Editing Homelab Categories (section)

==  Physical Cluster ==
The "ultimate" homelab really boils down to having a full cluster of at least 2-3 machines, however this is also the most expensive, [[noise|noisiest]], most [[power]] hungry, and most difficult to maintain a decent [[WAF]]!

The biggest benefit to a fully physical cluster homelab solution, be it [[hyper-converged]], or just a standard cluster with some [[storage|shared storage]] is that it is the configuration which most accurately mirrors an enterprise solution, and as such gives you the maximum flexibility in scope for things to test, learn about and (lets be honest) play with!

Another key benefit to the use of a physical cluster is the ability to keep individual server costs low, and scale out your lab over time. One thing to watch out for in this scenario is mixing your CPU types. If you think your will likely do this, it is a good idea to limit the CPU features using something like vSphere's [https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1003212 EVC mode (Enhanced vMotion Compatibility)] as it is a pain to have to enable at a later stage.

If you reach the point where you have 4/5 cluster nodes or more, it may be well worth considering splitting your cluster into two, the first being your development workloads, and the second for management workloads. This has been recognised as [http://www.settlersoman.com/why-to-create-the-vmware-management-cluster/ best practice] in the real world for many years, but can also be very useful in a lab. For example when upgrading your development cluster, you might accidentally trash it, but this avoids having to rebuild all of your management tools as well!