Do you have a "home lab setup"? (Biology, Chem, Physics, CS/IT Related Courses)

[bjcheung77]

Hello Everyone,

There's several courses I'll be taking that will require a Lab Component. I was wondering how you all set that up?
For example, the science courses have a 1 credit lab (which is optional for some degrees), where do you get your lab equipment?

For the Comp Sci/IT Related Majors - How do you have your home lab rigged up?
That's basically what I am trying to do, is to create a home lab so I can get started with IT Certs/Courses.

I've been reading other forums and getting an idea how it's done but wondering what your basic rig is like.
Thanks, Bjcheung77

[ajs1976]

For IT Certs, I have a desktop with 16 GB of memory with VMWare ESXi or Citrix Xenserver and virtual machines that apply to the exam requirements. For the Windows 2012 exams, I have moved away from that and purchased the online labs from Measure Up.

[alzee]

For IT Certs, I have a desktop with 16 GB of memory with VMWare ESXi or Citrix Xenserver and virtual machines that apply to the exam requirements. For the Windows 2012 exams, I have moved away from that and purchased the online labs from Measure Up.

Basically the same deal here. Until a month or so ago when I moved, I kept an ESXi host in the basement that I used for things like this, and other purposes. Now that I've moved, when the need arises, I use VMWare Workstation on my notebook, the AWS EC2 instances I already have for my personal/contractor stuff (these are also free if your usage stays below a certain threshold), and when all else fails I use the ESX Enterprise cluster I admin for one a client. I don't like mixing business and personal that way, but the client is a good friend and has no problem with it.

[dfrecore]

For the science labs, most of the labs you would take would have a specific lab setup that you would purchase (like SL). For homeschooling my kids, we use HomeScienceTools.com to buy the stuff we need. I'm sure there are others out there.

[bjcheung77]

That's awesome, I'm going to set up something like the following. I have two rooms (although a bit small).
One room will be the Natural Sciences room where I'll have a section for Bio, another for Chem, and a section for Physics.
The other room with be my "work" room and where I'll have my "home lab" for CS/IT Courses and Certification training.

For those of you who have a home computer lab, small or large, how is yours setup? I have a 24 inch and two 19" monitors, 3 desktops and 3 laptops. Each sharing the wireless network connection to the internet, I have a local printer (not networked). I switch laptops with the 24" monitor to have a dual screen setup and each of the desktops I dual screen by cable/switch.

My question for the home computer lab, what's the best option to learn more on the several CS/IT certifications out there?
Those 3 desktops are on Win10, the 3 laptops are running Win 10 except for one, it's on Win7 Home Premium. I want to setup something like RDP or VNC into the desktops from my laptops. For the desktops, i'm thinking of having server software and virtual servers running on them for practice. I don't have any Cisco Hardware, so skipping training that for now.

Essentially, I want to start with the basics and move up to the harder ones, I believe in this order, CompTIA, Microsoft, InfoSec, and CISCO Certifications. I may skip the CIW and MTA certifications as these topics should be covered already or overlapped with the newer/harder certifications.

[ajs1976]

What is your goal for IT certifications?

Very little value in the CIW stuff. I think the only reason they may be around still is because of WGU. If you want to do the web developer type of work, you may be better off including those type of courses in your degree plan.

The assumed prerequisite knowledge for the harder MS certs are a lot higher than it used to be. If you don't have much experience, the MTAs can bridge that gap.

Most would recommend starting with the CompTIA trifecta of A+, Net+, and Security+. A+ intro to PC hardware and client operating systems. Net+ intro to networking. Security+ intro to Info Sec. I feel the knowledge is important, but once you know the material, spend the extra effort and money on other certs.

[alzee]

For those of you who have a home computer lab, small or large, how is yours setup? I have a 24 inch and two 19" monitors, 3 desktops and 3 laptops. Each sharing the wireless network connection to the internet, I have a local printer (not networked). I switch laptops with the 24" monitor to have a dual screen setup and each of the desktops I dual screen by cable/switch.

You don't need so much hardware just to run a lab, if you can get with the virtualization program.

I am the sysadmin for a client with a few dozen different domains and websites, a massive postgresql database, an almost as massive SQL server database, a riak cluster, two FreeNAS installations, and a bunch of other stuff; 61 VMs in total running a mix of FreeBSD & Windows. This is all hosted on just three physical servers in a redundant ESXi cluster. The servers themselves aren't anything special (HP DL380 G7's) but they do have 144G of memory each, and the disk is a fully redundant FC SAN.

A single machine running ESXi (free) with 32 or 64G is *plenty* for you to run a lab in. You don't need to mess with RDP or VNC either, as ESXi itself is administered primarily through a web interface and a java application (vSphere client). You can access the VMs via the VMWare remote console, which is more responsive than RDP/VNC into a VM and doesn't depend on the virtual networking being properly configured -- meaning if you change networking settings, you might "break" your RDP/VNC connectivity, just like you might on a real system, but the VMWare console will always be there.

My question for the home computer lab, what's the best option to learn more on the several CS/IT certifications out there?

I would figure out which of your desktops can support the most memory, fill it up, put all your HDD storage in it, install ESXi on it, and put the rest of the machines in cold storage. You won't need them until you're doing actual physical networking lab stuff with Cisco (or whoever's) hardware. For the OS/application lab work, the single machine running vmware is all you need.

You can install windows, linux, BSD, etc. in VMs. Only OSX is a pain in the ass to get working; the path of least resistance there is to buy a mac and run vmware on that, which will allow OSX to install easily into a VM.

[bjcheung77]

Ajas1976, Albee, thank you. That's really helpful. I'll also check with my employer and see if there is tuition reimbursement for any of the exams or certifications passed. I think we have them for Cisco and MS Certs.

[bjcheung77]

Ajas1976, Albee, thank you. That's really helpful. I'll also check with my employer and see if there is tuition reimbursement for any of the exams or certifications passed. I think we have them for Cisco and MS Certs.

Oops, typo :p. I meant to type alzee.
Anyways, I did verify with work and woo hoo, we do have tuition reimbursement for Cisco and MS exams passed.
That'll pave the way for me to get a cert or two, maybe three and I'll be on my merry way to more certifications.

[bjcheung77]

For the science labs, most of the labs you would take would have a specific lab setup that you would purchase (like SL). For homeschooling my kids, we use HomeScienceTools.com to buy the stuff we need. I'm sure there are others out there.

Thanks for this info. I'm deciding if I should buy the kit, or if I should buy individual items that I need instead.
I was reading another poster who mentioned some courses, the recommended kit costs more than buying item by item.
Or another poster mentioned some items were really cheaply made and to buy it separately for each item I need.