What you need for this book

If you are planning to go along with your practices as per the recipes in the book, which is highly recommended, you will need a good lab  to work in. As VCM works with multiple VMware components, and you will want to test integration as well, then you will need a machine with at least 32 GB of RAM, supported by a minimum of a quad-core processor, 1 TB HDD, and 256 GB SSD. You can install your favorite OS and on top of it either VMware Workstation or Virtual box. You need to create a small lab that will include a Windows Domain controller, and a few Windows servers hosting SQL, vCenter, VCM, and so on. You can install other components such as vCloud Director, vROps, and vCNS. Sometimes, 32 GB of RAM may not be sufficient, so power on only those VMs that you will need. Basic functionalities can be tested with a portable lab on your laptop with 16 GB RAM, which excludes vCD, vROps, and VCNS.

Here are the specs for my lab:

Lab 01: This is a desktop I have at home with 32 GB DDR3 RAM, AMD FX6300 6 core processor, 256 GB SSD, and 1 TB HDD

Lab 02: This is my portable lab on my laptop with 16 GB DDR3 RAM, Intel i5 quad-core processor, and 256 GB HDD