Part 1: Brainstorming

I have a Home Lab. One that would be considered a dream for some. I have acquired the hardware over the years from in-house purchases with companies I’ve worked with, dumpster rescues, and giveaways. I have used it in the past to do a variety of different things from learning new software, helping with my VCP certification, and sharpening some OS skills. I’ve even used it to recreate a few production issues from work to identify and find resolutions to them.

However, over the last year, my lab has been negelected and is in desperate need of a make-over. This Project will track my progress to rebuild my lab. I’m looking to accomplish the following tasks:

– Complete vsphere environment
– multiple vLANs
– Active Directory
– DNS, DHCP
– iSCSI Storage
– Exchange
– OpenVPN
– BES
– and other tasks as assigned 🙂

There will be other areas that will need to be addressed such as heat, power consumption, and a better UPS.

I’m thinking about running Small Business Server 2008 to accomplish AD and Exchange. However, my mind is not entirely made up. I also may not be able to with the addition of the BES Server.

References
There has been several websites that have given me ideas and inspiration to aid in my ideas and efforts. I will continue to reference these sites as I rebuild my lab.

http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2008/06/building-a-home.html
http://www.techhead.co.uk/building-a-low-cost-cheap-vmware-esx-test-server
http://vinf.net/2008/01/14/vmware-esx-v35-on-cheap-pc-hardware/