VM Host

[Intersect]

Hey Ladies & Gents,

 

I wasn't sure if this was the proper section to post this in, my apologies if it isn't.

 

 

I'm looking to build a server to host a good chunk of media, i won't say specifically what, but videos (educational stuff), be a repository for my coding projects, and generic storage. It also has to be able to host 5 - 10 VM's at the same time.

I've never built servers before, I work in a Data Center, and the price of these servers made me poop my pants.

Any suggestions? I'd say a budget of $2,000 - $2,500.

 

 

Cheers!

 

- Zen

Zen, As you work in a Data centre can they not do some special deal for you on a VPS?

[Haggis Veteran]

 

theres mine, its running PLex and pfsense just now

[binaryzero]

Yeah, torrents are your friend too when you need training material.

[+BudMan MVC]

Oh my gawd Haggis your vms are actively using 173MB of ram, but esxi consumed 4.4GB -- WTF??  What a hog

[BinaryData]

 

ROI is Return on Investment - http://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/returnoninvestment.asp.  

So if you have a potential for doubling your salary, that is fantastic.  I would definitely consider investing in your future, 2.5k is a drop in the bucket compared to your potential future earnings.

 

Definitely look into the eBay / Craigslist route for used equipment.  Your best bet.

I learned to drive with a car that didn't have power steering.  Parallel parking was abhorrent, but I did it.  Then, when I got power steering, I was just so overwhelmed by how awesome it was.

 

That is a similar situation to what you are in, I feel.  You're going to get equipment that will run what you need to learn, but it will definitely not be ideal.

 

Also, yes, that Sans Digital link is one of them.  There are many types, just pick the one that best suites your needs.

 

ROI, I like that term. I shall remember it. I feel your pain, kBWarrior. I learned to drive in a Dodge RAM 3500, standard transmission. I'll have to research the Sans Digital more.

 

and what did you allocated to that 1 server using up 3GB.. Was it in the process of doing something? What does it matter how much ram was "used"  It is amazing the complete lack of understanding on ram..  To be honest unused ram is wasted ram.. Now if the ram is loaded with junk and you want new stuff in and you have to swap that out then that is a problem.  But you need to understand what is managing the ram, etc.

 

So here is screenshot of my old N40L esxi host.. As you can see with 7 vms running its not taxing the cpu of the host..  As to memory used - the one you would be concerned with was swap or actively used depending on what you were doing.

 

performance.png

 

So you can not tell us Visualization software your running that is not a hog??  Or you could loose your job?  BS.. Sorry plain and simple, nobody knows where you work, or what your real name is even.  How is saying you run XYZ for your visualization software have anything to do with anything??  Didn't ask you who you customers are, or what your actually doing.  I asked if you feel that vmware is a hog, what are you running in its place.  Didn't even ask you what its hosting, etc.

 

I can tell you we use esxi 5, which just a shame why they are so far behind, and also use hyper-v, 2008, again so far behind.

 

I have been using vmware products since vmware server version 1..  And I have never recalled thinking it is using too many resources that should be available to the guests, etc.

Frankly, I don't fully understand RAM. I suppose it's just my PC I use at home, I built it back in 2007. Intel Quad 2 Core Q6600 2.66Ghz (OC'd to 2.83Ghz) 4GB of RAM, 300GB WD Raptor 3Gb/s, it's in the process of being upgraded. Whenever I run VMWare, the client eats 700mb - 1GB itself, loading a VM, even Linux, eats another 1GB, and if I start doing something on it, it eats 500mb more of memory, if not more.

As for my work, I guess you could say I'm paranoid about it. I don't want to violate any of the policies that I've signed, especially the confidentiality ones. I'd rather not lose my security clearance before I convert. We just decommissioned a few servers that were running Windows 2000 on them. VMWare at home does, I don't know too much about the specifics on the servers, I'm just an Operations & Monitoring guy. I'm very new to this field.

 

Maybe we are talking about two different things. I'm using VMWare Workstation. I know of ESXi through work, but I don't know anything about it. What I do know is, they are a pain in my ass here.

 

well i recommended vps because of the low cost (a 24/7 machine may add a lot to the energy bill in some contries) but yeah you can get a used server to save money, is perfectly fine to do so

This is something I don't have to worry about. I live in Washington State, we're in the top 10 states, that have the cheapest power. I pay $0.03 per K/w used. I did the math for my PC, using my 1300w PSU, I pay about 125$ / year in Energy Consumption. (110$ for the PC, $7.50 / monitor essentially)

 

Zen, As you work in a Data centre can they not do some special deal for you on a VPS?

