Let me begin by saying that when I was attending classes and preparing to take my MCSE certification exams, the one thing that truly helped me to understand the material was a home lab. This hands-on environment helped me to learn the operating systems and the hardware that I was using more than any book or test emulator possibly could.

With that in mind I decided to undertake a project. I wanted to see how inexpensively I could build a suitable lab of four machines. This would give the student enough machines to emulate most real world situations that they may encounter, including but not limited to: seperate forests so as to work with trust relationships; seperate sites for testing replication; seperate operating systems so as to incorporate more than one operating system in a domain (or forest); multiple client scenarios for security and group management; and the list goes on. My goal is to build said lab for $1000. (NOTE: all dollar figures are USA and I have to cheat - I am figuring postage to be a total of $100 because I do not know where you live. If I do quote postage it will be because it was a flat rate according to the advertiser.)

Let me also make a note that I did not purchase and/or try out any of the equipment in this article and cannot guarantee that any of it will be suitable for any particular purpose or even still available when this article is published. This article is presented as an exercise to prove a point - that a simple network lab consisting of four machines could be built for under $1000 using Microsoft's minimum hardware requirements for Windows 2000 as a guideline. Before you actually purchase any equipment for use with Windows 2000 be sure to check out Microsoft's Hardware Compatibility List for Windows 2000.

Best Wishes,
Jay




Now, I know that the word "lab" instills the idea of having to spend the kids' inheritance to have a network that will be suitable for setting up the types of scenarios that you will need. This is a huge misconception. First of all, you do not need to buy everything that you need all at once. Secondly, you do not need some fancy multi-processor server class machine to run server software.

"One really nice thing that I did in my home lab was to use removable hard drives for different operating systems."

Let's take a look at the minimum requirements for Windows 2000 Server, being that I am assuming this is what most of you will be using. On a side note, if you are planning to be using Linux, these requirements are more than enough to run, albeit not at lightning speed, almost any, if not any, distribution available at the time of the writing of this article. For an "enjoyable" experience I think that I would probably still follow these guidelines. That is the beauty of Linux; being able to recycle older hardware. Back to Windows 2000. Here are the minimum requirements according to Microsoft (check it out: http://mspress.microsoft.com/ )

1). Processor: 32-bit Pentium 133 MHz.

2). Free hard disk space: One or more hard disks where %systemroot% (C:\WINNT by default) is located on a partition with at least 671 MB of free space (2 GB is recommended).

3). Memory: 64 MB for networking with one to five client computers; 128 MB minimum is recommended for most network environments.

4). Display: VGA monitor capable of 640 x 480 (1024 x 768 recommended).

5). CD-ROM drive: 12x or faster recommended; not required for network installations.

6). Additional drives: High-density 3.5-inch disk drive, unless your CD-ROM is bootable and supports starting the Setup program from a CD-ROM.

7). Optional components: Mouse or other pointing device.

8). For network installation: a network adapter and an MS-DOS-based network operating system that permits connection to a server containing the Windows 2000 Setup files. (ie. Windows 9x or DOS based network boot disk)

As you can see, the requirements are not huge. Another thing to keep in mind: Four machines do not require you to have four keyboards, monitors, and mice. A KVM (Keyboard Video Mouse) switch or even a keyboard, video, mouse switch will allow you to use multiple machines with a single keyboard, mouse, and monitor. The true KVMs have mouse and keyboard emulation, however they are also quite a bit more expensive than a keyboard, video, mouse switch. Prices for these begin at about $150 plus cables for a four-port KVM. You can plan on spending about $25 per machine for cables regardless what type of switch that you use. The advantage to mouse and keyboard emulation is not only being able to boot with no errors while you are using another machine, but being able to switch between machines running different operating systems without losing your mouse. Check out CDW for KVMs and cables (just do a search for "KVM" at http://www.cdw.com ).

I use a keyboard, video, mouse switch in my lab simply because I am too cheap to buy the KVM that I really want. It has neither keyboard nor mouse emulation. I found the one that I have for $39.95 at a local computer store. (FYI: Cyber Exchange, Lexington Ky. 859-223-6352 ask for Randy and tell him Jay sent you! Great people, I spend entirely too much time and money there.)

Let's start at a few of my favorite online retailers. I call them my favorites not because I am trying to "plug" them but because I have actually dealt with them and found their prices and service to be satisfactory. First stop: http://compgeeks.com . These guys are truly geeks (note the hits counters at the top of the page in hexadecimal, decimal and octal). The stuff they carry is usually about six months to one year out of date, unless you venture into the "cobweb corner" where it can get a little ugly (some of you Linux folks may disagree!).

As it turns out, Computer Geeks (CG from here on out) carries most of what we need: