F5 is upgrading its customer support chat feature on My.F5.com. Chat support will be unavailable from 6am-10am PST on 1/20/26. Refer to K000159584 for details.

Forum Discussion

Christopher_Boo's avatar
Christopher_Boo
Icon for Cirrostratus rankCirrostratus
Jan 21, 2014

F5 Home Lab Environment - What is your setup?

I finally got my lab licenses and am trying to decide how best to setup a home ESXI server. I want to reproduce prod capability as much as possible (vlan tagging, etc.). The smaller and quieter the better. Quick research suggests a Mac-mini might be a good option. What do you guys use?

 

Thanks for any input.

 

Chris

 

cloud
microsoft
virtualization
vmware

2 Replies

  • James_Deucker_2's avatar
    James_Deucker_2
    Historic F5 Account
    Jan 21, 2014

    I use a Mac Mini 5,2 upgraded with 16Gb of RAM and an SSD + HDD running ESXi 5.5. Also take a look at the Intel NUC, http://www.tekhead.org/blog/2013/01/nanolab-running-vmware-vsphere-on-intel-nuc-part-1/

     

    James

     

    • Christopher_Boo's avatar
      Christopher_Boo
      Icon for Cirrostratus rankCirrostratus
      Jan 22, 2014
      Thanks for the advice James. I think for now I'm probably going to put something together with parts I have and keep an eye out for a deal on an i5 NUC. Chris