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Hello to everyone,

I am just starting out in IT, and wanted to get some ideas for lab scenarios with the hardware in the picture below. Currently, in the rack the first server is an HP DL380 running PFSense bringing in my Fios business connection with one static IP, and the other four servers just has Windows Server 2012 installed with no further configuration.

Anyone have any ideas for connecting the routers, switches, packet shaper, servers or should I ask for ideas of physical connections of the hardware. I know I am not ready for virtualization yet. I will be happy to explain more about the equipment if needed.

Thanks in advance.

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3 Spice ups
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I guess you need to think about what interests you? What are you curious to learn about?

With Windows 2012, when you enable Hyper-V, you can setup virtual machines. Do you have experience with Linux? You could setup a Linux server or workstation or both to learn about them. Are you interested in networking? There are open source networking tools, firewalls, etc. that you could install on either Svr2012 or Linux to learn about. Programming - install a language on a server and learn how to do that. Database administration, disk storage, backup servers, etc. … The potential projects boggle the mind.

Once you decide what your goal is, then you can build your lab to in a configuration that would allow you to accomplish your research project(s), depending on the free time you have…

2 Spice ups
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Hello Jeremy,

Are you planning to use this lab as an educational environment for yourself?

If so you have some awesome freedom, especially with four servers. What I suggest you do is build your own little network and get comfortable within the environment.

Use one server as a DNS/DHCP and setup a new Domain. Another server as the backup DNS/DHCP (this will allow you to setup and test fail overs). Setup one server as a File and Print Server and setup the last as a backup server or even a SQL server down the road if you want to dive deep.

Once you have the basics setup, start playing with Group Policies. To test policies you will need to add a computer to your new “domain” or just use the last server as a “desktop”.

These are the first things you will learn in almost any “server” course/class.

These basics will give you a very good understanding of IT in the corporate word, at least for smaller businesses that usually only have a few servers.

If you want something a little more challenging, use one of the other servers to create a different domain and create and test trusts between the domains.

For the switches, try creating VLAN’s

This will give you a very good general representation of what a IT Admin does.

By the way…your home setup is better than some business setups I have seen in my life…

2 Spice ups
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Thanks Aubrey1,

I have just received my associates from University of Phoenix in Networking, so this is my projected path. I also do a bit of the courses on Microsoft Virtual Academy, and of course YouTube is my heaven at the moment. I am just looking for a good starting point with the three routers and switches, I am confident to configure Dns, Dhcp, Active Directory, and a few other roles in the Windows environment such as IIS, RDS, and WSUS. I have also installed Hyper V and loaded an instance of the Server 2016 preview, but that’s about as far as I went with that.

Storage is where I am having problems with the Power Edge servers (RAID) I am having trouble getting Windows to see over 2TB spanning five of the six drives. The sixth one has a 3TB itself and I do know why that doesn’t show correctly. The OS drive is internally on board (not part of the outer bays) this is so I can use the bays as storage.

You are absolutely correct it is boggling my mind. I will sit down tonight and look through the Server 2012 options and play with them one by one.

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Hey Karlos,

You hit the nail on the head, this is for educational purpose, and everything you and Aubrey suggested is what I am looking for, and I now have a direction for the equipment, the good thing is I learned to do cabling so I can make my own Ethernet cables to connect everything together.

Now, I know businesses usually wait until the last minute for upgrading OS’s, is it still feasible now to learn all of Server 2012 or should I focus more on the 2016 preview since it seems that I am in a transitional period between the two?

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Did you feed the Windows Setup the correct driver files for the PERC RAID controller which probably is inside your Dell servers?

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“Did you feed the Windows Setup the correct driver files for the PERC RAID controller which probably is inside your Dell servers?”

Hi Johan,

I used the service tags that came with the servers, and let the Dell auto discovery software check the systems for any upgraded parts that may have been installed after purchase. This seemed to have installed what was needed. I then went through the RAID configuration using CTRL-R and I believe I set all drives except the 3TB to use RAID 1. If I am not mistaken, the drives are as follows, with cover off I have installed a 250GB for the OS on SATA port A, SATA B has another 250GB for the partitions that the OS makes. In the front bays, drives 0-4 are 1TB each, and the bay 5 is the 3TB.

Since 0-4 was not showing 4TB pooled together I set the RAID controller to RAID 1 for each drives separately thinking that maybe Server 2012 would handle it using the GPT partitioning but it does the same thing as if I’m in the RAID config utility. The only thing I can think the problem is that the system does not have UEFI to see over the 2TB limit.

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Is there a specific reason for you to want RAID 1? Why not try RAID 0 to create one big disk?

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My apologies for the misinformation, RAID 0 is what I was using and as you said, one big disk is what I was trying to do but it only shows something like 1.9 TB I think, not sure what the full disk space was. This particular server does not have anything running yet so I can delete and retry from the beginning.

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Depending on the age of the server 2TB might be your limit. You might want to check with Dell using your service tag. This used to be a limitation of some RAID controllers.

