Operating System | Other Linux (64-bit) |
| No. of vCPU’s | 1 |
| Virtual RAM | 512MB |
| Hard disk | 2.25GB (Thick) |
| SCSI Controller | LSI Logic Parallel |
| Network Adapter | 1 x E1000 |
I’ll be adding a guide to the Openfiler setup soon, but I’m slacking due to the Christmas and New Year break (that’s my excuse anyway!)
Thanks for reading! Feel free comment below
asus rampage II, esx, esxi, home lab, i7, intel, quad core, vcap, vcdx, vcp, VMware, vsphere, whitebox
Hi Ray,
I liked you website and the most important part that I like is your home lab. I recently bought some computer stuff from newegg.com. My specs are – Asrock Extreme 3 motherboard, AMD Phenom II X6 1055t processor and one Intel network card 100 vt I think. The thing is I am unable to install ESX/ESXI 3.5, 4.0, 4.1 nothinggggg. It has been few days I am fighting with it but no luck. I think this motherboard is not compatible with esx/esxi.
What motherboard are you using? Please let me know. Or please advice which motherboard should I buy that will support any version of esx/esxi + it has on board raid set up option + it should support 16 gb of ram since I have 16 gig. Please let me know if the current amd processor needs to be changed, it does support 64 bits though. Please help!
Hi,
Check out part 1 of my article, as I discuss the Asus Rampage II board and the hardware compatibility list: http://bit.ly/eUmfoP
I don’t think you’ll get ESX installed on the Asrock motherboard, but you could run VMware Workstation and run virtual ESX hosts!
Good luck!
Ray
Hi Ray,
My network card was the root cause. I replaced it with Intel 1000GT and then I was able to install esxi 4.1 and I am happy with it. I haven’t tried installing esx 4.1 or others though but esxi is future and thats what I am following. Go Esxi.
Thanks~!
Hi Ray,
Great setup and I hope to building something similar soon.
I was wondering what kinda of licensing you (and others) are using for their home labs. I’ll plan to try to make the most of the 60-day Evaluation license, but have been looking at the vSphere Essentials Kit. It seems like it’s targeted at home setups and wanted to hear some thoughts.
Thanks!
For my home lab I just stick to the evaluation licenses as you can work with Enterprise Plus and all it’s features. You can run ESXi for free on the physical server, and run your virtual machines for vCenter, domain controllers, and so on, then just get eval licenses to setup vCenter, HA, DRS, etc. Being a home lab, you just get a new evaluation license each time. The downside with actually buying a Essentials is that you’ll be limited on features. Essentials Plus has HA, but for a home lab then will be trashed, broken, fixed, experimented on, then just stick to the eval.
Ray,
Great article! You made it real easy to browse over and see if this is something people want to do.
When do you plan to add the Openfiler article? I am interested to see what it is.
Thanks,
Fred
Hi,
Thanks for the comments. I’ve recently started a new job so haven’t had much time to spend on here, but I haven’t forgotten about the Openfiler article.
Ray
Hi,
I am a newbie in IT field. I want to learn Vmware and for that i want to make a lab just like you guys. However i don’t have much idea with assembling computer components from scratch. Is there any website or resource which would help me in doing that.
Thank you
I’d check out: http://www.techhead.co.uk/new-hp-proliant-microserver-a-decent-vsphere-lab-server-candidate
This article is nearly 1 year old now, but these Micro Servers from HP are ideal vSphere lab boxes and you won’t need to worry about building your own machine
Hi
I have almost the same setup as you. However I need some understanding on how you setup your vyatta.
I have one ESXi server on my DIY desktop.
Same as you i have a internal network and I place my security server in a DMZ network.
As I subscribe to a paid ISP which issue me with a dynamic IP, i used my linksys router to map it to dyndns.org for a domain name.
Question:
What do I have to do so that I can connect via the external URL i have on dyndns so that my router can send the PCoIP/RDP traffic to my DMZ. Do I do port forward on the linksys router to vyatta? If so, what do I do for vyatta to send the traffic to the security server?
Sorry am noob for home networking stuff its a bit complicated for me to understand.
Can I choose AMD II X6 family processor for building my test environment…??
Hi,
I have build lab with i7 processor. My vmotion getting failed even i can’t ping the vmotion ip’s.can you please tell is i missed anything.
Thanks
Rajesh.
I realize this thread is a bit old, however I am curious to know if you have attempted to install ESXi 5.0 on your i7 system, and if so, was it successful or did you encounter any problems?
I will be building a new systems here shortly, and was debating a xeon system, or a new i7-3930k system. I’m sure the i7 will work with ESXi 4.1, however I would like to know if 5.0 will run on an i7. If you have not yet tried this, would you mind running a test and letting the community know what you find? Thanks for your support!
cK
i7 does work with Esxi 5.0. I have it running on a gigabyte x58-UD3R with a core i7-920 24gb of ram. Even the integrated Nic Card was compatible.
Nice environment topology diagram, did you do that in Visio?
Yes, did that in Visio.
Excelente herramienta