Any spare servers for a newbie technician?

[superaz300]

Hello Edugeeks

I have being working in a school for about 4 months now, and we have a virtualised CC4 network. I really want to learn about VMware Esxi which I was wondering if anyone has any spare servers I can stick it on to play around with virtual switches, and VMs themselves. I am not bothered if they don't have hard drives which I completely understand for data protection, just the servers which support virtualisation. I know schools like ours have to pay for disposal of IT equipment, so was wondering if anyone has any they don't want?

 

I am in Hull, so local better or don't mind travelling.

 

Please, if this isn't in the right thread I do apologise.

 

Thanks

 

James

[robjduk]

No servers here but if you have a half decent PC at home you can try and get a copy of VMWare workstation and play away with that. I think anything over an i3 should support virtualization and you will be good to go and play with VM and settings to your heart's content. You wont be able to go nuts but most gaming grade computers should be able to support a DC and couple of other desktops connected at once.

Also nothing I have done myself for a long time but assuming you are running Windows pro, you can enable hyper-v and will have the same effect although as I said, I'm more a VMWare kinda guy so could be wrong.

 

Also sorry to break it to you but schools can get free IT disposal so you may be out of luck on that front (incase your school thinks it needs to pay, give Stone a call)

[MattGibson]

Don't forget download free with limited functionality Free VMware vSphere Hypervisor, Free Virtualization (ESXi) | VMware United Kingdom

[DJ-1701]

Unfortunately no servers . Due to budgets, I believe most of us run these boxes into the ground until a critical fault appears.

 

As for paying for disposal, I thought places like Stone Computers offer free disposal.

[Achandler]

I probably have a spare one (maybe) It is a webserver that is being retired, it will support virtualisation but it is an old HP G5 slimline (I think).

 

I finish for Christmas tomorrow (lunch time) though and won't have time to sort it out for then, I'm also in Manchester although I will be in Hull for a weekend at the end of January (I think) if you get no better offers.

[superaz300]

Thank you for these fantastic replies! As for disposal, we are now going to give Stone a call and sort that out. Achandler, thanks for the reply about the HP G5, I might take you up on that

 

Thanks again

James

[Achandler]

Let me know if you haven't got anything around mid January, I'll be in the Cottingham/ Hull area. Hull seems tiny to me but I know it takes a while to get from East Hull to West Hull, so thought you might like to know.