The company that I support, isn't into sharing their infrastructure. I've even offered to buy decommissioned hardware off them, excluding HDD, and they wouldn't even listen. So, that isn't an option. I've looked into buying hardware from Microsoft, Yahoo, Dell, T-Mobile, and even Intuit (TurboTax), which ALL have data centers around where I work. Cheap power + cheap land = epic deals. Microsoft's power bill for Columbia is about $1.5million per month, but what that Data Center hosts, is making them even more.

 

Oh my gawd Haggis your vms are actively using 173MB of ram, but esxi consumed 4.4GB -- WTF??  What a hog

I don't know why I quoted this, other than I got a good chuckle out of it. BudMan, I think we got off on the wrong foot. Everyone whose posted here, is on a completely different level than I am. I'm trying to get the right information, make an informative decision based off everyones responses, and make a calculated purchase. One that'll support my needs for the next 1 - 3 years (Average DC Server Lifespan).

[+BudMan MVC]

So your work is running esxi, but its a HOG??  You stated this

 

"even at my work we avoid VMWare if we can."  Pretty sure before it was avoid like the plague

 

But then you state "I know of ESXi through work"

 

I am just trying to understand what your running or want to run.. how is esxi is avoided at work but that is where you now esxi from.  As to workstation, that is type 2 hypervisor. esxi is type 1..  As to what you client..

 

Here is what I can tell you, to run even 10 linux VMs it doesn't take much.. What do you want to do with them?  Are you going to run mysql and host hundreds of databases?  Or you going to use it to learn the OS, etc.  I wouldn't worry about what you think it is using for ram, etc.  Since clearly you don't know anything about it.

 

To get started you sure and the hell do not need to speed 2K$  If I was going to buy a new esxi host today, prebuilt I would have to look around.  But for sure you could get say a HP Gen 8 microserver for less than $500, and if you wanted to build a rocketship with 32GB of ram, etc..  That could clearly be done for less than $1000 easy peasy.

 

If you have 2.5k$ to spend on such a project at that salary level either you live at home, clearly do not have wife or kids or don't drink enough beer

 

If work is using esxi???  I would go that route be it you think its a hog or not.  If work is using hyper-v then I would go that route, if they are using something else???  Then I would go that route so you can know how to work with the hypervisor your using at work.  Workstation and Virtualbox are for you at home to fire up a copy of ubuntu to browse the internet with and not infect your machiine.  Or for a developer at work to test stuff out on with different OS, etc.  If your wanting to have a lab and run these vms 24/7 to do different services like would be in a DC.,. then run a type 1 hypervisor..

[guitmz]

you could try XenServer too.. I'm using here at the office and it is great, blazing fast!

[Intersect]

if esxi is a hog for you then try proxmox its free and you can then enable remote access on each of your VMs and use RDP to acccess them i

[BinaryData]

So your work is running esxi, but its a HOG??  You stated this

 

"even at my work we avoid VMWare if we can."  Pretty sure before it was avoid like the plague

 

But then you state "I know of ESXi through work"

 

I am just trying to understand what your running or want to run.. how is esxi is avoided at work but that is where you now esxi from.  As to workstation, that is type 2 hypervisor. esxi is type 1..  As to what you client..

 

Here is what I can tell you, to run even 10 linux VMs it doesn't take much.. What do you want to do with them?  Are you going to run mysql and host hundreds of databases?  Or you going to use it to learn the OS, etc.  I wouldn't worry about what you think it is using for ram, etc.  Since clearly you don't know anything about it.

 

To get started you sure and the hell do not need to speed 2K$  If I was going to buy a new esxi host today, prebuilt I would have to look around.  But for sure you could get say a HP Gen 8 microserver for less than $500, and if you wanted to build a rocketship with 32GB of ram, etc..  That could clearly be done for less than $1000 easy peasy.

 

If you have 2.5k$ to spend on such a project at that salary level either you live at home, clearly do not have wife or kids or don't drink enough beer

 

If work is using esxi???  I would go that route be it you think its a hog or not.  If work is using hyper-v then I would go that route, if they are using something else???  Then I would go that route so you can know how to work with the hypervisor your using at work.  Workstation and Virtualbox are for you at home to fire up a copy of ubuntu to browse the internet with and not infect your machiine.  Or for a developer at work to test stuff out on with different OS, etc.  If your wanting to have a lab and run these vms 24/7 to do different services like would be in a DC.,. then run a type 1 hypervisor..

