[dnewcome]

To get true understanding of what you're working with you need to be able to trash the configuration of your gear at will. I learned a lot buying up some big old Cisco Catalysts and EMC Clariion SAN boxes back when I was doing data center work. Later on though, when I was in charge of buying new stuff I'd rack the stuff up first and go crazy with it before it was in production. Either way works. I don't miss having those fans running in my house though.

[packetslave]

The really nice thing about labs these days is how much you can do virtually. Before I changed jobs, I had 2 NetApp filers doing replication, two EMC Clariion CX arrays, and two complete VMware datacenters doing DR failover, vMotion, and DRS. All on two PC servers in a downstairs closet.