Questions on Homelab setup

Hi All,

Im very new to Veeam so i would like to apologize for the questions.

I recently bought a laptop. Yes, not a server. The specs are Ryzen 7 Pro 5950u with 8 core, 16 threads, 1TB SSD, and 48gb ram. 

I am planning to create my homelab prior to my VMCE training this coming end of October 2022. Will i be able to do it with a laptop? I dont have servers with me and im really new to VMWare and other things so i wanted to know if i can do it in the laptop or i am just wasting time trying to replicate a home lab there. I hope you can enlighten me.

Regards,

Sean

Hey! Absolutely you can! Here’s how I did it:

You’ll want to use a ‘daily driver’ OS for the laptop I imagine, as you won’t get any guarantees of supported hardware if you ran ESXi or Hyper-V natively on it. Windows or Linux doesn’t really matter.

Depending on Windows or Linux you’ve got some options, these will be ‘type-2’ Hypervisors in that, they’ll run on top of your OS, performance won’t be as good, but I doubt you’ll see any major bottlenecks here.

If you’re using Windows, you can install VMware Workstation, OR, Hyper-V, or even something like VirtualBox. On Linux you won’t have the Hyper-V option but the other options remain.

Now, you won’t be using Veeam to interact with these, instead you’ll be using nested virtualisation to run a supported Hypervisor within Workstation/Windows 10 Hyper-V/VirtualBox. Why you might ask? Because Veeam needs to leverage APIs to interact with a host for VM processing. The two main hypervisors that Veeam supports are ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V. Now the complicated part: You’ll need to enable exposing virtualisation capabilities to your VM within whichever type-2 hypervisor you chose (Workstation/Windows 10 Hyper-V/VirtualBox), there are different ways of doing this depending on the application you choose to use, but they’re only a google search away, or state here what you’re planning to use and we can hopefully point you in the right direction.

Once you’ve deployed a virtual hypervisor such as ESXi or Hyper-V into your type-2 hypervisor, you can then either deploy a Veeam VM within your virtual hypervisor, or within your type-2. Your only networking requirements are that you create a bridged network between your host (laptop), your other VMs, and your virtual hypervisor.

Now onto some specifics:

ESXi free edition doesn’t provide the APIs required to backup data, either use a trial, or NFR key if possible to license this, you don’t actually need vCenter, just a licensed ESXi.

Fun fact: Your laptop is more powerful than the PC I used for my lab when I was studying my VMCE, it’s a quad core with 32GB RAM and I still achieved what you’re trying to do.

So, hopefully this helps you get started, and I’ll do my best to answer any questions I can to get you going!

I’d also add 2 more thoughts to this.

My “Lab” quickly became “PROD” in my house, running home assistant, IP Cameras etc. This seems to happen to many of us.

Servers take a while to boot. Make sure to get a UPS, or something that can boot fast. There is nothing quite like haivng the power go out for 1 second, and waiting for a server, ESXI, Then a windows DC, then Home Assistant to turn on before you can have lights.   The sequence was automated, but took 5-10 minutes. Same goes for a TV restarting vs missing 10 minutes of a show because you are waiting on the DHCP server/DC to boot.

To add to that, once it becomes “Home PROD” as I like to call it, fan noise is pretty annoying 24 hours a day if the server is in your house.  I switched to a NUC for my Home Assistant due to low power and no fans. Removed a few of the 48 port PoE switches and replaced them with PoE injectors upstairs. 

I still have my monster server, but only power it on when I need. I also don’t have my house relying on AD with a DC anymore haha. 

Thank you for this MicoolPaul. I already started my journey and what i did was my laptop OS is a fresh install. I installed Windows 10 Pro. After that, i also installed VMWare Workstation 16 (Using NFR) licese. I then installed ESXi (Vshphere 7.0.0), yes, not the latest due to my storage is not being detected by that Vsphere 7.0.3u. 

Some questions i have is, i understand i will be installing other VMs inside my V sphere. So many GB should i in my Vsphere considering other things that i will be doing to with it for the process. 

I understand i need to put a Windows Server inside, how many gb should i allocate there as well.