 

You seem to not understand the difference between a System Administrator, and Operations. Operations is the installation of Hardware, pre-configuration, and monitoring. It differs between DCs as well. I'm very limited with what information I get. I work for CSC, which supports Boeing, Playboy, and several other fortune 500 companies. That is ALL I handle. I use vSphere to look at the Networking behind ESXi Clusters, and make sure VLans are correct. I do not appreciate your comments, i.e. "Since clearly you don't know anything about it." That kind of crap isn't needed, not at all. I appreciate your knowledge, and the sharing of it.

You're correct, I live at home, I hate it but the circumstances require it. I don't have a wife, nor a girlfriend. No kids either, and I drink plenty of beer. That's why I was asked to be Santa this last winter.

 

As for work, I don't actually have anything to do with what they load onto the Servers. I'm strictly Monitoring, Pre-configuration, and installation of physical things. We use a bit of everything. We have Windows, Linux, Unix, and ESXi.

Hmm.. Looks like I need to do some more reading on this. I'm completely lost, haha.

you could try XenServer too.. I'm using here at the office and it is great, blazing fast!

I'll look it up when I get home from work.

[+LogicalApex MVC]

Frankly, I don't fully understand RAM. I suppose it's just my PC I use at home, I built it back in 2007. Intel Quad 2 Core Q6600 2.66Ghz (OC'd to 2.83Ghz) 4GB of RAM, 300GB WD Raptor 3Gb/s, it's in the process of being upgraded. Whenever I run VMWare, the client eats 700mb - 1GB itself, loading a VM, even Linux, eats another 1GB, and if I start doing something on it, it eats 500mb more of memory, if not more.

As for my work, I guess you could say I'm paranoid about it. I don't want to violate any of the policies that I've signed, especially the confidentiality ones. I'd rather not lose my security clearance before I convert. We just decommissioned a few servers that were running Windows 2000 on them. VMWare at home does, I don't know too much about the specifics on the servers, I'm just an Operations & Monitoring guy. I'm very new to this field.

 

Maybe we are talking about two different things. I'm using VMWare Workstation. I know of ESXi through work, but I don't know anything about it. What I do know is, they are a pain in my ass here.

Also keep in mind VMware, and virtualization in general, is all about consolidation. You don't need 1:1 physical to virtual specs for it to be fast or work well. The main driver of virtualization is the reality that you'll often have more hardware than needed for various applications locked in dedicated application silos (servers). Using a VM allows you to mush those applications together on one server instead of many aiming to utilize as close to 100% of the server hardware instead of, say, 10%.

 

RAM is included in this... As such, VMWare will reserve a certain amount of the host machine's RAM for VM use (you can adjust this as you see in my screenshot below on Workstation). This allows you to overcommit RAM to VMs if you so chose...

 

 

This is a good option because in a lab scenario (or even PROD really) you may need to give a VM 16GB of RAM, for instance, and the host only has 8GB (or you only have 8GB of dedicated RAM left among the various VMs running on the PROD box). If you look at the two memory screenshots posted earlier in this thread you'll see they have a lot of RAM, but a very low "active" RAM usage. Meaning they could, if they needed to, overcommit the RAM (if an app needs it) without worrying about swapping the excess to disk (depending on the app).

 

Most applications commit more RAM than they actively use...

 

So, your excessive RAM use by VMWare Workstation was you seeing the "reserved RAM" amount that you can adjust.

[BinaryData]

I guess it boils down to wanting this;

 

1 Active, 24/7 machine to host a local webhost, and my media. And have several others that I would boot when needed. The other issue is storage space, I try not to speak about anything that is illegal, but I do download TV-Shows for my family. Cable is absurdly over priced, and you pay even more for DVR capabilities. Anyways, that's that.


My world has been bombarded with new information, and I'm a peasant when it comes to this sort of thing. I've never understood RAM, I try too, but it feels like an abyss. It never ends.

@ BudMan - I'm not trying to be a dick, at all. I'm just frustrated with not knowing a lot of this stuff.

Side Note - In regards to SansDigital, are the hard drives separate or do you get them with the device you buy. I didn't have a lot of time to research it.

