![]() ![]() We began with VMware Workstation 1.0 for creating simple test labs on our Windows 2000 Workstation computers. For almost a decade, we preferred VMware as our virtualization solution of choice. Of course, there are a number of server virtualization platforms available and each of them has its own advantages. And with today’s high end hardware being available at commodity prices, you can easily create a virtual test lab that can support over 20 virtual machines to participate in a single application or service deployment scenario. With virtualization, you can put all the computers you need to simulate your production network on a single virtual server and then create virtual networks on the virtual server to simulate the type of network segmentation you have on your production network. You don’t need to fill a room with a bunch of physical computers to run a useful test lab. ![]() Sure, there was disk imaging software available, but networks were slow then and high speed USB 2.0 drives weren’t available or were very expensive and were not large enough to fulfill the purpose of saving the lab in its entirety, especially if the lab contained five, ten or even more computers. And if something bad happened that you couldn’t explain and that you couldn’t back out of, you had to crater the lab and start all over. Then you had to install the operating systems and network services and applications on the test lab computers. If you wanted to put together a test lab, you generally built it out of physical hardware. On the other hand, life back in the 1990s and early 2000’s was a bit different. The sad thing is that it didn’t have to be that way – if they had only tested the application or service in the lab first, they would have learned about the “undocumented features” and the “gotcha’s” in a nice controlled environment that was isolated from their production networks. We told them this on a regular basis because, during our consulting careers, we’d seen far too many admins try to introduce a new product or technology without testing it out in the lab first. ![]() When Tom and I used to teach MCSE classes, we always told our students “don’t let your production network be your test lab”. If you would like to be notified when Deb Shinder releases the next part of this article series please sign up to the Real time article update newsletter.
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