All About Home Labs

As a freelance consultant Guy needs environments for replicating customer issues, developing solutions, learning about new products and more and to that end has a lab at home to fulfil these requirements. Hear his views on the options available, pros and cons of various approaches and practical issues of trying to run enterprise class IT in your garage.

Transcript

1. ALL ABOUT HOME LABS GUY LEECH (@GUYRLEECH) CITRIX TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONAL (CTP), VMWARE VEXPERT TECHUG VTUG "LEEDS" APRIL 2020
2. TOPICS • WHY HAVE ONE? • LAPTOP VS DEDICATED KIT • ON-PREMISES VS CLOUD • RUNNING COSTS • NEW VS SECOND HAND HARDWARE • PERFORMANCE VS DENSITY • LOCATION • SOFTWARE & LICENSING • NETWORKING & REMOTE ACCESS • BACKUPS
3. WHY HAVE ONE? • LEARN NEW PRODUCTS AND SKILLS • SAFE PLACE TO EXPERIMENT • REPLICATE WORK/CUSTOMER ISSUES • DOWNLOAD/UPDATE STUFF EVEN WHEN LAPTOP IS OFF • LAB ENVY/RIVALRY • MEDIA STREAMING
4. LAPTOP VS DEDICATED KIT • LAPTOP • WHAT HYPERVISOR? • NESTED VMWARE ESXI CAN BE CHALLENGING • POWER DRAIN WHEN ON BATTERY • WHAT IF LAPTOP CRASHES/DOESN'T SHUTDOWN CORRECTLY? • NEED ALWAYS ON? • HIGHER SPEC LAPTOP NEEDED – HOW MANY VMS CAN YOU RUN? • EXTRA DISK SPACE (LINKED CLONES CAN HELP BUT …) • DEDICATED • EXTRA COST – CAPEX AND OPEX • (SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE) SPACE TO HOUSE • SECURITY • CARBON FOOTPRINT
5. ON-PREMISES VS CLOUD • ON-PREMISES • MASTER OF YOUR OWN DESTINY (WHICH CUTS BOTH WAYS!) • PRETEND TO BE A RACK/NETWORK MONKEY • CLOUD • COSTS CAN BE LOW IF YOU DON'T RUN 24X7 & DON'T HAVE LOTS OF VMS & DATA • CAN GET AZURE CREDITS WITH MS ACTION PACK AND MSDN SUBSCRIPTIONS OR ASK EMPLOYER • POSSIBLY ONLY CHOICE IF YOU ARE SPACE CHALLENGED AT HOME • GIVES YOU CLOUD EXPERIENCE TOO • WHAT NETWORKING SCENARIOS/TOPOLOGIES DO YOU NEED?
6. PERFORMANCE VS DENSITY • ARE YOU GOING TO BE BENCHMARKING/SCALE TESTING PERFORMANCE? • HOW MANY VMS DO YOU EXPECT TO HAVE • HOW MANY DIFFERENT OPERATING SYSTEM & SOFTWARE PRODUCT/VERSION COMBINATIONS? • LINKED CLONES, INSTANT CLONES, PVS/MCS, ETC CAN HELP BUT ADD COMPLEXITY (& EXPERIENCE) • HOW MUCH DATA DO YOU EXPECT TO HAVE? • HOW LONG IS A PIECE OF STRING • HOW FAST DO YOU NEED YOUR STORAGE TO BE • RUNNING VMS OFF OR JUST STORING INSTALLATION MEDIA & ISOS OR A MIXTURE? • DOES IT ACTUALLY MATTER IF SOME OPERATIONS ARE SLOW? • NVME CARDS VERSUS SPINNING DISKS – MIX AND MATCH?
7. NEW VS SECOND HAND HARDWARE New Latest & Greatest features like CPUs & GPUs Server versus Workstation (Intel NUC) Warranty High cost 10GB/s Networking Second Hand Some great "bargains" on eBay for older kit Cheap Plenty of spares, upgrades