[+BudMan MVC]

"I use vSphere to look at the Networking behind ESXi"

 

Well than you should run that so you can play with vlans and networking at home/lab to be more familiar with it and what you can and can not do with it.  Do you have a smart/managed switch for this lab that you can do vlans with.  If not add that to your budget, I would recommend cisco sg300-10, can be had for <$200.  Have not run into anything you could want to run that you couldn't do on it.

 

As to comments that you clearly don't know anything about it.. If I was saying that when doing heart surgery that scalpel brand xyz was too heavy, and that brand abc was better, even though I am not a surgeon I would expect someone to tell me I don't know what I am talking about

 

If you think that vmware is a hog on resources by looking at how much memory the gui/client uses in workstation when it launches - its clear you don't know what your talking about   It was not a dig, it was not a personal attack it was statement of fact of how I read your statements.  Taking anything personal that some random nick a forum makes is pointless.  I don't really care if you think its called for or not to be honest.  Could of it been worded more PC.. ok maybe - but sorry that is not my style, I don't coddle, nor would I want to be coddled myself - if I say something that is BS or clearly talking out my ass, then please call me on it with whatever language you feel most comfortable with.

 

As to understanding the difference between operations or system administration.. I am very clear on the distinction, in my 30+ years in the field of IT I can tell you it is benefit to understand at least basics from both sides of the fence.  Understanding what the user wants to accomplish be it your setting up the software, os or the hardware.  Or just administration of the networking hardware understanding is key to doing job efficiently, so unless your just a rack monkey installing hardware and plugging it into power and this port to that port on the networking side.  Knowledge is power..  I have done all aspects in this field, rack and stack, system setup, operation of the applications running on stuff I have not setup, etc. etc..

 

I can tell you all I want to do is help you in what your wanting to do or learn.  Be it learn more about hypervisors, networking, ram usage, specification of hardware to accomplish a specific task at specific performance level, etc.  But be forewarned, I don't ever hold back on any opinion I have - I am blunt and direct, that is just the way I play..  And if you want to talk BEER or Bourbon or Cooking, etc.. I am up for that as well..

 

If you feel we got off on the wrong foot, I apologize - but please don't take anything I might say as personal or as an attack.  All I want to do is help people increase their understanding or accomplish what they want to accomplish.  At first glance you might think I am a "dick" about it sometimes - that is not my intent I assure you

[Sikh]

Hmm.. What do you mean by "expecting way too much out of hardware"? I guess my view is skewed on things. I look at what's used on these servers at work, and think "oh, i can downgrade specs and run this much". My goal is to find something I could use for learning purposes. I love to learn new things, and I'd love to become a savvy Linux person. If you read my introduction in that section, you'd know that I love to learn. (Not being sassy or anything).

 

Funny you mention Dell 2950, I work with several Dell guys. I'll ask them to drop off some documents about it.

 

Hmm.. I was looking at getting a board with a minimum of 32GB. The board I want is 4x CPUs and max of 900GB-ish of RAM, but that's a want not a "need" kind of thing

Thanks, I'm pushing for my MCSA & my Linux+ Certs.

 

Sorry what I meant to say is "your expecting too much out of the OS". Linux is very lightweight and the minimum requirements to run ubuntu server is 256 megs. I think thats the minimum for almost all distro's. I know it works fine or me for ubuntu / centos.

I think you'll be fine building a machine if you don't mind doing that or getting one custom built. No need to pay dell or hp for a server thats for home use anyway, you save money building it yourself / getting it build and your parts are more flexible to repair / replace because they are off the shelf parts. I know we have a few dell servers here at work that i absolutely hate because their risers are not your normal risers, and I can't find them online but dell. But management doesnt want to pay for a dell riser.

[+BudMan MVC]

I am running it on a 128MB ram vps without any issues.  The min specs I show for server cli is

 

Ubuntu Server (CLI) Installation

• 300 MHz x86 processor
• 192 MiB of system memory (RAM)
• 1 GB of disk space
• Graphics card and monitor capable of 640x480

[BinaryData]

"I use vSphere to look at the Networking behind ESXi"

 

Well than you should run that so you can play with vlans and networking at home/lab to be more familiar with it and what you can and can not do with it.  Do you have a smart/managed switch for this lab that you can do vlans with.  If not add that to your budget, I would recommend cisco sg300-10, can be had for <$200.  Have not run into anything you could want to run that you couldn't do on it.

