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mcsa 70-680 labs

Tags:
  • Virtual Machine
  • Computers
  • Servers
  • Build
  • Windows 7
  • Business Computing
Last response: in Business Computing
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August 3, 2013 11:07:58 AM

I am needing to build a computer for running virtual servers and whatnot for the lab work associated with the 70-680. I had planned on another gaming build anyway until this came up. I was wondering if I could stick with a good 3570/SSD/GTX770 style build, but up the 8gb RAM up to 16gb ram. Would that still work fine? And use Win7Ultimate as the OS? Or do I need some kind of "special" computer?

Thanks, guys.

More about : mcsa 680 labs

a b $ Windows 7
August 3, 2013 6:50:26 PM

The setup should work with the RAM upgrade. Just keep in mind that the VMs can take up a decent amount of space - especially when/if you take lots of screenshots over time to mess and break labs. USB 3.0 and eSata drives should be sufficient also for VMs if you choose that.
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August 4, 2013 3:31:12 PM

jackson1420 said:
The setup should work with the RAM upgrade. Just keep in mind that the VMs can take up a decent amount of space - especially when/if you take lots of screenshots over time to mess and break labs. USB 3.0 and eSata drives should be sufficient also for VMs if you choose that.


Thank you for that. You talk like you've experienced this. Have you done any of these labs? Is 16gb enough? I read that each VM takes 6gb. I'm a complete (more or less) noob at this. I'm studying and getting certs in hopes to one day leave the oil field. Hopefully within the year.
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a b $ Windows 7
August 5, 2013 12:27:56 PM

I have worked with VMs a lot throughout college, career and personal life for any tasks desirable.

16GB is a great choice for test labs and such.

Each VM doesn't require 6gb of RAM unless you are hosting services or running batches. Depending on how intensive the labs are; you can run them with 512 MB of RAM even. I would recommend 1GB-2GB since you have 16GB in your host system which will allow you to run 3 or 4 VMs concurrently (i.e. Windows Server 2012 as a primary domain controller, a backup domain controller and a couple Win 7 machines).

The amount of RAM used when you first install and start the OS is so minimal that 512MB-1GB will be enough for most, if not all of the 70-680 exercises.

Watch the VMs task manager and you can see if you are hitting the ceiling of your RAM. The same applies to your host machine to see how much memory you have free.

I like to have 125+ browser tabs open (no joke) with Skype and iTunes, VPN connected and constantly running numerous other apps and I need about 6.75 GB out of my 16 GB. Thus leaving 9+ GB to share. I could still run 4 VMs with 2 GB each and I could still run smoothly. If you have no page-file setup then be prepared to receive error messages or data loss when you hit the RAM ceiling. I just use 800-1500 MB for my page-file and I never had issues.

Note: You can add more RAM to your VM without restarting the machine but you can't take any away without a reboot.

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August 5, 2013 3:08:18 PM

jackson1420 said:
I have worked with VMs a lot throughout college, career and personal life for any tasks desirable.

16GB is a great choice for test labs and such.

Each VM doesn't require 6gb of RAM unless you are hosting services or running batches. Depending on how intensive the labs are; you can run them with 512 MB of RAM even. I would recommend 1GB-2GB since you have 16GB in your host system which will allow you to run 3 or 4 VMs concurrently (i.e. Windows Server 2012 as a primary domain controller, a backup domain controller and a couple Win 7 machines).

The amount of RAM used when you first install and start the OS is so minimal that 512MB-1GB will be enough for most, if not all of the 70-680 exercises.

Watch the VMs task manager and you can see if you are hitting the ceiling of your RAM. The same applies to your host machine to see how much memory you have free.

I like to have 125+ browser tabs open (no joke) with Skype and iTunes, VPN connected and constantly running numerous other apps and I need about 6.75 GB out of my 16 GB. Thus leaving 9+ GB to share. I could still run 4 VMs with 2 GB each and I could still run smoothly. If you have no page-file setup then be prepared to receive error messages or data loss when you hit the RAM ceiling. I just use 800-1500 MB for my page-file and I never had issues.

Note: You can add more RAM to your VM without restarting the machine but you can't take any away without a reboot.



Excellent info. Thank you very much!
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