8. ON-PREMISES LOCATION • LOFT • RELATIVELY SECURE • PHYSICAL ACCESS DIFFICULT (ILO, DRAC, ETC MEANS NO KVM REQUIRED) • OVER HEATING • OFFICE • CLOSE TO HAND • NOISE / HEAT • POWER • SPACE • GARAGE • SECURITY • NETWORKING • POWER • SPARE ROOM, LIVING ROOM, DINING ROOM • ??
9. SOFTWARE & LICENSING • EVALUATIONS • DO YOU NEED TO ACTIVATE YOUR WINDOWS OSS? • MS ACTION PACK • MSDN SUBSCRIPTION • VMWARE ADVANTAGE • £200 (OR LESS) / YEAR • CAN BE A PAIN TO GET LATEST VERSIONS OF PRODUCTS • CITRIX • EVALUATIONS
10. REMOTE ACCESS • DO YOU NEED REMOTE ACCESS? • SECURITY - DON'T JUST OPEN PORT 3389! • VPN BUILT IN TO ROUTER? • VPN APPLIANCE VM WITH PORT FORWARDING • GOOGLE REMOTE DESKTOP • TEAMVIEWER
11. MISCELLANEOUS • BACKUPS • SOON COME TO RELY ON YOUR LAB VMS! • 3RD PARTY PRODUCT? • COHESITY • VEEAM • NAKIVO • ETC • SCRIPT • SNAPSHOTS • NETWORKING • DON'T CRIMP CONNECTORS WITH A SCREWDRIVER • SPARES • KEEP A SPARE DISK TO HAND • NETWORK CABLES CAN GO BAD • UPS • PROBABLY NEED A BIG ONE! • TO PROTECT AGAINST A QUICK POWER GLITCH OR CARRY ON REGARDLESS?
12. MY CURRENT HOME LAB - SERVERS • DELL POWEREDGE R810 RACK MOUNT, CIRCA 2012 (ON 24X7) • VMWARE ESXI 6.7U3 + VCENTER + HORIZON • £250 ON EBAY (NO DRIVES, 32GB RAM) • 4X10 CORE INTEL XEON CPU • 160GB RAM NOW (2ND HAND RAM ADDED BUT NEEDED 16 IDENTICAL CHUNKS) • 6X480GB NON-ENTERPRISE SSDS IN RAID 5 INTERNALLY • 5X480GB NON-ENTERPRISE SSDS IN RAID 5 EXTERNALLY VIA 2ND HAND ADAPTEC 5805 RAID CARD • EXTERNAL USB DRIVE FOR ISOS • HP PROLIANT ML350 G6 TOWER, CIRCA 2011(ON WHEN NEED CLUSTER) • VMWARE ESXI 6.7U3 + VCENTER + HORIZON • £280 ON EBAY (8X146GB SAS DRIVES, 24GB RAM) • 2X6 CORE INTEL XEON CPU • 72GB RAM NOW (2ND HAND RAM ADDED IN 2 STAGES) • ADDED SOME NON-ENTERPRISE SSDS, USE SAS FOR ISOS • OLD HOME BUILT PC – AMD 4 CORE, 16GB RAM, 1XSSD • CITRIX HYPERVISOR/XENSERVER 8.1
13. MY HOME LAB – OTHER HARDWARE • SYNOLOGY DS418J SAN (TRIED CHEAPER D-LINK DNS-320L FIRST – NOT GREAT – SMB 1.0!) • 4 BAY WITH 4X4TB SPINNING NAS DISKS • SHR BETTER THAN RAID5 AS DISK SPACE NOT WASTED IF DRIVES NOT EQUAL CAPACITY • SURPRISINGLY FAST (POSSIBLY DUE TO CACHE) – CAN RUN VMS OFF IT • INITIALLY FOR MEDIA, ISOS AND BACKUPS BUT NOW SHARED NFS DATASTORE FOR VMWARE • APC BX1400UI UPS – 1400VA • DOESN'T POWER HP OR WHITEBOX SERVER • BOUGHT NEW TO GET KNOWN GOOD BATTERIES & WARRANTY ON THEM • USB PASS THROUGH TO VM WITH APC SOFTWARE ON DELL SERVER • DELL POWERCONNECT 6248 48 PORT GIGABIT SWITCH • CHEAPER THAN A NEW 24 PORT OPTION – DELL HAS 4X NICS + DRAC, HP HAS 2X NICS + ILO • COULD DO FANCY THINGS WITH IT APPARENTLY
18. LINKS • HTTPS://WWW.VMUG.COM/MEMBERSHIP/VMUG-ADVANTAGE-MEMBERSHIP • HTTPS://GITHUB.COM/GUYRLEECH/VMWARE/BLOB/MASTER/VMWARE%20GUI.PS1 • HTTPS://WORLDOFEUC.SLACK.COM/ARCHIVES/CL8PXRSN7/P1583692847000200