 

As to comments that you clearly don't know anything about it.. If I was saying that when doing heart surgery that scalpel brand xyz was too heavy, and that brand abc was better, even though I am not a surgeon I would expect someone to tell me I don't know what I am talking about

 

If you think that vmware is a hog on resources by looking at how much memory the gui/client uses in workstation when it launches - its clear you don't know what your talking about   It was not a dig, it was not a personal attack it was statement of fact of how I read your statements.  Taking anything personal that some random nick a forum makes is pointless.  I don't really care if you think its called for or not to be honest.  Could of it been worded more PC.. ok maybe - but sorry that is not my style, I don't coddle, nor would I want to be coddled myself - if I say something that is BS or clearly talking out my ass, then please call me on it with whatever language you feel most comfortable with.

 

As to understanding the difference between operations or system administration.. I am very clear on the distinction, in my 30+ years in the field of IT I can tell you it is benefit to understand at least basics from both sides of the fence.  Understanding what the user wants to accomplish be it your setting up the software, os or the hardware.  Or just administration of the networking hardware understanding is key to doing job efficiently, so unless your just a rack monkey installing hardware and plugging it into power and this port to that port on the networking side.  Knowledge is power..  I have done all aspects in this field, rack and stack, system setup, operation of the applications running on stuff I have not setup, etc. etc..

 

I can tell you all I want to do is help you in what your wanting to do or learn.  Be it learn more about hypervisors, networking, ram usage, specification of hardware to accomplish a specific task at specific performance level, etc.  But be forewarned, I don't ever hold back on any opinion I have - I am blunt and direct, that is just the way I play..  And if you want to talk BEER or Bourbon or Cooking, etc.. I am up for that as well..

 

If you feel we got off on the wrong foot, I apologize - but please don't take anything I might say as personal or as an attack.  All I want to do is help people increase their understanding or accomplish what they want to accomplish.  At first glance you might think I am a "dick" about it sometimes - that is not my intent I assure you

I had a pretty craptastic day yesterday. Dealing with a co-worker who acts like he's a god of computer knowledge, and talks down to everyone like we're stupid. After I had time to relax and cool off, that's the conclusion I came too. I don't know a lot about RAM, and I want to know more. Your knowledge verse my knowledge is like a drop of water in the Pacific Ocean. I have a lot to learn, but only time will tell. I don't like to be coddled, but I don't like to be spoken to like I'm a moron. I'm pretty smart at figuring things out, and I'm a Puzzle ######. I'd rather sit down and build a puzzle than watch TV. It's far more intriguing to me.

Beer, Ew @ Bourbon and cooking, mm I love me some good cooking. My belly is proof of that

As for "vlans" and the networking, I have no power or authority in it. I have "Read-Only" access. All I do is click a few things to pull up properties, make sure they have the cluster of vlans and the proper networking speeds, and cards. That's all I do for that. That's my extent of knowledge with vSphere & ESXi, other than it requires monitoring, and it's obnoxious SA's don't like us Ops guys bugging them.

 

I think my problem is not knowing which does what. I only know Virtual Machines from using VirtualBox or VMWare's Workstation, and that itself is slow for me. Granted, my PC practically runs on Wood & Stone My career path is currently heading towards a Linux SA, with my MCSA. I'm taking local math/english classes to pass the WGU Assessment tests, and then I'll be taking their Software Development course for my Bachelor's, and finally, I want to get my Masters in Security & Assurances. I understand this is all over the place, but the way I see it is;

Does a mechanic only know how to work on Fords? No, he has a generic & basic understand of all cars. I believe, to an extent, computers are the same way. So, that's what I'm doing. I've always been in love with programming, I find it to be a big puzzle, and it intrigues me.

 

Sorry what I meant to say is "your expecting too much out of the OS". Linux is very lightweight and the minimum requirements to run ubuntu server is 256 megs. I think thats the minimum for almost all distro's. I know it works fine or me for ubuntu / centos.

I think you'll be fine building a machine if you don't mind doing that or getting one custom built. No need to pay dell or hp for a server thats for home use anyway, you save money building it yourself / getting it build and your parts are more flexible to repair / replace because they are off the shelf parts. I know we have a few dell servers here at work that i absolutely hate because their risers are not your normal risers, and I can't find them online but dell. But management doesnt want to pay for a dell riser.

