1

Hi. Best novice virtual home lab setup advice please ? thanks )

5 Spice ups
2

This depends on what you are looking to accomplish, what do you hope to learn (Networking?, Pentesting?, Sys Admin? etc…)? What Operating Systems are you looking to run (Windows, Linux etc…)? There are several options for your VM player software like VirtualBox which is open source and generally free to setup, then you have options with VM Ware Player and various other product offerings by them… The first thing you want to identify is what you want to accomplish with Virtual Desktops.

3

https://moac.microsoftlabsonline.com/Account/LogOn?returnUrl=%2FMyAccount

4

best is subjective and your budget might not get you ‘the best’

You need to tell us what you plan to do, if you want a rack or a tower unit, your budget, location, what hypervisor you plan to use and way ore than your post tells us.

5

Hi there,

My objective is to return to 1st line IT support role after 2 years away from the industry. My boss was just rolling out Hyper-V when I was made redundant. I want a learning lab and thinking maybe VirtualBox as a hypervisor. In terms of devices, I only have a Lenova netbook and I’ll be purchasing a mid range Dell desktop tower(intended hyypervisor box). I have a Cisco 2500 router and Cisco switch. I’m aware that the hypervisors are free, but the management software can eat wallets. Thanks in advance.

6

I would say dont use virtualbox - for no other reason than if you want to learn what the company uses, use a type-1 hypervisor, Hyper-V, Xen, ESXi, Proxmox etc. It’s usually best to learn with what the company uses.

ESXi - management, Free, HTML5 based

Hyper-V - management free, client based manager built-in to Windows 10

Proymox - management free - HTML5 based

Xen - I dont use, but management is also free

You only pay for management tools when you need specific offerings above and beyond the basics, for a lab all of the above are fine.