VMware NSX Lab Part 2 List of Building Materials - rharmonson/richtech GitHub Wiki

Table of Contents

January 13, 2016

Repost

Reverted! I deleted the series in December 2015 but at the request of tmitchell5280, I have reposted. YMMV!

(DRAFT)VMware NSX Lab Part 2: List of Building Materials

List of Building Materials:

  1. Workstation or Laptop with
    • i7 or Xeon with Intel VT (or AMD equivalent)
    • 32+ GB RAM
    • 500+ GB SDD
  2. VMware Workstation 11 (or 10) installation media
  3. VMware ESXi 5.5.0 installation media
  4. VMware vCenter 5.5.0 virtual appliance
  5. VMware NSX Manager 6.1.2 virtual appliance
  6. Windows Server 2008 R2 installation media
  7. Windows 7 and/or Linux installation media
  8. Vyos Linux Router

Hardware

I obtained all hardware from Amazon including G750 Asus laptop, Corsair RAM, and Samsung EVO SSD. The laptop is very much overkill, but.. a boy got to have his toys.

Software

VMware

VMware provides evaluations of all of their products. It is advisable to purchase VMware Workstation since you will probably find other uses for it. Their downloads are found here:

https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/downloads

Microsoft Server 2008 R2

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11093

Windows 7

Windows 7 installation media is no longer available from Microsoft's partner, Digital River, bummer. However, you can obtain Windows 7 Enterprise directly from Microsft. In addion, you can try the instructions at the second URL below. Unverified.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-7-enterprise
http://best-windows.vlaurie.com/boot-disks.html#full

Server 2012 R2 & Windows 8.1

Alternatively, you could use Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1, but in my opinion the Metro interface sucks so use "Classic Shell" to remedy the interface.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-server-2012-r2
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-8-1-enterprise

Vyos

Regarding Vyos, there is no requirement to use Vyos, specifically, but you do need a router to emulate a physical network. Download the 64 bit ISO from the URL below:

http://vyos.net

Linux

You can use a Linux hosts instead of Windows 7 as virtual machines for testing. My two favourites are CentOS and Mint. I would advise using CentOS minimal installation to conserve resources but the CentOS with a GUI or Mint are better if you have little to no Linux experience.

http://www.centos.org/download/
http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

Next: Part 3 VMware Workstation 11