Well.. I was going to post a VH PC Build, and see what you guys thought. After reading how low of requirements Linux needed, I got to thinking I could spend 1500$ on a server build, and spend a bit more for storage space. We have on-site Dell guys, as well as HP, and a few other guys.

Now, for the VH Server.

 

 

Motherboard: SUPERMICRO MBD-X9DRI-F-O E-ATX Server Motherboard Dual LGA 2011 DDR3 1600

Processor(s): Intel Xeon E5-2609 v2 Ivy Bridge-EP 2.5GHz 10MB L3 Cache LGA 2011 80W BX80635E52609V2 Server Processor

RAM: Kingston 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1600 Server Memory w/TS Intel Model KVR16E11K4/32I

HDD1: Crucial BX100 CT500BX100SSD1 2.5" 500GB SATA 6Gbps (SATA III) Micron 16nm MLC NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

HDD2: Western Digital WD VelociRaptor WD6000HLHX 600GB 10000 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 900D CC-9011022-WW Black Aluminum ATX Super Tower Computer Case

I'm kind of out of it on this sort of thing. I've never really "built" a server, I always thought servers were in U-Mount style. Anything that wasn't was considered a "Desktop" but since I've worked here, I've learned new terminology, i.e. Enclosures, Clusters, Standalones, etc.

@ BudMan - I'm going to drop you a PM, I've made a few topics already, and I'd rather just poke the honey pot itself, haha.

[+BudMan MVC]

Well 1 thing that jumps out at me from that build, why do you think you a Raptor 10K rpm for storage?  At that Price point you could get 4TB of storage..

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145912

 

Your OS will be on our SSD, why do you need a 10K rpm drive for storage?  If you don't need more space, then get say a 2TB disk and put that savings towards more ram or something.

 

Why do you need 9 Bays??  How much storage do you think your going put in this thing??  And 4 5.25 Bays -- that is $350 for that case.. That is wasted money in my opinion

 

Why are you spending so much on "server memory"  You don't need that either.. I think you just buying things that say server on them - like that cpu.. That MB, only has 2 6gbs satas, how are you going to connect all these drives your going to use with those 9 bays?  Where are you nics?  If you going to want to run esxi host, you need more than 1 nic..  I would suggest min 4.  Do you really need a MB that can go to 512GB of ram -- really?

 

Let me put something together if I was going to build.  I would throw all of that out other than the BX100 500 is good choice.

[binaryzero]

He must be planning on running a second data centre for his company at home with specs like that, lol. 

 

Mate - if you're going to build something for a home lab, do it on the cheap and spend the money on the things that matter (memory and storage).

 

Get yourself 64gig memory, few tb storage and you'll be fine. You're over estimating how much resources are needed to run a VM. Sounds like you're doing something pretty basic.

[+BudMan MVC]

So bit of looking around to what I would build if I had that budget, etc.  To be honest prob hold off for a bit the new D-1500 coming out.. Dude they have quad nic with 2 of them being 10g at around 800 price point for the cpu and mb..6 sata 3, and a m.2 slot with ipmi... The AES-NI support will be sweet for my openvpn connections.

 

Here is article

http://www.servethehome.com/intel-xeon-d-1500-platforms-supermicro-d-1540/

 

I think I found new project this summer   Build me a sweet as new esxi rig   With those 10g ports need a new 10g switch.. That sure wont be cheap

[BinaryData]

Well 1 thing that jumps out at me from that build, why do you think you a Raptor 10K rpm for storage?  At that Price point you could get 4TB of storage..

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145912

 

Your OS will be on our SSD, why do you need a 10K rpm drive for storage?  If you don't need more space, then get say a 2TB disk and put that savings towards more ram or something.

 

Why do you need 9 Bays??  How much storage do you think your going put in this thing??  And 4 5.25 Bays -- that is $350 for that case.. That is wasted money in my opinion

 

Why are you spending so much on "server memory"  You don't need that either.. I think you just buying things that say server on them - like that cpu.. That MB, only has 2 6gbs satas, how are you going to connect all these drives your going to use with those 9 bays?  Where are you nics?  If you going to want to run esxi host, you need more than 1 nic..  I would suggest min 4.  Do you really need a MB that can go to 512GB of ram -- really?

 

Let me put something together if I was going to build.  I would throw all of that out other than the BX100 500 is good choice.

