[There's a reason that Yoda is the unofficial mascot of SBS. Size indeed matters not.] Got a lab? - THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS DIVA
Wed, Nov 2 2005 12:45 bradley

Got a lab?

Got a test lab?  A place to test things before you do stuff in real life?

What's the cheapest way to get a test lab?

e-Bay. 

There is still a lot of good, quality hardware that can be purchased from e-bay.  Yup you heard that....ebay.

What about Dell outlet?

Vmware for virtual testing?

Bottom line, if you are in the IT biz, set up a lab for testing and ...well...blowing up on.  Better to learn there than in a client's office.

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# re: Got a lab?

Wednesday, November 02, 2005 3:56 PM by bradley

I've been wanting to set up a lab for testing SBS 2003 stuff for a while; specifically going from a 2000 Server domain to SBS 2003.

One area I've been having trouble finding some answers to: If I'm using SBS 2003, can I set up another domain controller for fault tolerance (DHCP, DNS, Active Directory, etc.)? Does it have to be Win Server 2003? Do other member servers also have to be Win Server 2003 or can I keep my existing 2000 Server member servers?

If you could point me somewhere to find a clear answer on this, it would be so helpful. There's so much info available for SBS 2003 that it's sometimes difficult to get a specific answer.

Thanks.

# re: Got a lab?

Wednesday, November 02, 2005 9:00 PM by bradley

At my workplace we have a 2nd Win2003 server connected to our SBS box. It functions as a backup DC and DNS. Works fine. (The DNS saved our butt when the main server crashed hard due to a disk failure and I needed to restore from the tape.)

AD is included in the "package" with a DC.

I've never tried a backup DHCP; if you extend the lease time on the clients to 5-10 days, it won't matter anyway.

Yes, Win2000 member servers are supported.