A ESXi box...again


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On the 19th of Jan, I made a decision to buy/make a ESXi box. On the 28th of Jan, I took the plunge and bought a HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 G1610T.

I ran it for a bit after I got it and it had a fan problem. Took them until last week, to pick it up and instead of the already established exchange, Im getting a refund for it.

Its stupid because it suppose to be for me buying the same box again but Ive rethought about it after having it for about a week and now getting my money back. Now, my other choice would be to go with the HP ProLiant MicroServer G7 but I just cant go with a AMD product. I guess its a hard headed personal thing :laugh: Ill even go far as calling it stupid but...

Another thing is that during this entire time, HP came out with their cutting support once the warranty expired which is IMO horrible.

So we are back at what I originally wanted: A whitebox.

I do have a problem with a whitebox (because of the Gen8): I have a KTL-TS313E/8G. The problem is that this is ECC RAM so a lot of motherboards and/or processors just went out the window :( I dont have time and/or patience/desire, to sell/ship and/or put it up on eBay...

So.....what are my options now for a 4 x 3.5" drive (plus 1 x 2.5" drive) ESXi box out there? Or since Im basically "commited" myself to the Gen8, should I go and get it still (from another retailer)

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So you buy a server board...just about all will support ecc...then find a processor to match the board. 

 

Do a search on Server Mother Board.  then once you find the type you can then search for a cheap case to put it in.  I don't know who your vendor of choice is in spain or I would search for you and put up a few suggestions based on no budget.

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So you buy a server board...just about all will support ecc...then find a processor to match the board.

The board/processor is problably the least of my worries; It would be a case that fits my needs!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182251 Something like this.

Put that with a Intel Xeon E3-1220 V2 is what seems to be ideal.

Supermicro is not on the VMWare HCL but Ive seen some whiteboxes with ESXi in mind that use a Supermicro motherboard...

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Only ones on the HCL though...

Want to clarify that its the only one Ive heard of; Dont know about the rest on the list :)
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I dont know how true it is but even if its not on the HCL it might still work. I am sure its not been tested with EVERYTHING. So give it ago.

Yeah but Ive read there can be problems if it isnt on the HCL, more so being the motherboard.

Even though its up to the maker to send their product to be verified by VMWare I believe...

Ive read some last gen editions motherboard/Xeon that can also be used. Might be also a good idea.

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This board with a few other from Supermicro are ones I looked at...

Another thing is that Ive looked a bit bigger alternatives: The Dell T20 and the HP ProLiant ML310e look great and their price range compare to the miniserver isn't all that bad either. But like that board, I think they are not on the HCL...

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My understanding is he didn't like the noisy fan ;)  Is why he doesn't want another one.  And he doesn't want to use the older N40L or N54L because they are not intel.

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Just buy an N54L, it does not gloat that it has an AMD processor honest :)

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It does not have standard pins ;)  But like .2 seconds worth of google finds this

 

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1193-page7.html

 

QUIET FAN SWAP FOR HP MICROSERVER

I thought he was talking about the MicroS Gen8, which also they managed to make a fan swap mod for shortly after I got a refund.

I just dont feel that the microserver is for me (as strange and weird as it sounds, like some estrangled relationship) and Ive seen there are bigger minitowers out there that can cope with 4 or 5 drives which I feel are like more for me :)

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"with 4 or 5 drives which I feel are like more for me"

 

And you can put easy 6 in microserver ;)

 

You were the one talking money..  and why do you need so many bays.. You have how much storage in USE currently.  Not that your wasting on parity, actual storage?

 

Dude if you want to build a rocketship just let me know..  How MUCH do you want to spend?? ;)

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BTW -- just browsing around reading stuff, doing some investigation of esxi reported cpu usage vs vm reported usage I came across this -- the esxi supermicro jumped out at me

 

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2228266

ESXi 5.5 high CPU usage on Supermicro

 

You might want to take read through and do some more research before you go pulling the trigger on your supermicro MB DIY setup.

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BTW -- just browsing around reading stuff, doing some investigation of esxi reported cpu usage vs vm reported usage I came across this -- the esxi supermicro jumped out at me

 

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2228266

ESXi 5.5 high CPU usage on Supermicro

 

You might want to take read through and do some more research before you go pulling the trigger on your supermicro MB DIY setup.

 

Since they changed things in 5.5, I would think 5.1 would be a better route, especially for hardware support with cheap NIC's like realteks etc since they removed a lot of NIC/SATA/etc compatibility in 5.5.  Also, the whole vsphere client not working anymore and needing to install vcenter in a separate VM is annoying too.

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"with 4 or 5 drives which I feel are like more for me"

 

And you can put easy 6 in microserver ;)

 

You were the one talking money..  and why do you need so many bays.. You have how much storage in USE currently.  Not that your wasting on parity, actual storage?

 

Dude if you want to build a rocketship just let me know..  How MUCH do you want to spend?? ;)

I don't need that much bays just space to put a HDD in....I don't mind much if its the system drive hanging.