I purchased that tower for my personal PC, but realized that it was too big. So I have that case floating around my garage, figured I could put it to good use as a server case. As for the Raptor drive, I have a spare 300GB floating around as well, I figured I would use that as the application installation for say, Windows. Again, I'm a totall b00b when it comes to this, I'm trying to learn by tossing things out there, to see whats OK, and things like Jareds comment, haha. I said previously, in the comment with all the links, that I had no idea what made a good server. Thus why I grabbed random things, that WOULD work together, so I could obtain feed back. Which I got, now I know I can drop those specific modules, and downgrade them to something more affordable.

 

He must be planning on running a second data centre for his company at home with specs like that, lol. 

 

Mate - if you're going to build something for a home lab, do it on the cheap and spend the money on the things that matter (memory and storage).

 

Get yourself 64gig memory, few tb storage and you'll be fine. You're over estimating how much resources are needed to run a VM. Sounds like you're doing something pretty basic.

 

No, I wish though. If I could just splice into their internets, I'd be peachy with just the speed. Too bad our internet is throttled. It's a 10Gb/s line coming into the Office area, but we're capped at 100/10Mb/s.

So, what you're saying is, single processor (Quad Core - like an Intel i7), a mobo with at least 3 SATA ports, a SSD drive (500GB or so), and drop a few 4TB drives in, and then spend 300 - 400$ on 64GB of memory? I feel like BudMan might shoot me for the absurd RAM. haha. the other option was expansion. Easily expand without having to upgrade a bunch of stuff. But I'll follow what you gents suggest.

I may roll with a SansDigital setup for my storage, though, like most of what I've talked about, I'm in the dark as to what I can do with it. Is it like a NAS, I attach the cables, plug it in, and shabam it's done?

 

So bit of looking around to what I would build if I had that budget, etc.  To be honest prob hold off for a bit the new D-1500 coming out.. Dude they have quad nic with 2 of them being 10g at around 800 price point for the cpu and mb..6 sata 3, and a m.2 slot with ipmi... The AES-NI support will be sweet for my openvpn connections.

 

Here is article

http://www.servethehome.com/intel-xeon-d-1500-platforms-supermicro-d-1540/

 

I think I found new project this summer   Build me a sweet as new esxi rig   With those 10g ports need a new 10g switch.. That sure wont be cheap

I feel like you're going to need 15 minutes of alone time

Alas! You mentioned something I'm actually wondering about! What the hell is an M.2? My desktop motherboard has one, but I have ZERO clue what it is, other than it being a different styled SSD. You lost me at Quad NIC, haha. I think my PM to you, would tie in well with this current information we're talking about.

[binaryzero]

A high end desktop i7 with a decent amount of memory would most probably be fine for your needs. You really don't need an SSD, but whatever floats your boat. 

 

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/servers.aspx?c=us&cid=test&cs=04&dgc=IR&l=en&lid=7AA29CFC&s=bsd

 

^ A tower server with 16\32\64gb memory and some SATA\SAS drives would also be fine. Depends on how much you're willing to spend.

[BinaryData]

A high end desktop i7 with a decent amount of memory would most probably be fine for your needs. You really don't need an SSD, but whatever floats your boat. 

 

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/servers.aspx?c=us&cid=test&cs=04&dgc=IR&l=en&lid=7AA29CFC&s=bsd

 

^ A tower server with 16\32\64gb memory and some SATA\SAS drives would also be fine. Depends on how much you're willing to spend.

I was actually trying to avoid a pre-built. I'm not a huge fan of Dell after what they did to Alienware, I lost a lot of respect for them. Though, their server/DC hardware might be on a different level. I'd much rather build my own. The knowledge you can get from building your own is quite beneficial, especially to someone like myself.

[binaryzero]

Haven't you ever built a PC before? There isn't much to learn building your own server lol, but each to their own.

 

FYI - Dell servers are commonly used in DCs, and I haven't had too much trouble with them over the years.

[Sikh]

I purchased that tower for my personal PC, but realized that it was too big. So I have that case floating around my garage, figured I could put it to good use as a server case. As for the Raptor drive, I have a spare 300GB floating around as well, I figured I would use that as the application installation for say, Windows. Again, I'm a totall b00b when it comes to this, I'm trying to learn by tossing things out there, to see whats OK, and things like Jareds comment, haha. I said previously, in the comment with all the links, that I had no idea what made a good server. Thus why I grabbed random things, that WOULD work together, so I could obtain feed back. Which I got, now I know I can drop those specific modules, and downgrade them to something more affordable.

