Deployment, PowerShell and System Administration

vSphere Lab-in-a-Box 04: Lab Host Configuration

Before we can create our virtual servers and virtual ESXi hosts, we need to configure the Lab Host for our virtual environment. Hostname Although it’s not strictly necessary, I like to configure my Lab Host with a suitable hostname. In the vSphere Client, click on the Configuration tab, DNS and Routing on the left, and

vSphere Lab-in-a-Box 03: Installation of vSphere Client

This post will detail the installation of the vSphere Client, which will be used to manage the Lab Host ESXi installation. Install the vSphere Client Either extract the vSphere Client install file from the ESXi ISO, or open a browser to the address displayed on your Lab Host and click the link to Download vSphere

vSphere Lab-in-a-Box 02: ESXi Installation on Physical Hardware

In the rest of this series, I will refer to the physical ESXi PC as the Lab Host, to differentiate it from the virtual ESXi servers which will be installed on it. First off, you’ll need to burn the VMware Hypervisor Installer ISO to CD and then boot the Lab Host from that CD.  If

vSphere Lab-in-a-Box 01: Introduction, Hardware and Software

This weekend I rebuilt my home vSphere lab with vSphere version 5.1, so took the time to document the procedure, both as a record for myself and a set of instructions that others might follow to set up their own “Lab-in-a-Box”. The posts below will guide you through setting up ESXi 5.1 on a physical