I had a question on a YouTube video on home lab hardware for a CCIE lab. Creating a forum topic here for discussion.
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Dec 26, 2023 3:28 pm
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Dec 26, 2023 4:45 pm
I am thinking that CCIE candidates and students would want to run GNS3, EVE-NG, or something similar. Let me know if you are a networking student out there who is looking to set up a home lab for this purpose and what tools you are looking to run.
Dec 27, 2023 5:38 am
Hello Again
i am preparing to my CCIE certification and i want setup up home with EVE-en to practice, i saw many mini pc but im not know how’s efficiency , and there is attached, what you thinking about it, or if you another option
Thanks
Dec 27, 2023 7:17 am
@tariqops, welcome to the forums! Do you have experience working with a specific hypervisor technology like VMware ESXi or Proxmox? Let me know on that front. Many of the mini PCs have issues with VMware ESXi due to Realtek network adapters. However, there are definitely ones I can recommend to you for either ESXi or Proxmox. It sounds like what you would be wanting in a mini PC would be the following:
- Power efficiency
- Virtualization capabilities
- Resources to run a few VMs
Let me know if you might have other requirements you can think of.
Dec 27, 2023 7:25 am
Dec 27, 2023 9:10 pm
@tariqops I think you will see the best resource utilization of your hardware running a full hypervisor like VMware or Proxmox. You might do some research to see if there are any challenges with using Proxmox with GNS3 or EVE-NG as this might make the difference on which direction to go there.
For running VMware, the GMKtek Nucbox K10 is one of the most efficient and powerful little mini PCs I have tested. It has 16 cores, and you can put 64 GB of RAM in it along with a single NVMe drive. It has a 2.5 GbE adapter. It is currently unavailable on Amazon though.
You can see my review of that mini PC here: https://www.virtualizationhowto.com/2023/09/intel-nuc-alternative-gmk-nucbox-k10-ryzen-7-home-server/
Also, the Beelink EQ12 Pro which I thought was a great machine for VMware, it looks to be out of stock there as well but you may find it from another vendor. https://www.virtualizationhowto.com/2023/09/beelink-eq12-pro-cheap-home-server-with-8-cores-and-32-gb-ram/
For Proxmox, I think the Beelink SER5 with the 5700U processor is a great little mini PC. It is efficient and has 16 cores also.
You can see my review here: https://www.virtualizationhowto.com/2023/09/beelink-ser5-mini-pc-amd-ryzen-7-home-server/
Hopefully, this will give you a few options to look at and think about for VMware or Proxmox.
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