Hello, this is my first post. I am shameless, and a noob, so forgive that please. I want to build a very small and efficient server for my small business to achieve the following:
1. Board is Supermicro X9SPV-LN4F-3QE (fanless embedded core i7), 16g ECC 1333 unbuffered sodimms (yikes!)
2. Will boot ESXi from USB to run VM's for pfSense, CentOS LAMP Server, Exchange (maybe), pfSense, a small NAS/fileserver, and maybe a few Win7s. Nothing too heavy, 6 users max (4 of the users will be on wireless).
3. Will be using m350 itx case, and want to squeeze in a USB Wireless access point (so i can get rid of my wireless router), and also add a neat little gadget board called OpenUPS as well as a small LiPo battery pack (1250aH) for internal battery backup --just enough juice to keep it all alive while everything shuts down proper.
4. The main drives for the VMs will be Intel 520's 240gb in Raid 1 on the 6g/s onboard sata.
5. The Western Digital WD Scorpio Black 750 GB 2.5" (x2) also in Raid 1 on the 3g/s onboard sata will be a small NAS/fileserver and handle backups of the VMs. Eventually, when I can afford it, these drives would be replaced with 512gb (or the Intel 600gb) SSDs, which will be cool because then there would be no moving parts at all in this build. If this gets too full, I may do an external NAS build with fullsize drives.
Goal is to do a true all-in-one server-grade low power fanless (eventually no moving parts at all) "microserver" including internal battery backup and USB wireless access point to where all I have to do is plug in my cox business cable modem to the server, and pfsense handles all routing and firewall, and I'm good to go with exchange, LAMP server for light-duty web server and linux apps, a small NAS, all virtualized via ESXi/VMware. And my main 5 users can connect via wireless to the internal WAP.
Still more research to do, and timeframe is 4 - 6 months out. Budget is right at $2000, plus or minus a few dollars.
So here is my parts list so far:
1. Supermicro X9SPV-LN4F-3QE $796.70 here.
2. 16GB ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1333MHz SO-DIMM (2x8g) $237.36 here.
3. Intel 520 Series Solid-State Drive 240GB (x2) $509.98 amazon yo.
4. Western Digital WD Scorpio Black 750 GB (x2) $146.00 amazon
5. PicoPSU-160-XT, 192W Power Kit $75.95 here. Wonder if I could get away with the 150W kit, or even less.
6. M350 mini-ITX Enclosure (192 x 210 x 62mm , 2.5L) $39.95 here.
7. OpenUPS board $119.00 here. For internal battery backup. Elite!
8. Tenergy 14.8V 1250mAh LIPO Battery Pack $30.99 here.
9. USB Wireless Access Point - need suggestions on this. It will fit on the little front USB panel on the m350 case. I want high quality.
I would appreciate any thoughts or comments on this build. I read a few posts on here of people doing similar things. Things I wonder about:
a) would it all fit in that small box? i think so, but it will be tight. I like tight.
b) what is the lowest rated PicoPSU I could use and get away with? What's the safest bet?
c) Is the LiPo internal battery dangerous for the board? Don't want to ruin an 800$ board. Also I see the OpenUPS battery backup circuit supports windows, but no linux API yet (they say it's in development). Would ESXi be able to detect a power loss and shut everything down proper? How hard is this going to be to set up?
d) The enclosure is very open ventilated. With no fans, will this thing get super hot? The board is fanless embedded processor, but there is a heatsink I believe.
Any other thoughts or input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.
1. Board is Supermicro X9SPV-LN4F-3QE (fanless embedded core i7), 16g ECC 1333 unbuffered sodimms (yikes!)
2. Will boot ESXi from USB to run VM's for pfSense, CentOS LAMP Server, Exchange (maybe), pfSense, a small NAS/fileserver, and maybe a few Win7s. Nothing too heavy, 6 users max (4 of the users will be on wireless).
3. Will be using m350 itx case, and want to squeeze in a USB Wireless access point (so i can get rid of my wireless router), and also add a neat little gadget board called OpenUPS as well as a small LiPo battery pack (1250aH) for internal battery backup --just enough juice to keep it all alive while everything shuts down proper.
4. The main drives for the VMs will be Intel 520's 240gb in Raid 1 on the 6g/s onboard sata.
5. The Western Digital WD Scorpio Black 750 GB 2.5" (x2) also in Raid 1 on the 3g/s onboard sata will be a small NAS/fileserver and handle backups of the VMs. Eventually, when I can afford it, these drives would be replaced with 512gb (or the Intel 600gb) SSDs, which will be cool because then there would be no moving parts at all in this build. If this gets too full, I may do an external NAS build with fullsize drives.
Goal is to do a true all-in-one server-grade low power fanless (eventually no moving parts at all) "microserver" including internal battery backup and USB wireless access point to where all I have to do is plug in my cox business cable modem to the server, and pfsense handles all routing and firewall, and I'm good to go with exchange, LAMP server for light-duty web server and linux apps, a small NAS, all virtualized via ESXi/VMware. And my main 5 users can connect via wireless to the internal WAP.
Still more research to do, and timeframe is 4 - 6 months out. Budget is right at $2000, plus or minus a few dollars.
So here is my parts list so far:
1. Supermicro X9SPV-LN4F-3QE $796.70 here.
2. 16GB ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1333MHz SO-DIMM (2x8g) $237.36 here.
3. Intel 520 Series Solid-State Drive 240GB (x2) $509.98 amazon yo.
4. Western Digital WD Scorpio Black 750 GB (x2) $146.00 amazon
5. PicoPSU-160-XT, 192W Power Kit $75.95 here. Wonder if I could get away with the 150W kit, or even less.
6. M350 mini-ITX Enclosure (192 x 210 x 62mm , 2.5L) $39.95 here.
7. OpenUPS board $119.00 here. For internal battery backup. Elite!
8. Tenergy 14.8V 1250mAh LIPO Battery Pack $30.99 here.
9. USB Wireless Access Point - need suggestions on this. It will fit on the little front USB panel on the m350 case. I want high quality.
I would appreciate any thoughts or comments on this build. I read a few posts on here of people doing similar things. Things I wonder about:
a) would it all fit in that small box? i think so, but it will be tight. I like tight.
b) what is the lowest rated PicoPSU I could use and get away with? What's the safest bet?
c) Is the LiPo internal battery dangerous for the board? Don't want to ruin an 800$ board. Also I see the OpenUPS battery backup circuit supports windows, but no linux API yet (they say it's in development). Would ESXi be able to detect a power loss and shut everything down proper? How hard is this going to be to set up?
d) The enclosure is very open ventilated. With no fans, will this thing get super hot? The board is fanless embedded processor, but there is a heatsink I believe.
Any other thoughts or input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.
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