Time-travelling DNS

I’m going to have to rebuild the DNS of my test lab domain.

At some point, it WILL happen.

When it does, what would I like to tell my future self?

IP addresses are irrelevant, because within the test network, those change all the time. (That would be the point of the home lab, wouldn’t it? To be able to build and rebuild as much as I want from within Workstation 9 and the VM’s?)

I think that I would like to remind myself that, when setting up a home lab for the first time, VMnet8 (NAT) is going to be your very bestest friend.

 

Open the VMware "Virtual Network Editor" to see which IP subnet’s configured and to also disable the “local DHCP service to distribute IP address to VMs”.

 

Then, inside each VM? Go with IP address ranges
192.168.xx.3...50 (fixed, for the DC’s) and
192.168.xx.51...100 (for the clients & lab boxes).

The gateway address to use for configuring the Ethernet adapters in the VMs is 192.168.xx.2. You can find this by clicking on the “NAT Settings…” button in the Virtual Network Editor window.

 

Then, once all that’s done:
1. set each VM's DNS IPv4 server settings to point to the virtual DC

 

2. on the DNS servers / DC’s, setup DNS forwarding to send DNS requests for other domains (that is, for the Internet) to the same IP as listed as “DNS Server” on the Host PC.

 

Last step, as always, is to prove it works. A quick test is this blog. If that succeeds, then check for updates using Windows Update.

Build a VMWare Workstation 9 Home / Test Lab

So I’m building a test lab at home.

This post is going to grow to become a directory of the issues, I think, that I post about that over time.

For now, here’s the plan:

Dual Windows Domain Controllers
Separately from the two DC’s, SQL Server 2012
Windows 8 Client PC

…and all on Workstation 9.

I’m building them in order to test SQL 2012 in a domain, of course, because I want to just jump in log in with Windows Authentication to SSAS, and I can’t do that without a domain.

I mean, I think I can – I’ve seen some articles about cobbling things together to do so, but honestly, I don’t really want to. Really.

I want to get as close to “best practices” as I can with this setup, since that’s what I’m expecting the exam(s) to cover.

Free software?

It really bugs me when free software functionality isn't included as a part of the base product.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-live/essentials

For example, the Windows Essentials group of applications from Microsoft.

This seems, to me, for Windows 8 at least, to be not-quite-optional functionality that really has a place in the "installed by default category", with one large caveat. That is, if you're installing on a desktop.

And there is the other issue - why am I, with a mouse and keyboard on a laptop, having to suffer through gestures?

Perhaps in the dawning age of the tablet, I'm the odd man out for wanting a desktop, but really, let's face it. I LIKE having a mouse and keyboard. They allow me to function with an efficiency that currently just isn't possible any other way.

That said, I'd like my apps to be apps - getting redirected by a Fortune 500 company's website to their "full experience" on my Android phone is ridiculous. I also want my programs to be that - programs. Sized for the screen, not dependent on gestures, and for the love of Pete, to not assume a layout and control structure UI that requires a small screen to make any sense.

Public Data - Reference Post

These are some public data sources. 

This page is intended only as a reference for later use... I hope to update it as I'm able to categorize and collect mroe of these links.

http://cdiac.ornl.gov/epubs/ndp/ushcn/background.html

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/ushcn/

ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ushcn/v2.5