 

 

No, I wish though. If I could just splice into their internets, I'd be peachy with just the speed. Too bad our internet is throttled. It's a 10Gb/s line coming into the Office area, but we're capped at 100/10Mb/s.

So, what you're saying is, single processor (Quad Core - like an Intel i7), a mobo with at least 3 SATA ports, a SSD drive (500GB or so), and drop a few 4TB drives in, and then spend 300 - 400$ on 64GB of memory? I feel like BudMan might shoot me for the absurd RAM. haha. the other option was expansion. Easily expand without having to upgrade a bunch of stuff. But I'll follow what you gents suggest.

I may roll with a SansDigital setup for my storage, though, like most of what I've talked about, I'm in the dark as to what I can do with it. Is it like a NAS, I attach the cables, plug it in, and shabam it's done?

 

I feel like you're going to need 15 minutes of alone time

Alas! You mentioned something I'm actually wondering about! What the hell is an M.2? My desktop motherboard has one, but I have ZERO clue what it is, other than it being a different styled SSD. You lost me at Quad NIC, haha. I think my PM to you, would tie in well with this current information we're talking about.

 

The M.2 Slot is to accommodate new "blade" style SSD's. They are tiny sticks that look like ram, but the connector is on the width side and not on the length / long side. Here is a picture to show all the sizes and the connector. http://en.apacer.com/pub/images/aq/2013/2013070911444412.jpg

 

M.2 / PCI-e SSD's are super slim and super speedy. I bought a M.2 PCI-e SSD type 2282 for my mini ITX / Steambox build and it pushes 1.2 Gb/s. The biggest reason to use one is reliability and usually GOOD board manufacturers are building the M.2 slot on the back of the mobo. So its out of the way.

Quad Nic just means it has 4 ethernet ports. 

 

For storage, I personally recommend you either build or buy a centralized storage server. I bought a HP Microserver Gen8, one of the only prebuilt machines I've bought in the last 8 years, but it was a good deal and the micro servers are really good machines for there price. Anyway, I bought a HP Gen8 Microserver, put 4 x 4TB Red's, put 32GBs of RAM in it and installed freenas on it. One thing thats wonderful about this machine is it comes with a microsd card slot on the motherboard. So I put the OS on the SD card and boom boots up in 4 minutes thats including server hardware checks. I recommend this kind of setup because Freenas will allow you to learn a lot about storage and the networking protocols that come with it. SMB/AFP/NFS/ISCSI/etc. It will also get you into the unix world and get you learning permissions for both Windows ACL and POSIX's ACL. You'll learn a LOT (so document everything you do is my recommendation) and you'll get to play a lot.

I definitely am happy I built a real FreeNAS box because I use this thing everyday and love it. I recommend the same to anyone who wants a simple centralized storage server and anyone who wants to learn more about the storage aspect of IT. The company I work for is a big user of storage, so Im always working with storage and i've loved the last 3 years of it. Storage is very interesting and I know way too much about how hard drives work. With your budget I think you can build a nice ESXi host and a storage server without any problems.

[BinaryData]

Haven't you ever built a PC before? There isn't much to learn building your own server lol, but each to their own.

 

FYI - Dell servers are commonly used in DCs, and I haven't had too much trouble with them over the years.

Eh, I know they are. I walk through our Hall and there in almost every cabinet. But having a custom built, would be more beneficial to my situation, no? It'd allow me the flexibility of upgrading. I know I'm not allowed to touch the Dell/HP Servers, god knows I'd love to play with them. Sometimes, I wish I could misplace one in my trunk

On a side note: OS wise, does RHEL, and other OS's (Windows Server 2008/2012) support multiple CPUs, I mean like say 4?

[Sikh]

Eh, I know they are. I walk through our Hall and there in almost every cabinet. But having a custom built, would be more beneficial to my situation, no? It'd allow me the flexibility of upgrading. I know I'm not allowed to touch the Dell/HP Servers, god knows I'd love to play with them. Sometimes, I wish I could misplace one in my trunk

On a side note: OS wise, does RHEL, and other OS's (Windows Server 2008/2012) support multiple CPUs, I mean like say 4?

I would say all Server OS's now a days have to HAVE support for multiple CPU's. Linux will use what you give it, its never had a "CPU Limit" like Windows does. But thats because of licensing. Deep down I don't think any kernel disables CPUs.