I’m sharing my house lab setup for many who need assistance constructing an ESXi/vCenter, Hyper-V/SCVMM house lab.
Overview of the Lab
I constructed a house lab to play with stuff and construct and break issues. Along with giving me an setting to follow, my house lab permits me to study.
Furthermore, since I write about expertise, having a check setting at house offers me with an precise working infrastructure to indicate screenshots once I write how-to guides.
Lastly, this lab is Home windows/VMWare-focussed – the lab permits me to write down about migrating VMware ESXi/vCenter VMs to Home windows Hyper-V/SCVMM VMs.
Okay, sufficient of the intro, let’s get right down to enterprise!
The Lab Kits
The setting is made up of the next kits:
Computer systems and Displays
| Make/Mannequin | Amount | Complete RAM | CPU | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dell OptiPlex 7020 SFF | 2 | 32 GB | Intel Core i5-4590 3.30GHz | 1×110 GB SSD, 1×1 TB HDD |
| HP ENVY x360 Convertible | 1 | 32 GB | Intel Core i7-7500U 2.70GHz | 1×250 GB SSD, 1×1 TB HDD |
| HP EliteDesk 800 G2 SFF | 1 | 32 GB | Intel Core i5-6500 3.2 GHz | 1×256 GB SSD |
| Dell Latitude E7470 | 1 | 16 GB | Intel Core i7-6600U 2.60GHz | 1x1x1 TB SSD |
| SKitphrati 20 Inch PC Monitor | 1 | NA | NA | NA |
Exterior Storage
I even have 2x1TB Exterior USB drives.
Ethernet Hub
I’ve 2 hubs. The primary is my web Wi-Fi hub.
I then linked one other 5-port gub to one of many ports of the “foremost” hub to broaden the variety of ports.
Lab Configuration
On this part, I’ll specify what every laptop does. I may even clarify the community configuration – IPs, default gateways, and DNS – for all of the computer systems.
ESXi Hosts
My VMware configuration is made of two ESXi hosts. I deployed a vCenter Equipment 8 server, then, created a vCenter cluster with the 2 ESXi hosts.
The desk under particulars the VMware configuration for my two ESXi hosts.
| Laptop Make/Mannequin | Host Title | IP Tackle | DNS Server |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dell OptiPlex 7020 SFF | IPMpVMW1 | 192.168.0.100 | 192.168.0.80 |
| Dell OptiPlex 7020 SFF | IPMpVMW3 | 192.168.0.103 | 192.168.0.80 |
vCenter, Datacenter, Cluster
| Merchandise | Host Title | IP Tackle | DNS Server |
|---|---|---|---|
| vCenter Server Equipment | IPMvVCSA | 192.168.0.153 | 192.168.0.80 |
| vCenter Datacenter | lab-datacenter-1 | NA | NA |
| vCenter Cluster | lab-cluster-1 | NA | NA |
ESXi Hosts/vCenter Datastores
| Datastore identify | Out there to (ESXi Hosts) |
|---|---|
| iSCSIDatastore | IPMpVMW1, IPMpVMW3 |
Hyper-V Hosts
| Laptop Make/Mannequin | Host Title | IP Tackle | DNS Server |
|---|---|---|---|
| HP ENVY x360 Convertible | IPMpHPV4 | 192.168.0.104 | 192.168.0.80 |
| HP EliteDesk 800 G2 SFF | IPMpHPV5 | 192.168.0.105 | 192.168.0.80 |
Hyper-V Cluster, VMMLibrary and VMM
| Merchandise | Host Title | IP Tackle | DNS Server |
|---|---|---|---|
| SCVMM VM | IPMvVMM | 192.168.0.106 | 192.168.0.80 |
| Hyper-V Cluster | lab-cluster-2 | 192.168.0.107 | 192.168.0.80 |
| SCVMM Shared Library | lab-vmm-lib* | 192.168.0.108 | 192.168.0.80 |
*lab-vmm-lib is a clustered file server that serves as a Shared Library for SCVMM.
