Build steps not covered in this book
Before diving into the tools, you need to prepare your equipment. Most of these steps will be specific to the hardware that you have chosen to use, so this book can only provide extremely generic directions. It also does not cover the installation of Windows Server or Hyper-V Server, mostly because the installation process itself has no real options to set. Perform these tasks, following your hardware vendor's instructions where applicable:
- Configure your switching hardware:
- Set up VLANs
- Assign switch ports to VLANs or trunks
- Enable jumbo frames if you will be using iSCSI and your storage vendor supports it
- Configure your shared storage system; create LUNs (iSCSI and Fibre Channel) or shares (SMB 3.0 systems)
- Set the BIOS options for your hosts:
- Enable hardware virtualization assistance: VT-x for Intel CPUs and AMD-V for AMD CPUs.
- Enable data execution prevention: XD for Intel CPUs and NX for AMD CPUs.
- Enable EPT for Intel CPUs and NPT or RVI for AMD CPUs...