And interesting story happened the other day: I was doing some tests on a PC and my old RAID5 (320GB x 4) plus a couple of other HDDs was still sitting on a desk collecting dust. Well, I wanted to use another HDD and 3 of those drives from the old RAID5 were actually dead...one is still working. Kind of surprised me that drives would just die from sitting on a desk doing nothing but I guess now I know why they come in antistatic bags! :laugh:

What you said in bold is true.....I just don't want to feel a couple of years down that I could have spent a little bit more and gotten a more future proof product.

Wait a sec: The N54L isn't on the HCL?

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"the whole vsphere client not working anymore"

 

Who said it doesn't work?

 

post-14624-0-83135600-1395584666.png

 

If you update the hardware version of your vms to 10, then it will not allow you to edit.  But that is simple enough to change back to 9 if you updated to 10, etc.  You can edit all the settings, use the console, etc.  There maybe some features that you can not edit via client.  But I doubt they come into play in a homesetup/lab, etc.  I just updated to to 5.5u1 both in esxi and my vclient.  But sure depending on what your doing 5.1 version would be fine - shoot you could stay with 4.1 if you wanted.  I just like being on current is all -- it is my lab/play/home setup not production worried about change controls ;)

 

And no I meant 6, you can put more in if you want..

 

Here is 6drive edition - 1 example

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=11585.0

 

I believe they were using 1 2.5 inch though.  But that bay can hold 2x3.5 with the right bracket

post-14624-0-66696000-1395585403.png

 

You can put more in there if your ok with lots of 2.5s.  You can put 4x2.5 drive easy in the optical bay.  I think with mod you could put 6 for 11 drives?  You need to use the esata for the 6th sata disk, but there are usb ports as well.  So you could have quite a lot of disks all attached - might not be pretty.. But its very simple to do 6.

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BudMan, the N54L isn't on the HCL? I could have sworn it was when I was looking up information about the Gen8...

Not that it matters much.

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"I just don't want to feel a couple of years down that I could have spent a little bit more and gotten a more future proof product."

 

Future proof of what??  You will be able to expand the storage for years!!  What is going to change that would prevent you from using say a n40l or n54l or even 36 for that matter?  I doubt they are going to stop selling sata disks any time soon, what OS do you think is going to come out that will not run on it in a VM?

 

What feature set in your 1k$ box is going to extend actual use of say a N40 or 54??  Its a box to serve up my files, act as my router and run some OSes I like to play with and testing, etc.  It runs 2k12r2 just fine..  Does it scream and transcode 1080P on the fly without breaking a sweat while I run 10 other Vms, etc.  No -- who said it should.  What I can tell you is I get way more than I need for speed to and from the drives.  It runs multiple vm that I can use to play and test, and it serves up my files to my network with lots of room for growth with very little cost and the whole time it sucks like no power on 24/7/365..  Why would I need to use more power, spend more money to perform those functions?

 

Dude if you want to build a 10K$ vmlab in your house, or store 100TB sure lets rock!!  But why??  This is not an enterprise - I don't have 10K$ spend -- if I had it burning a hole in my pocket and I was lighting up cigars with $100 I am not sure I would buy anything different than my N40L ;)  Prob put some more ram in it!  Maybe update the CPU, etc.  I might put in a second one if just burning money or had it to play with - wouldn't mind playing with vmotion, in the house have a carp setup with 2 routers ;)

 

Its your money - but to me I don't see what the extra $500 is going to get you in "future" proofing anything??

 

The Microservers have never been on the HCL from HP or even vm that I recall - what does it matter if clearly it works ;)  This is not a PRODUCTION setup where you loose your job if the system crashes - this is Lab/Home Setup - 100's of not 1000's of people have validated that this hardware runs.. So who cares if on HCL or not?  Now if you are looking for something that has not been proven by other people that you can find, like some MB model XYZ -- then sure if "shopping" I would look to HCL for reference on a new setup.  Or you could find yourself $ money spent with issues or lack of support (be it company or internet forums).. But if you find a guide that says hey model ABC of this MB rocks works without issues - then sure go for it.  I brought up that article, just like I brought up that there have been reports of FAN issues with the gen8 because I like helping people and pointing them down a path of be it software/hardware/setup/anything that works!!

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Im gonna go for the impulsive buy of the N54L solely on following your advice, BudMan...so thank you for saving me money :laugh:

 

One thing, Im gonna go ahead and put in a network card so what do you suggest from out there? There is a Intel EXPI9402PT ( http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/network-adapters/gigabit-network-adapters/pro-1000-pt-dp.html ) that looks pretty good for about 73 euros. Its ESXi ready because ESXi is even more picky with NICS...

189,95 ? is the cost of the G7....I thought I saw it a bit cheaper earlier this week...

So to sum up...

189,95 ? G7

73 ? NIC

17,94 ? fan

280,89 ?

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vs how much for the the G8?  No memory?  As to that card would have to look it up, make sure it is low profile!  I know the NC360T dual port works in my N40L and I got it cheap..

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000J3OPOU/

 

As to fan --- not sure about the N54L, but mine is ###### here on the floor a few feet from me and I don't hear anything..  So until you actual hear something, I would save the 20 for a fan ;)

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