Regarding the Windows Operating Systems, I would recommend you go for the 2012. As you noted businesses will usually wait till the last moment to upgrade. Perfect example, last year I upgraded 3 servers that were still running Server2003 and we only upgraded due to the end of life support for 2003. The upgrade was to 2012.

At this moment we have a bunch of servers running 2008 and 2012 without any problems. Also, there is very little difference between 2008 and 2012 and I assume will be the same with 2016. Sure some of the icons change, and the location of certain settings change, or get re-named but the basic logic of the OS is the same. AD/DHCP/DNS/GPO haven’t had huge changes over their evolution. Sure they have some new features, but if you learned AD in server2003 you will have no problem with AD in 2008 or 2012, same with DHCP/DNS/GPO. If you know how to use those tools in one version of Windows Server you know how to use it all of them basically.

But because 2008 should be the oldest OS you will find in most business I would recommend to take a full blown 2012 course and then just take a “What’s new” type of course for 2016. There are very, very few places that I know of that jump on the brand new server OS bandwagon. I usually like to wait at least 2 years and have the wrinkles ironed out. I don’t want to be MS’s OS tester at the expense of my users/business. You will see MANY 2008/2012 boxes before you see a 2016.

You have the right attitude Jerry, keep it up!

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Thanks Karlos

With what your saying here, I believe I am on the right path.

Back to reading books, watching videos, and practice. I am giving myself 4 to 6 months before I start job searching, only because I want to take a month vacation when I leave my current warehouse management position in July. I have been here for 13 years, no vacations or days off, and to top it off the network here is so badly put together they refuse to let me show how I can help them out. I learn, and gain hands on while helping them, excellent benefit for both parties.

Again thanks to you and everyone else for the insight and help.

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How much RAM does the ProLiant have?

The 2GB problem sounds like it is the MBR limit. I doubt your server has a problem seeing a GPT disk it just the it can’t boot to GPT without UEFI. This is my recommendation:

  1. If possible, configure a single RAID 10 array with all your disks. RAID 10 will give you a good balance between performance and reliability. Plus it’s industry standard and best practice.

  2. Install ESXi or Hyper-V on a USB flash drive to visualise. I know you say you don’t want to yet but it makes it soooo much easier to learn. And it is necessary skill. Us Spice-heads can help you out. If you can build AD then you have the mental capability to virtualise. I suspect it is easier than you think.

  3. Because you are now booting to a flash drive, you can dedicate your RAID array to VM data files. And because you are no longer booting to it, you can partition it as GPT and Windows/Hyper-V or ESXi will see the entire array.

Do you have a license for Windows Server or are you using the 180-day evaluation? If the later, I’d recommend downloading Hyper-V server instead. This will limit you to the “core” installation but you don’t have the 180-day limit. It is also good practice to learn the commands. This also is probably easier than you think. Let me know if you want to go down this path and I’ll talk you through some really helpful hints that took me a while to learn.

1 Spice up
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Dunc the Punk,

Here is where I am so far from top to bottom.

First server ProLiant DL360: PFSENSE for router/firewall, other configurations soon.

Second server IBM x3455: ADDS, DHCP, DNS

Third server ProLiant DL380: Taken out

Third server PowerEdge 2950: I call it 8 gig because it has 8GB ram, and only has same config as the IBM for backup

Fourth server P.E. 2950: I call this on 12 gig for 12GB ram configured for IIS, FTP, WSUS, Remote Access, and the deployment role for PXEboot.

I have my Domain name registered (itnetman.net) which is working but defaults to the generic IIS page, the configuration works so I am proud of that part. I moved on to configuring ADDS with everyone in the house names and devices, and I have gained some extra knowledge since 2003 Server. DNS of course is working great on resolving, and can join computers and devices to the domain.

Group Policies is the next step that I will tool around with, I know how this works from 2003 Server but a refresher never hurt anyone. I think I watch at least 6 hours of tech videos a day ranging from Microsoft Virtual Academy, YouTube, and other sites and services. I have just about every IT book that I could get my hands on, old to new, and everything I watch or read, I apply it to the Lab.

Virtualization from what I have played with (1 installation) was very easy to install and configure one instance of Server 2012R2. In fact, I was installing VMware as I was typing this. You are correct this is a requirement as far as most of the companies I was looking into in Las Vegas. The reason I am jumping around with different things is because I am searching different companies and basing my learning around some of the particular requirements of them, and virtualization has been a predominant requirement. So I will be taking the advice you have provided.

The Dell servers will only see a combination of disks for a 2TB limit as far as the documentation, and for some reason the PERC 5i card does not see RAID 10 only RAID 0-5, its said that I need the PERC 6. The only thing I wanted to do was make a huge drive to put all of my music, books, movies, and software on it for the FTP server but I use my little NAS device for now.

You are also correct I do have the mental state and compassion to learn anything I need to dive in head first. My only fear is starting over with a new career. This has been a hobby for 28 or so years and I believe I am ready to dig in somewhere. Just wish I did not wait so darn long.

