Home Lab Virtualization (vSphere/ESXi)

A compact VMware lab designed for real-world practice: clustering, shared storage, backups, and day-2 ops — all at home. Two build options are included: nested (on a single PC/laptop) and bare-metal (mini-servers).

VMware ESXi
vCenter
Shared Storage (iSCSI/NFS)
Templates & Backups

What I Wanted to Learn

Install and patch ESXi hosts, connect them to a vCenter cluster.
Serve shared storage to hosts (iSCSI/NFS) and test vMotion/DR workflows.
Build golden images (Windows & Linux), automate basic provisioning.
Practice safe backups and test a quick restore.

Option A — Nested Lab (Fast to Start)

Great when you only have one strong PC/laptop.

Install a desktop hypervisor (e.g., VMware Workstation).
Create two ESXi VMs (nested) and a vCenter appliance VM.
Add a storage VM (TrueNAS/FreeNAS) and export iSCSI or NFS.
Put both ESXi hosts into vCenter and attach the shared datastore.

This method uses “VMs inside a VM” so you can simulate a full cluster without extra hardware. It’s quick, portable, and perfect for labs/demos. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}

Option B — Bare-Metal Mini-Servers

More realistic networking/perf, still quiet and low-power.

Compute: 2× mini-PCs (NUC-style, 32–64 GB RAM each) running ESXi.
Storage: 1× NAS (Synology/TrueNAS) serving NFS or iSCSI.
Network: 1× managed switch with VLANs (Mgmt/Storage/VMs).
Mgmt: vCenter appliance on shared storage.

Choose quiet, efficient gear — your electric bill and ears will thank you.

Bill of Materials (Example)

Nested (single box)

PC/Laptop with 8-core+ CPU, 32–64 GB RAM, 1–2 TB SSD
VMware Workstation (host), ESXi (guests), vCenter, TrueNAS VM
1× NIC is fine; VLANs handled virtually

Bare-Metal (quiet cluster)

2× Mini-PCs (ESXi), 32–64 GB each, NVMe for local cache
1× NAS with 2+ bays (RAID-1/RAID-Z1), 2.5/10 GbE if available
1× Managed switch (VLANs for Mgmt/Storage/VMs)

Networking

VLAN 10  Management (vCenter, ESXi Mgmt)
VLAN 20  vMotion
VLAN 30  Storage (NFS or iSCSI)
VLAN 40  Workloads (Servers/Apps)

With the nested build, create port groups for these networks in the host hypervisor and tag them accordingly.

Shared Storage

NFS: simple and flexible; easy to grow.
iSCSI: block storage; multipath possible later.
Start small and expand; always test failover and access latency.

Build Steps (Condensed)

Prepare the host (nested) or mini-servers (bare-metal). Update BIOS/firmware.
Install ESXi (to USB/NVMe on bare-metal, or as nested VMs). Assign static Mgmt IPs.
Deploy vCenter (VCSA) and add both hosts to your new Datacenter/Cluster.
Provision shared storage (TrueNAS/Synology): create NFS share or iSCSI target; present to both hosts.
Networking: create port groups (Mgmt/vMotion/Storage/Workload). Verify vMotion between hosts.
Templates: build Windows & Linux base images; patch, install tools, generalize (sysprep/cloud-init).
Backups: protect VMs to NAS; test a file-level and full-VM recovery.

The nested approach — ESXi and vCenter as VMs on a desktop hypervisor with a storage VM — is a proven way to simulate a full cluster on minimal hardware. :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}

Results & Next Steps

vMotion verified between hosts; storage shared successfully.
Golden images created; new VMs deploy in minutes.
Backup/restore tested to NAS.

Next: try DRS/HA (with 3 hosts), add monitoring, and experiment with automation (PowerCLI/Terraform).

Feedback Welcome

Have ideas to improve this lab (hardware tips, network tweaks, storage tuning)? Leave feedback — I’m iterating based on community input.

References

Concepts like running ESXi/vCenter nested on a desktop hypervisor, and using a storage VM (e.g., FreeNAS/TrueNAS) for shared iSCSI/NFS are inspired by widely used lab patterns.