Building an ESXi whitebox

jtvd78

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 27, 2009
Messages
303
Right now, im running WHS directly on and Athlon x2 with 4GB RAM, and a couple of HDDs. I intend to upgrade my CPU/Mobo/RAM, so I can run a linux VM, and so I can play with Windows server. I plan to have 32GB RAM.

It runs 24/7. It'll be hosting a minecraft and terreria server, Home Media server, NAS, rTorrent, apache, and whatever else I want to throw on it.

Though, Im not completely sure what hardware is the best for virtualizing. How necessary is ECC RAM? As for the CPU, I can't really decide on AMD or Intel. Originally, I was thinking of using an FX-8320, but then I realized how high the power consumption is. Now, im leaning towards a used 2600k. Though, either way, AMD is cheaper.

So, which is generally better for virtualizing?

thanks.
 
Right now, im running WHS directly on and Athlon x2 with 4GB RAM, and a couple of HDDs. I intend to upgrade my CPU/Mobo/RAM, so I can run a linux VM, and so I can play with Windows server. I plan to have 32GB RAM.

It runs 24/7. It'll be hosting a minecraft and terreria server, Home Media server, NAS, rTorrent, apache, and whatever else I want to throw on it.

Though, Im not completely sure what hardware is the best for virtualizing. How necessary is ECC RAM? As for the CPU, I can't really decide on AMD or Intel. Originally, I was thinking of using an FX-8320, but then I realized how high the power consumption is. Now, im leaning towards a used 2600k. Though, either way, AMD is cheaper.

So, which is generally better for virtualizing?

thanks.

So you are going to run WHS as the main OS and use vmware workstation 9? Or something to that effect.
 
So you are going to run WHS as the main OS and use vmware workstation 9? Or something to that effect.

I was thinking of running ESXi, with WHS running as a VM. Currently PC backups only take up 686GB on WHS. I was just going to dedicate a 1TB HDD to that VM. Though, now that I think about it, once I have my ESXi server running, the only thing I would be using WHS for is Backups. So I might just find another centralized backup solution, and forget about WHS altogether.

I'm thinking of running Amahi in place of WHS for general streaming/transcoding/media sharing.
 
You don't need ECC RAM, just get an Intel i7 2500, 16GB of RAM, there are plenty of boards to choose from, and decide what you want to do about storage. I chose a 30GB SSD for my OS boot drive for ESXi, and then an external enclosure with 3x1TB drives in RAID5 connected via eSATA, for the VMDK files.
 
Right now, I have 2x 2TB drives, 1x640GB and 2x 500GB. Right now, I'm using WHS's drive extender to merge them all into one volume. Would there be any way I can do something like that in ESXi? Or are there any RAID cards that support some kind of psuedo-raid like that? If not, is there still a way I can utilize all my drives with ESXi?

And I already have an Intel Pro/1000 PT Dual port NIC. That should be compatible with ESXi, right?

And how much space does ESXi itself actually take up? Can I just put it on a CF card?
 
Right now, I have 2x 2TB drives, 1x640GB and 2x 500GB. Right now, I'm using WHS's drive extender to merge them all into one volume. Would there be any way I can do something like that in ESXi? Or are there any RAID cards that support some kind of psuedo-raid like that? If not, is there still a way I can utilize all my drives with ESXi?

And I already have an Intel Pro/1000 PT Dual port NIC. That should be compatible with ESXi, right?

And how much space does ESXi itself actually take up? Can I just put it on a CF card?

Yes, the pro/1000 PT is on the HCL list. You could run freenas, openfiler, OI+nappit, win2008 server, or whatever you want for storage. You will probably want to have vt-d/iommu to passthrough the raid card. I dont have one, but the most talked about is the m1015 raid card which can be bought on ebay for pretty cheap.
Yes, I use 4gb usb thumb drives for esxi, though i believe you can use 2gb.
You can take multiple routes for a machine, AMD 8 core, Intels 4 core/4HT, and up to dual cpu xeon/opteron.(I think quad cpu's would be a bit overkill. :) )
The cheapest and easiest is AMD since it is easy to find a MB that supports iommu(passthorugh) and the cpu has 8 cores which really shine doing VM's.

