How to Build a vSphere 6.5 Home Lab | CBT Nuggets

In this recorded live webinar tutorial, CBT Nuggets trainer Keith Barker covers how to build a vSphere 6.5 home lab. Get your hands dirty with the latest product from a virtualization industry leader. Learn vSphere 6.5 insights, features and tips to help you train for success.

Any time you need to simulate a production environment or try something new, having a hands-on lab that’s right there and ready to go is a fantastic tool in addition to hands-on labs provided in CBT’s existing courses.

If you were considering building a lab for home use and you wanted to assemble every piece of hardware that would be needed, you’d end up with at least five computers running.

You’d need a computer representing your ESXi-1 device, another physical device for the host ESXi-2. Active Directory Windows server would need to be a computer all its own, as would the vCSA server’s home. Last, the iSCSI or NSFS storage would reside on a device too.

Virtualization is a much more achievable solution. To say nothing of the power or heat that set-up would produce, you’d be looking at significant cost.

Follow along to see how Keith would virtualize the entire lab in VMware Workstation.

00:26: Why Home Labs Are Great
1:58: Setting Up a Virtualized Environment
5:53: Using Logical Networks
7:28: Virtual Network Editor Walk-thru
10:51: Action Items to Get Your Lab Running

Start learning with CBT Nuggets:

[srgdrl]

Great video, informative and crystal clear.... as all of your videos Keith. Thank you!

[TheStuben]

This is a great webinar - very clearly explained and easy to understand - Great Stuff A+++

[shahidaziz]

Hi Keith, I got the points mentioned in this video and ready to go!! How do I proceed with getting the 5 machines in VMware Workstation? Are those steps covered in the new course?

[mikloskontra]

Very good just what I was looking for…from Argentina

[scottreeve]

Great video. Do you think it's possible to add NSX on top of this? NSX Manager and then NSX Controllers? Perhaps one esxi host per cluster. Wonder if 32GB of RAM is not enough for all of that. And if so, do DDR3 motherboards support >32GB ram.

[juanpablovelezduque]

Thanks a lot!. It showed clarity to a bunch of concepts

[VirendraBG]

On bare metal, What will be performance of virtual workstaion desktop which needs intense GPU usage for software like Ansys, or CATIA and so on.
Thanks a ton.

[conversiondesign]

when i try to upload windows server 2016 iso to the datastore it gets held at 0%. why is that and what should i do?

[ccices]

I love this tutorial but I want to set it up on the esxi box and not in a vmware solution on a windows pc. How different would it need to be?

[chilledyogawithdave]

brilliant introduction, whats next? would love to follow Keith through the whole process

[lluccianos]

Hi! Great video. Its is possible to run all this lab in one single VM? This VM will live in pro Infrastructure. Thanks.

[jerichojon]

hi what video should we watch next for the installation?

[spumonicapicola]

Great video, but where's the rest of it? ;) I even checked the CBT Nuggets website and there's nothing that looks like a continuation of this?

[tonyd]

Can HA and VSAN be simulated like this?

[kajagoogly]

I have subscribed to CBT Nuggets because of your 6.5 training. However, No matter what I've tried, my ESXi hosts will only see 5 VMNICS (0-4). I have tried four different machines. Can you please tell me what hardware (PC/Workstation) you are using that allows ESXi to see more than 5 VMNICS when vSphere is nested?

[carlp]

why not just NAT for managment network? that way you dont depend on the external network

[mercadam]

I wonder who gave this video a thumb down? This video is great and super informative. Great job Mr. Barker!

[sachinnautiyal]

What is the desktop computer hardware requirement to install VMware and create a home virtual lab to practice on various servers ( Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, Antivirus etc: )

[skim]

I have a hp proliant g6. I plan on putting 2 hex core xeons (e5645) which will have 6 cores 12 threads. Maybe 48gbs of ram. Should that be enough for me to run a nested virtualized lab? And instead of using a type 2 hypervisor. Can I just use a type 1? Esxi? And nest on a type 1? What is the benefit of a type 2 and why is this recommended? I would think a type 1 would perform better.

[vempasiddhartha]

can someone give me the link to download vSphere 6.5 for free for my home lab?