VMWare Projects for Training

This project is currently in progress.  More and more details will be added to this site as time passes.  VMWare is one of the best programs I have ever owned.  It is worth every penny and anyone involved in IT should go out and buy this product.  In just my latest endeavor, I have started 3 separate training projects using VMWare as the facilitator.  This will allow me to further my enterprise level training using a limited number of computers in a safe manner.  Not all of my computers can handle the demands of enterprise class software running inside of VMWare (which is running inside of the real OS).  However, six of my computers have enough ram and drive space to do the projects.  These projects are designed to give me an unusual level of hands on experience that is unavailable in a work environment due to active production.  You can't just "test" things out on your companies systems in a real work environment.  I have read endless amounts of material in preparation for these projects, and now its time for the actual hands on implementation.   

The first project's goal is to create a cluster of 6 servers using Microsoft Windows 2000 cluster service.  I am going to configure several applications to use the cluster group "server", and then simulate servers randomly going down.  In addition, Active Directory with a distributed file system will be used to complicate things even more.  This will NOT be the first time I have set up and managed Active Directory with DFS, however, it will be the first instance where I can truly test, destroy, and test some more without worrying about loosing my systems.  Its the best way to learn all the things most people are unable or afraid to try.

The second project's goal is to setup a Microsoft SMS (System Management Server) and a target group (clients).  Although my actual target group will only be around 6 computers, it will provide the training needed to rollout to 60, 600, or 6,000 etc.  This project will tie in with project #1 so I can learn and verify the way SMS automatically discovers the Active Directory properties of users and systems.  I will purposely create packages that are targeted differently based on these Active Directory properties.  In addition, the new WMI enhancements to provide more inventory data will be tested and verified against the known data on each individual target computer.  Several of the target computers will have service pack updates and hotfixes removed to test the ability of the SMS system to recognize this problem, and then deploy the patches.

The third project's goal is to create an Oracle 9i Real Application Cluster using 6 systems.  Similar to project #1, systems will be brought down to test out the grid.  The next step after that will be create a similar system using an Oracle 10g grid.  Why even use Oracle 9i RAP when the 10g grid is available?  Well, many organizations are still using Oracle 8i and haven't even moved to 9i, let alone 10g.  I personally want to master the 9i RAP first, followed by 10g.