Virtualization and Test Preparation

‘Twas a time not so long ago that an IT Prop preparing for a test needed several computers (or more, plus specialized hardware) to learn a new product and to adequately prepare for a test. In addition to the servers, this also necessitated the IT Pro owning (and hopefully being able to configure) routers and switches to network all the computers. This meant that the majority of us were banished to the basement as our significant others found all the cables, computers and noise untenable in the “living” area. This doesn’t have to be the case now that virtualization is prevalent in our networks. A few years ago, when Microsoft’s Virtual PC was first introduced into the classroom environment, I would have to spend sometime explaining what this product does, its’ benefits and how to use it in the classroom. Now, it is the rare student who isn’t familiar with VPC, Virtual Server and now Hyper-V (yes, there is that other manufacturer of virtualization products, but this isn’t about them). Students come in knowing what these products are and what they can do (and invariably, one of them will ask if they can have the Virtual machines – if one of you is reading this now – the answer is still no – sorry). So does all this virtualization help? Well instead of having 2, 3 or even more servers at home, you might get away with just one maybe two servers (I use two laptops – makes life interesting with the fine TSA folks – it is the small switch and several external hard drives that makes their day). Now that there are new laptops available that support 8GB of RAM, this might cut down on the number of overall computers some use. So there you are in possession of a beefy server – now all you have to do is configure the requisite VMs to prepare for a test – sounds simple enough – but you might want to consider using two monitors – makes it a lot easier to transition between VMs and documentation. Virtualization gives us the ability to create highly complex and integrated networks. Using these virtual machines, we can learn and study new products without having a preponderance of hardware and help us prepare for new exams. There are times when virtualization is not the best approach (or is not supported by the product) and in these cases, you will have to use a dedicated box. If you haven’t done much with virtualization – try it out! Virtual Server and Virtual are free.