Well I'm finally do it! I've completed the course (vSphere 5; Install, Configure, Manage), I've booked the exam (VCP5), and now I'm setting up a VMware home lab.
I've borrowed some ideas from Sammy Bogaert's excellent blog
The system I'm building will have the following hardware;
1 x Intel Core i7-3770 BX80637i73770 Processor - Quad Core, 8MB L3 Cache, 3.40GHz (3.90GHz Max Turbo), Socket H2 (LGA1155), 77W, Fan, Retail
1 x Corsair XMS3 CMX32GX3M4A1333C9 32GB Memory Module - DDR3, 1333MHz, CL9, DIMM
1 x Crucial CT128M4SSD2 m4 2.5" Solid State Drive - 128GB, SATA III 6Gb/s
1 x Shuttle XPC SH67H3 Barebone PC - No CPU, Intel H67 chipset, Socket 1155, No RAM, Gigabit LAN, USB 3.0, No OS
1 x WD Green WD20EARX Hard Drive - 2TB, 3.5" SATA, 64MB Cache
1 x Lite-On IHAS124-04 Internal DVD Writer DVD+R 24X, DVD-R 24X, DVD+RW 8X, DVD-RW 6X, DVD+R DL 8X, SATA (OEM)
1 x Thermaltake AC0014 Hard Drive Bay Converter - 3.5" to SSD/2.5" Converter
I will be configuring it with the following;
Windows 7, VMware Workstation 9 and running various nested VM's with ESXi, vCenter, etc.
So with all this being said, anyone have any tips that would recommend for this type of setup.
Very much looking forward the challenge in the coming month!
Cheers!