Critique ESXi Build

D

DlStreamnet

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 10, 2005
Messages
359
Hi guys,

I'm planning a new server build that will run

ESXi 5.1, Windows Server 2012 Essentials (Plex, Sab, Sick), OpenIndiana and PfSense.

Hardware:
Intel Xeon E3-1230v2 (174.25)
Intel S1200BTL (159.21)
16GB (2x8GB) Kingston ValueRAM ECC KVR1333D3D4R9SK2/16G (119.54)
3x WD RED 3TB (310.18)
1x WD RED 1TB (53.36)
1x 4GB USB Stick
IBM/DELL Raid card or similar

Idea is to passthrough the 3x3TB drives to OpenIndiana and RAIDz them and basically be good to go.

Ideas? Too over the top? Any cheaper alternatives?
 
Well, depending on how much this system may grow, I would invest in adding as much memory as possible to it. My biggest issue with my setup is I only have 24 gigs of ram running 12+ virtuals. My specs follow:

ASUS Z8NA-D6C Dual LGA 1366 Intel 5500 ATX Dual Intel Xeon 5500 and 5600 Series Server/Workstation Motherboard
Matched Pair of Intel Xeon Quad-Core 2.40Ghz 8M cache E5530 Procs
24 Gb Hynix Registered DDR3 Memory
1x 80gb WD HDD (Boot)
2x 1Tb Seagate HDD's (Datastores)

Currently, I have three Server 2008 R2 DC's (x768mb each)(one is a Core server), Remote Desktop Gateway (1gb), Exchange 2010 (2gb), SQL 2010 (2gb), WSUS (3gb), DHCP (768mb), an Ubuntu box running Observium (1gb) and Cacti (1gb), a Minecraft server (6 gigs allocated), AsteriskNOW PBX server (2gb), and a vCenter Appliance (2gb). I've been trolling eBay and found some Rackable Systems (brand name) 1U servers. Depending on the config, there are some that have between 24gb to 96 gb of ram already installed. They seem to be running off the older Xeon 1366 procs, but with my current setup, those work just fine. I'd love to have bleeding edge, but those wounds cut way too deeply.

Your config looks good for the money, though I would love the link you're getting those 1tb WD RED's from. Could use about eight of them to spin up a FreeNAS box with and play around with some iSCSI.
 
Last edited:
ButlerKevinD said:
Well, depending on how much this system may grow, I would invest in adding as much memory as possible to it. My biggest issue with my setup is I only have 24 gigs of ram running 12+ virtuals. My specs follow:

ASUS Z8NA-D6C Dual LGA 1366 Intel 5500 ATX Dual Intel Xeon 5500 and 5600 Series Server/Workstation Motherboard
Matched Pair of Intel Xeon Quad-Core 2.40Ghz 8M cache E5530 Procs
24 Gb Hynix Registered DDR3 Memory
1x 80gb WD HDD (Boot)
2x 1Tb Seagate HDD's (Datastores)

Currently, I have three Server 2008 R2 DC's (x768mb each)(one is a Core server), Remote Desktop Gateway (1gb), Exchange 2010 (2gb), SQL 2010 (2gb), WSUS (3gb), DHCP (768mb), an Ubuntu box running Observium (1gb) and Cacti (1gb), a Minecraft server (6 gigs allocated), AsteriskNOW PBX server (2gb), and a vCenter Appliance (2gb). I've been trolling eBay and found some Rackable Systems (brand name) 1U servers. Depending on the config, there are some that have between 24gb to 96 gb of ram already installed. They seem to be running off the older Xeon 1366 procs, but with my current setup, those work just fine. I'd love to have bleeding edge, but those wounds cut way too deeply.

Your config looks good for the money, though I would love the link you're getting those 1tb WD RED's from. Could use about eight of them to spin up a FreeNAS box with and play around with some iSCSI.
Click to expand...

Vendor is http://www.waeplus.co.uk/ - UK obviously, sorry for not adding the units to the OP lol. They are local to me, otherwise I probably wouldn't trust just how good value they are.

Friends room mate came through today as well and gifted me a intel rs2bl080 RAID card - so I will pass this through and put it in JBOD mode. He also gave me a case which will save me £45ish off of the bill and it is HUGE.
 
DlStreamnet said:
Hi guys,

I'm planning a new server build that will run

ESXi 5.1, Windows Server 2012 Essentials (Plex, Sab, Sick), OpenIndiana and PfSense.

Hardware:
Intel Xeon E3-1230v2 (174.25)
Intel S1200BTL (159.21)
16GB (2x8GB) Kingston ValueRAM ECC KVR1333D3D4R9SK2/16G (119.54)
3x WD RED 3TB (310.18)
1x WD RED 1TB (53.36)
1x 4GB USB Stick
IBM/DELL Raid card or similar

Idea is to passthrough the 3x3TB drives to OpenIndiana and RAIDz them and basically be good to go.

Ideas? Too over the top? Any cheaper alternatives?
Click to expand...

Just reading this - another thought is to get a Dell C1100 on ebay with dual L5520s. Cost with 24GB is just over $300 and has 4x drive trays. 1U chassis so will be louder but you could sell a L5520 for $28 or so and the build would be very inexpensive. Slightly quieter are the HP DL180 G6's http://forums.servethehome.com/proc...14-hp-dl180-g6-2u-lga1366-storage-server.html

You can sell one or both of the L5630's (swapping for the $28 L5520 if you do both) and get a way overbuilt ready to roll server with a HP P410, SAS expander, redundant fans and power supplies all for under $400.

Just need to find a seller that ships to the UK at a reasonable price. USD = cheap compared to the pound!
 
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