I apologize for the long winded reply, and hope to continue getting tidbits of advice, number 1 reason of joining Spice Works and has been great so far.

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Just to clarify, by “VMware” do you mean ESXi? I just want to make sure you aren’t trying to install VMware Workstation.

That hardware will work well. Just make sure you check the VMware compatibility guide . You’ll need to work out what the latest ESXi version that you can install on any of your hardware. You can install the latest version possible on each host but when you create a VM you will want to pick a version that is compatible with all your hosts. For example, if the Dell PowerEdge 2950 is the oldest and can only install ESXi 5.1 then don’t create VMs with virtual hardware more than 9. If you do, you would not be able to move you the newer VMs on to the 2950.

Remember (when labbing or working), always virtualise if possible. Even if you only have one VM on a host, virtualisation is gives you better flexibility and resiliency.

FYI, at home I prefer Hyper-V because I find the free features better than ESXi and I deal with ESXi at work. The free version of ESXi lacks replication, vMotion and a backup API. Hyper-V has all this for free. But if you don’t have enough opportunity elsewhere it is well worth learning vSphere. Or perhaps you could go half HV and the other half ESXi.

It sounds like you are onto a good start. Feel free to shoot more questions.

1 Spice up
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Info on virtual hardware versions for vSphere: VMware Knowledge Base

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I’d be very surprised if your servers/RAID cards are limited to 2TB. However, no OS can use more than 2TB on a MBR formatted disk. I don’t mean a MBR partition. A partition table type (MBR or GPT) is for the entire disk. If you change the virtual disk to GPT you can probably then use the entire volume.
If you do change the volume to GPT (it will erase the drive in the process) then your next problem is that your server(s) cannot boot to GPT because they don’t have a UEFI BIOS. That is fine because a perfect work around is to install ESXi or Hyper-V on a USB flash drive. Both options are supports because it is best practice. Yes, you should do this in a production environment. Hyper-V is a little harder to setup than ESXi on a flash drive. Once you have installed ESXi you can then configure you storage as GPT and format as VMFS.

1 Spice up
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It should give you RAID 10 but I am not certain. Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5lGWdvJyS4
Just in case you don’t know, you need a minimum of 4 disks to use RAID 10. RAID 10 is a stripe of mirrors.

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Yes I understand the constraints between UEFI, GPT, and MBR. As far as the Dell servers, I guess it is just the hardware, when I press CRTL R at boot I get a list of drives from the front bays to use in RAID and the only choices are 0-5 as I check each drive for example: 2x 3TB, 2x 1Tb, and a couple of 250GB. These drives combined tally to 194652 or something close to that I never wrote it down (frustration) so I made all six drives each a single RAID 0 with intent for a software RAID. Configuring each drive separate to start with GPT the 3TB showed 2.47TB while my NAS device shows them as 2.74TB, of course the others were fine. I am using another set of 250GB drives internally for the OS boot and the second for the ADDS data, so I am good there. I want the system to show 8.5TB or so for this particular server, and I am not worried about data loss I can move my files around before bed if needed.

I just reread the Dell documentation and it seems that it is not a direct 2TB limit, it is stating that basically no one drive can be over 2TB so to me now this means I can use 6 drives in the front bays as long as they are 2TB, also on another forum states that sometimes the drive will be hit or miss, meaning that depending on the 3TB drive the controller may not recognize it at all. This makes sense to me now because at one point the PERC only displayed 4 out of 6 drives in the physical drive section and if it did display all drives the configuration would sometimes kick out until I used another RAID setting. I will try somethings with this over the weekend.

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I have downloaded the Oracle VirtualBox from virtualbox.org (scraping this idea) will use the Windows Server Hyper V instead, seems easier since its built in, I may also try to secure some newer servers like the R700 I seem to want to stick with Dell instead of a combination. I tried to use clustering but the IBM or the HP did not make the list when the software was checking them and the IBM does not support Virtualization. The Dells although louder seems to be the better choice for me.

My question, by making a virtual drive I should be able to take this to any device supporting Virtualization and spin it up?

I understand why it is used especially getting that extra use out of older hardware that a company may have decommissioned, I just thought it was so hardware intense that a servers life span would be shortened, instead of it lasting 5, 6, 7 years depending what it was used for, it would crap out at around 3 years. Everyday I am learning to let my guard down on certain technologies and give it a try, heck what is the worst that can happen I learn what not to do as I did with my first 8088 when I started playing with computers.

Awesome advice

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You can transfer it to the same hypervisor (Hyper-V/ESXi/KVM/Xen). Most hypervisors also have virtual hardware versions as well. I.e. Hyper-V has generation 1 & 2. If you create a generation 2 VM on Hyper-V 2012 R2 then you cannot turn it on of a Hyper-V 2008 R2 server. It won’t know how to “emulate” the hardware.
But as long as you are on the same version, yes.