Hyper-V Storage
| Quantity Title | Goal | Out there to (Hyper-V Host) |
|---|---|---|
| iSCSICSV | Cluster Share Quantity | IPMpHPV4, IPMpHPV5 |
| Quorum | Cluster Quorum Witness | IPMpHPV4, IPMpHPV5 |
| SCVMM Library | SCVMM Library Cluster | IPMpHPV4, IPMpHPV5, lab-vmm-lib |
Storage Configuration
The 2 1TB exterior USB drives are linked to the Dell Latitude E7470. Home windows Server 2022 is put in on this laptop computer.
The laptop computer is used as a Home windows Server iSCSI storage, delivering two iSCSI targets. The primary iSCSI goal is configured with one of many 1TB USB drives and is used because the storage for the ESXi hosts.
In the meantime, the second 1TB USB drive is configured as an iSCSI goal for the Hyper-V hosts. The goal has three LUMs – 1GB for the Hyper-V cluster quorum witness.
The second iSCSI LUM is 200 GB and serves because the SCVMM Library. No matter is left within the 1TB disk is then used for the third LUM and serves because the Hyper-V Clustered Shared Quantity.
Configure the Hyper-V Storage
The desk under particulars the specs described above. The configurations under are accomplished on the
| iSCSI Digital Disk (LUM) | Measurement | iSCSI goal | iSCSI Initiators |
|---|---|---|---|
| ClusterQuorum | 1GB | HypervStorage | IPMpHPV4.corpitechguides.com, IPMpHPV5.corpitechguides.com |
| VMMLibrary | 200GB | HypervStorage | IPMpHPV4.corpitechguides.com, IPMpHPV5.corpitechguides.com |
| CSV | 799000GB | HypervStorage | IPMpHPV4.corpitechguides.com, IPMpHPV5.corpitechguides.com |
| ESXiDatastore | 1TB | ESXiDatastore | IPMpVMW1.corpitechguides.com, IPMpVMW3.corpitechguides.com |
For the Hyper-V hosts to entry the iSCSI volumes, comply with these steps:
- From the primary Hyper-V host, IPMpHPV4, use the iSCSI goal to connect with the HypervStorage goal. As soon as the host is linked, the three LUMs within the above desk will turn into obtainable in Disk Administration
- Then, from Home windows Disk Administration, configure the partitions as proven on this desk,
| Disk # | Partition # | Partition Measurement | File System | Drive Letter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | 1GB | NTFS | Q |
| 2 | 200GB | NTFS | E | |
| 3 | 799000GB | NTFS | No Drive Letter |
The quorum and the VMM Library disks MUST be assigned a drive letter.
- Lastly, check in to the second Hyper-V host, IPMpHPV5, and use the iSCSI initiator to connect with the HypervStorage iSCSI goal. As soon as the three LUMs can be found to the second host, you’re achieved – NO NEED to format the disks on the second host!
Configure the ESXi Datastore
To configure the ESXi hosts to entry the ESXiDatastore iSCSI goal, comply with the steps in my information – The right way to Assign an iSCSI Datastore to ESXi Hosts in vCenter – to entry the iSCSI goal and configure it as a datastore obtainable to the 2 ESXi hosts.
Home windows AD Area
You will need to point out that, putting in Service Heart Digital Machine Supervisor requires Energetic Listing. For my lab, my area is known as corp.itechguides.com.
I’ve a single Area Controller Home windows Area. The DC is a VM I created on my Home windows 11 PC which I exploit as a Hyper-V host.
As a part of AD deployment, I configured the DC as a DNS server as effectively. So, for all configurations in my lab – vCenter, Hyper-V cluster, and SCVMM – I exploit this VM as my DNS server.
Lastly, I configured my configured my AD area as an identification supply in vCenter. This enables me to check in to vCenter with my Energetic Listing area accounts as a substitute of utilizing the native vCenter accounts.
Conclusion
The house lab I described on this article features a Hyper-V/SCVMM and an ESXi/vCenter configuration. With this setup, I’m capable of play with each hypervisors.
Along with enjoying with the person hypervisors, I used to be capable of check migrating VMware VMs to Hyper-V VMs.
I hope you had been capable of create your house lab utilizing the data I offered on this hands-on information. I’d be extraordinarily grateful if you happen to might share your house lab setup with me and our readers.
To share your lab setup, use our “Go away a remark” kind on the backside of this web page. Lastly, earlier than you run, kindly let me know what you concentrate on this information by responding to our “Was this web page useful?” suggestions request under.