Also you can separate the 2 machines and have the esxi with VM's and another machine with your storage. Also to note with 2 esxi hosts you can get some of the advanced features.
I just started learning about this stuff so im sure there will be way more people with experience in it to help you.
 
Yes, the pro/1000 PT is on the HCL list. You could run freenas, openfiler, OI+nappit, win2008 server, or whatever you want for storage. You will probably want to have vt-d/iommu to passthrough the raid card. I dont have one, but the most talked about is the m1015 raid card which can be bought on ebay for pretty cheap.
Yes, I use 4gb usb thumb drives for esxi, though i believe you can use 2gb.
You can take multiple routes for a machine, AMD 8 core, Intels 4 core/4HT, and up to dual cpu xeon/opteron.(I think quad cpu's would be a bit overkill. :) )
The cheapest and easiest is AMD since it is easy to find a MB that supports iommu(passthorugh) and the cpu has 8 cores which really shine doing VM's.

Also you can separate the 2 machines and have the esxi with VM's and another machine with your storage. Also to note with 2 esxi hosts you can get some of the advanced features.
I just started learning about this stuff so im sure there will be way more people with experience in it to help you.

I just can't decide on the amd/intel issue. I definately want IOMMU support, because its just a good to have. If i were to go AMD, i would get the FX-8320 for $180. Though, if I went intel, I could get a used 2600k for ~$200. So the price difference isn't that huge.

Bulldozer/Piledriver CPUs have always benchmarked lower than Sandy/Ivy CPUs. However, it seems like AMD's cpus come out on top when it comes to multithreaded applications. I assume that virtualizing is very multithreaded, so I can only guess that AMD would be the better choice performance wise. Though, overall Intel's CPUs are overall much faster. I'm really torn on this issue, and I don't really have any idea on what to chose.

I know that for ivy bridge the 'k' cpus dont support IOMMU. Is that the same case for sandy bridge? If that were the case, I would have a pretty hard time getting a used 2600. It would be much easier to get the 2600k.

So at this point, Im leaning a little towards AMD.

Storage wise, I think it would be a good idea to get a RAID card. But if I pass the RAID card to a NAS VM, how would I have any storage left for the rest of my VMs?

And for booting ESXi, im just storing it on a 16GB SD card
 
I just can't decide on the amd/intel issue. I definately want IOMMU support, because its just a good to have. If i were to go AMD, i would get the FX-8320 for $180. Though, if I went intel, I could get a used 2600k for ~$200. So the price difference isn't that huge.

Bulldozer/Piledriver CPUs have always benchmarked lower than Sandy/Ivy CPUs. However, it seems like AMD's cpus come out on top when it comes to multithreaded applications. I assume that virtualizing is very multithreaded, so I can only guess that AMD would be the better choice performance wise. Though, overall Intel's CPUs are overall much faster. I'm really torn on this issue, and I don't really have any idea on what to chose.

I know that for ivy bridge the 'k' cpus dont support IOMMU. Is that the same case for sandy bridge? If that were the case, I would have a pretty hard time getting a used 2600. It would be much easier to get the 2600k.

So at this point, Im leaning a little towards AMD.

Storage wise, I think it would be a good idea to get a RAID card. But if I pass the RAID card to a NAS VM, how would I have any storage left for the rest of my VMs?

And for booting ESXi, im just storing it on a 16GB SD card

The AMD cpu's dont have the different version like Intel. Its not that VM's are multithreaded really, its that with 8 cores, you can have a few VM's running at full speed without no problems.
The NAS would be running your raid card which will be your storage.
You will make a new VM, add storage type(nfs, ISCSI, local, etc). You can break up the storage pool into whatever you want each VM to have.
I am not sure on how fast the Intels are with regard to VM's in using the 2600, since it will be on hyper-threading. I dont know how really much they add compared to AMD's actual cores.
 
So, I've finally decided on AMD.

CPU: AMD FX-8320
MoBo: GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3
Memory: G.SKILL 32GB 4x8GB 1866

And then a Card Reader and an SD Card

I already have a 400w Antec Neo Eco PSU, an Intel Pro/1000 PT Dual port NIC, A case, and Hard drives.

