How to setup sharepoint 2013 on-premises learning environment

Compare to SharePoint 2010, the new version 2013 needs much more hardware resources to build a decent on-premises learning environment. Below is how I set up my learning environment.

To help to understand the security stuff, we need dedicated servers for different purpose. AutoSPInstaller is perfect for proper SharePoint installation.

All the servers are running in Hyper-V virtual machine.

0. Host machine
Windows Server 2012 Datacenter edition. MS Office 2013.

1. Domain controller, AD, CA and DNS server
Windows Server 2008 or 2012, 1GB RAM.
Need to create all service accounts and computer alias names.

2. Database server
MS SQL Server 2008 or 2012, developer edition. SSRS.
4GB RAM.
Need to limit the SQL server instance RAM to 2.5GB.

3. SharePoint 2013, workflow manager, SP designer and Visual Studio 2012
8GB RAM.
I disabled Distributed Cache service to save memory.

4. Office Web Apps server
2GB RAM. It's not allowed to install it with SharePoint server, so we have to give it a separate virtual machine.


So, if have only one physical machine, 16GB RAM is barely enough, and 24GB or 32GB RAM is more comfortable.

[Update 2013-03-27]

It' better to set up a dedicated Workflow server, with 3GB RAM.