Simple, small, cheap virtualization host for lightweight exploratory work

[N.B. I have also posted this on Reddit and I would value the perspective of this community too.]

I want to build a minimal box like the title suggests, to mess around with different hypervisors, architectures, and explore virtualization generally.

Once I understand better these things, then I can make more informed decisions.

No need for high performance, hardened security (it'll be in its own DMZ anyway), redundancy, or backups here. The idea is to try out lots of different configurations and feel ok in wiping out the whole thing or making a stupid mistake and starting anew. It's for fast, loose, cheap experimentation for educational reasons where a mistake will have effects contained.

Having said all that, it has to actually work too! It needs to be functional and capable of doing lightweight things!

For example, some things I want to try before investing significant time and money:

1. I only want a few lightly loaded VMs, e.g., firewall, VM for web server, VM for syslog server, and a VM for a small DB.
2. Or I will want to see how useful VT-d passthrough really is in certain situations, and whether it's easy to set up or a pain.
3. Or I want to look at basic options for serving files over NFS. Or even installing FreeNAS inside a VM or the bare metal itself! Not that I would expect it to be a very good NAS on such an underpowered machine, I just want to see what it looks like to set up and use.
4. Or I want to compare Proxmox, XenServer, and raw libvirt tools to see which I like best.

I think:

• a cheap mini ITX board
• i3-7000 CPU with stock cooler
• 32 GB RAM
• cheap 128 GB SATA SSD for the VMs
• boot OS and virt software on a 16 GB USB stick or USB DOM

cased in a minibox and powered by a picoPSU would be ideal.

What do you think? Can I get away with this for a few weeks whilst I make decisions what the real setup ought more to look like? (Almost certainly will be based on one of the new Atom SoC boards.)

Why not repurpose older hardware? Dont buy new until you know what the hell you want to do with it.

Monkey God said:

Why not repurpose older hardware? Dont buy new until you know what the hell you want to do with it.

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Indeed, that's something I've been looking at too, browsing eBay for old E3/E5 Xeons and X9 Supermicro boards. But I don't know really what I should be looking for, what's a good deal, etc.

Other options include HP ML10, Lenovo TS140, and there are some Dell T-somethings that I've heard can be a good deal.

In all these cases I still have to find storage and memory, and that's a huge proportion of the total cost.

Ah - so you have zero older/extra hardware laying around? Why not play around with your existing rig assuming you have one. Vmware workstation, Oracle VirtualBox, etc.

Monkey God said:

Ah - so you have zero older/extra hardware laying around? Why not play around with your existing rig assuming you have one. Vmware workstation, Oracle VirtualBox, etc.

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Right!

Aside from my primary laptop (MacBook Pro) which is off-limits for this kind of experimentation because I depend on its stability, I have little server hardware of the sort you describe. What I DO have is the following:

• About 6-8 Lenovo X200, X220, and T400 laptops, many of which have libreboot. None of them are appropriate for running as a virt host, except, maybe, the X220.
• About 10 Intel D510MO motherboards, each of which is also underpowered and can't do virtualization properly but I do plan on building them into a cluster type of arrangement. I just love these boxes, perhaps due to their simplicity and the fact that they are mini ITX boards that can run libreboot. And are silent and cheap.

I got rid of all my other old hardware a long time ago because I was moving around so much.

So I need _something_ properly server-like to get me started, which is why I didn't object too much to the thought of buying new, entry-level, minimal hardware, e.g., a low-power machine I can leave on 24/7 and supports virtualization functions.

I am not sure you need anything server like, I do pretty much all of that on my ASUS laptops (ASUS G751JY and G701VO).

NoOther said:

I am not sure you need anything server like, I do pretty much all of that on my ASUS laptops (ASUS G751JY and G701VO).

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I'll look at my X220 in more detail later and see if it can't be wrangled into something quite like what I am asking to have. I think depending on its CPU, an X220 may or may not have VT-d (and even if it does, I'm not sure if it's the old VT-d1 that leaves exploits open or the improved VT-d2).

Gen7 i3 NUC. I use one for just this, although i have a beefier lab for my main ESXi cluster, it works great for portable/exploratory.

You could always pick up a cheap HP Z600 / Z800, IBM ThinkStation, Dell Precision, or some such.
A lot of firepower for cheap (12c/24t).

another vote for the Gen 7 i3 NUC. I'm running my VMLab on one. I actually "downgraded" from a T320 w/ a hex core, 96GB RAM, 4x1TB 7200RPM + 4x256GB SSD setup. I didn't have the workload to warrant that much power (draw or availability).

But, that's essentially what your X220 is. A dual core with hyper-threading.

WhoBeDaPlaya said:

You could always pick up a cheap HP Z600 / Z800, IBM ThinkStation, Dell Precision, or some such.
A lot of firepower for cheap (12c/24t).

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These options have often been recommended to me, and something quiet that doesn't use too much power would be most preferable. This means that I tend to lean towards newer hardware, as it is generally more power efficient and easier to keep cool and quiet. For example, I have found many Z600 computers for a great price, but they are mostly dual Xeon X5550, which I fear would be power hungry, noisy, and perhaps equivalent to really modest contemporary hardware, such as a Pentium, no?

Moreover, I often hear of "classic bargain" type server boxes, which take slightly newer hardware, such as the Lenovo TS140 or HP ProLiant MicroServer G8, but by the time I factor in a powerful enough CPU or enough RAM to make it worthwhile, I end up paying quite a bit of money for old hardware, which is probably a bit noisy and takes up a lot of room. For one of these machines I'd probably want to go for the Xeon E3 option, and these still get really expensive. I have a feeling that using such boxes is better for a NAS.

4saken said:

Gen7 i3 NUC. I use one for just this, although i have a beefier lab for my main ESXi cluster, it works great for portable/exploratory.

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burritoincognito said:

another vote for the Gen 7 i3 NUC. I'm running my VMLab on one. I actually "downgraded" from a T320 w/ a hex core, 96GB RAM, 4x1TB 7200RPM + 4x256GB SSD setup. I didn't have the workload to warrant that much power (draw or availability).

But, that's essentially what your X220 is. A dual core with hyper-threading.

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Thanks 4saken and burritoincognito, I think this is what I needed to hear, and the direction I'm leaning in.

Indeed, I also started looking at cheap AMD options and wondering what the equivalent sort of thing to an i3-7000 NUC or an i3 on a mini-ITX mainboard would be. Any suggestions?

I would recommend an old/used ThinkPad W520 or better for this. I've been doing this myself since 2013. Put in a second SSD, max the RAM to 32 and this thing flies. Costs will be about $400-700. With the nv optimus card you can even play around with gpu passthru.

Pick up an Lenovo S30, D30, C30, HP Z420/620/820, or Dell (can't remember models....3600/5600/7600 I think ?)

Should be able to get an entire machine for sub $300. Add dirt cheap ddr3 reg, and upgrade the cpu to 8 core 16 thread for between $50-$150 dollars.

free-sky said:

I would recommend an old/used ThinkPad W520 or better for this. I've been doing this myself since 2013. Put in a second SSD, max the RAM to 32 and this thing flies. Costs will be about $400-700. With the nv optimus card you can even play around with gpu passthru.

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My work would throw away or ewaste an powerful old server and I used it as my lab but the noise and electricity cost is too much. The noise is ridiculous, makes you think you are living in a colocation. I used an w520 and it's whisper quite and blazing fast, installed right on bare metal hypervisor or you can nest it in your vmware workstation.