How does it look?

EDIT: And a cheap graphics card

Just wanted to say I had planned on coming in here today to find / ask about an ESXi replacement whitebox for my Supermicro blade, since I'm really tired of hearing those loud ass fans. This is a perfect build, all I gotta do is move my ESXi 5 build on the thumb drive over.

Thanks, your efforts are appreciated =)

PS you may want to look into a NAS / FreeNAS box vs running off of local storage.
 
Just wanted to say I had planned on coming in here today to find / ask about an ESXi replacement whitebox for my Supermicro blade, since I'm really tired of hearing those loud ass fans. This is a perfect build, all I gotta do is move my ESXi 5 build on the thumb drive over.

Thanks, your efforts are appreciated =)

PS you may want to look into a NAS / FreeNAS box vs running off of local storage.

Glad I could help! and right now, I don't have the extra cash for an extra box
 
Hey, I'm also in the market for building something like this since I was looking for a cheap whitebox. However like jtvd78 I don't have the extra money for a freeNAS box however I want want want to get one and play with iSCSI some more (tried to do it with an old athlon x2 system (ESXi) and a rackable 2x2 opteron, 4gig ram and 4*500g drive in raid 10 but it was soooooooo slow. The hardware was too old and slow to handle the 1 machine I had built on ESXi :-/

Anyways onto my question for everyone here and the starter might like this too. Is it easy to move an ESXi VM to a iSCSI host after the fact? I think it's easy but it takes time?

Thanks.
 
Hey, I'm also in the market for building something like this since I was looking for a cheap whitebox. However like jtvd78 I don't have the extra money for a freeNAS box however I want want want to get one and play with iSCSI some more (tried to do it with an old athlon x2 system (ESXi) and a rackable 2x2 opteron, 4gig ram and 4*500g drive in raid 10 but it was soooooooo slow. The hardware was too old and slow to handle the 1 machine I had built on ESXi :-/

Anyways onto my question for everyone here and the starter might like this too. Is it easy to move an ESXi VM to a iSCSI host after the fact? I think it's easy but it takes time?

Thanks.

Not hard at all if you understand iSCSI.
 
So, I've finally decided on AMD.

CPU: AMD FX-8320
MoBo: GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3
Memory: G.SKILL 32GB 4x8GB 1866

And then a Card Reader and an SD Card

I already have a 400w Antec Neo Eco PSU, an Intel Pro/1000 PT Dual port NIC, A case, and Hard drives.

How does it look?

EDIT: And a cheap graphics card

I know I am a bit late to the party but thought I would add I have this same CPU/MOBO combo and have been really happy with it. So happy I'm thinking of building another system with the same hardware. :D

My only thought is to think about a bigger PSU. 400W may work just fine but, like an audio amp, you should have a bit in reserve for heavy usage periods. So, if things start acting a bit flaky after it is all together, point your finger at the PSU. :eek:
 
I know I am a bit late to the party but thought I would add I have this same CPU/MOBO combo and have been really happy with it.

This has me interested since the combo is much cheaper than the comparable Intel system for VT-d/IOMMU but what about ECC memory? The OP used non ECC and I'm a bit confused on which (if any) ECC memory would be compatible for this combo. What are you using?
 
This has me interested since the combo is much cheaper than the comparable Intel system for VT-d/IOMMU but what about ECC memory? The OP used non ECC and I'm a bit confused on which (if any) ECC memory would be compatible for this combo. What are you using?

Sorry about being so late is replying--work sometimes gets in the way of play.

I'm using non-ECC memory, the G-skill stuff that was posted. System has been just solid as a rock for me. I am however, thinking of changing out the CPU-cooler to something a bit more efficient/better so I can try over-clocking. The stock cooler has been ok but I don't want to push it very hard.

Bill
 
Sorry about being so late is replying--work sometimes gets in the way of play.

I'm using non-ECC memory, the G-skill stuff that was posted. System has been just solid as a rock for me. I am however, thinking of changing out the CPU-cooler to something a bit more efficient/better so I can try over-clocking. The stock cooler has been ok but I don't want to push it very hard.

Bill

The minimum I put in my systems are the CM 212+.
Its good for OC or just stock.
 
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