HA, Said I was going to get better, and what did I do. I got worse.

Well I have something that’ll keep me coming back here and sharing! I’ve recently dropped about $1500.00 on some home equipment to help setup a fairly decent home lab. So you ask, “this fat balding guy” spends $1,500.00 on a home lab, what the hell did he get? Well, let me share with you, what I’ve ordered and have on the way.

First, the rack.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Tripp-Lite-12U-Rack-Enclosure-Server-Cabinet-Doors-and-Sides-300-lb-Capacity-SR12UB/203796110?MERCH=REC-_-PIPHorizontal1_rr-_-203796130-_-203796110-_-N

I went with the Tripp Lite Model SR12UB from Home Depot (got a Home Depot card, 0% interest for 6 months!) I went with the enclosed rack, because, well I have 2 bastard cats that like to chew on cables. I’ll teach these little bastards! Also, I don’t plan on having a full 42U rack in my house, I may add 2 more servers down the raid, but a 12U rack is plenty of room.

Second, the server (vmhost)
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2060353.m570.l1313.TR5.TRC2.A0.H0.XHP+DL380+G6.TRS0&_nkw=HP+DL380+G6&_sacat=0

I found an HP DL380 Gen 6 2x Xeon L5638 2Ghz Six Core w/HT, 72GB Ram and 8x300GB 10k sas drives for $648.00 shipped which includes the rails. After countless hours of searching I found this to be the best deal for the price. I plan on running 9-12 VMGuests on this system, and given this is just a home lab for learning, I believe this system will do just fine. This by no means is intended to break speed records nore will it be the slowest out there.

 

3^rd, the firewall
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=HP+DL380+G6&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.XCisco+ASA+5506-x+Firepower.TRS0&_nkw=Cisco+ASA+5506-x+Firepower&_sacat=0

I was lucky and came across this Cisco ASA 5506-X w/FirePOWER for $404.00 shipped. Supposedly new in box, we shall see.  Well frankly whats not to like about a firewall, with active packet scanning, to keep them NASTY bugs out of my crap!

4^th, the switches

I ‘m surfing for 2x Cisco 3750g’s at the time, I’ll keep you all posted on what I end up finding.

 

I’ll do my best to post pictures and configs!