So far this is where i am at. I will encounter more questions for sure but will like to be able to move past this step.

Yes, im going ahead with VMWare Workstation 16. :) Thank you for the link! I was able to install and set it up. Does that mean i can skip this step?

Depending on the VMs you’re creating, you’ll likely need an average of 40-60GB space. In any case, you’ll want to configure thin provisioning for your virtual disks, both for VMware Workstation and for ESXi, this means that the disks only consume the space required initially, rather than reserving it all. This way if you create a virtual disk with 100GB maximum capacity, but only use 8GB, that’s what gets consumed! Though be aware, once a disk is grown, aka more space has been consumed, it doesn’t automatically shrink back.

For ESXi data stores I’d actually recommend you create a disk in VMware workstation per VM you intend to create in ESXi. This means that when you no longer need a VM, you can delete the datastore from ESXi, then the disk from VMware Workstation, and that way you’ve reclaimed your space on your laptop.

As for required capacity, depends on how much you need to test but 400-500GB should be sufficient to get going and build a decent amount of infrastructure.

Hi Everyone,

It's me again. i am just wondering why everytime i change the IP Address I am not able to access the web Url using that IP address for IPv4 and when i set it to static.

I used Bridge as connection. However, after resetting it back to original, i am able to access it.

In addition to what Paul has said, remember private IPs’ are not routable. To get this to work correctly, you must have the right settings in place with any of your type 2 virtualisation solutions.

I just got the opportunity to grab several HP Gen9’s with about 512GB of memory each.

Cheap home lab approved, (no cost) but the power bill and fan noise may not be worth it.  They run between 170-230 watts average, so 500watts will average about $40 a month where I live.

I think i’ll keep a second as a spare powered down. I also have the opportunity to grab a pretty large SAN, but I’ll most likely decline as the power draw is really overkill for my homelab. 

I’ll keep the NUC for home assistant, cameras, and things that run 24/7. I think the second ESXI lab will only get powered on for test purposes to keep costs down.    With my work lab being so powerful, i find my homelab getting used less and less these days. 

Funny how this came up...last weekend I finally got around to installing a 20amp circuit in my garage so I could use a Tripp-Lite 2000VA UPS that I had laying around and got most of my gear plugged into it.  I had planned on sharing, so now seems as good time as any to post some pictures.  The homelab is pretty crude as it sits on top of a refrigerator in my garage and is subjected to extreme hot and extreme cold temperatures and humidity (and lack thereof).  But it gets the job done and really this hardware is solid.  The R610 that this R520 replaced ran for 3 or 4 years after it was retired from my client’s site, so in all, it was finally about 10 or 11 years old when it let out the magic smoke. 

Please don’t mind the disaster that is my garage…..I’ve learned that if you have a lot of space, you keep a lot of crap.

I have an old Equallogic PS6210E that is going to replace the PS6000 in the work lab, but these things are big with a lot of drives and pull a lot of power, and honestly kills the runtime I have on the UPS.  I just racked up a new PowerVault ME5024 for production which will free up a couple of PS6100 arrays, but not really better than the PS6210E except one has a couple of SSD’s in it for a cache.  I also have an old HPE MSA and two Equallogic PS6500’s laying around, but are not of much use and will probably just end up at the recyclers at some point. I am also going to replace the 5 or 6 PowerEdge R610 servers that I have in a cluster with a couple R720’s and possibly an R820.  I actually have four R720’s but really only need two for the lab, and the other two and the R820 can be used for swing servers, crash kits, and for testing a Linux Hardened Repo in the lab.  I’d also like to try out the virtual edition of a Quantum DXi deduplicating appliance on one, but time has prevented me from really giving this much thought.

All of these old arrays (and servers) are pretty power hungry, and while power is relatively cheap, it kills the UPS runtime as well.  SSD’s may not be too bad for power draw and maybe can be more reliable without much for moving parts, so assuming the wear isn’t too bad on those disks, that could be a great array for a lab environment.

How much is power there? It’s about .09/kWh where i live. in CAD.  so $0.07 USD roughly.

Plus we can use the heat in the winter to help heat our houses hahahaha