• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

ESXi Build Advice

B

BugginOuT

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 14, 2008
Messages
460
I've decided to convert my gaming PC into an ESXi box.

From what I've gathered, I need the following:

Intel Dual Port NIC
bumping my RAM to 24GB
1x 4 or 8 port GigE switch
FreeNas/OpenFiler with internal storage or Thecus N4200

Would this set up work? Do I need anything else to complete this project?

Please feel free to chime in....
 
Is the gaming PC the one in your sig? What are you planning to do on it? (How many VMs will you be running, what will they be running, etc)
 
Yes, the system is on my sig. Going to part out some stuff for sale or for my next gaming rig.

Just a lab, sorry if I didn't point that out earlier.

A couple of VMs (DC, DNS, Exchange, etc), want to get some practice in with ESXi.

I know I can't do any HA, DRS, or FT, but can I still do Storage vMotion with that configuration listed above?
 
You'll definitely be able to handle a lab environment on that rig. You may have to watch the CPU usage a bit, but I doubt it.

As for Storage vMotion, I don't know the physical requirements for that since I've never used it before (it's way to pricey for my needs in my lab environment).
 
I assumed the Marvell controller is not supported on ESXi? If so, I am then limited to 2 drives on the system. I guess my logical choice is to pick up a NAS box?

Has anyone successfully installed ESXi on the Intel RAID group?
 
ESXi does not support software RAID, so the RAID option from intel that comes with a lot of boards won't work. You don't have to do RAID but if you want to then you'll have to look at hardware raid controllers that can get pricey depending on what you want to do. Have you thought about how you'll be backing up your VM's? You can certainly do shared storage on a NAS device but that also does get expensive. If you have a good backup solution, then redundant storage isn't always necessary, of course it does depend on your expectations in terms of performance, RAID can give better performance then single drive storage.
 
Last edited:
The Thecus unit will work but you'll want to make sure you get the one that works as an iSCSI target for additional fun. The N4100 I had did not but I believe the N4100 Pro did. I can't remember if it had eSATA on it or not.

They're great little devices. although these days i'm far more fond of PC based hardware RAID solutions. I used my Thecus box for over a year 24/7 as a just a NAS. I just outgrew the 6tb of space I had in it. :) And the raid controller wasn't extremely quick in RAID-5
 
@ Ashman: I never considered a backup solution, being that this is a lab. Most of the data will be stored on a NAS device, so I'm not quite worried about data.

@ Hallis: 4100Pro seems a little underpowered and no eSATA. N4200 would probably be ideal.

@ pitne: Dual NIC is good to have. Redundancy and Team Bonding, if needed, and it's the cheapest hardware found on eBay. Might even have some laying on a decom server in the data center for free.

Is there a performance impact in getting a Controller Card, setting up internal storage and using FreeNas/OpenFiler via VM vs. Thecus N4200?

Basically, it's $2xx vs $500
 
Just for kicks, I build a cart on Newegg and surprising it wasn't that much expensive as I thought. Let me know what you guys think:

Qty. Product Description Savings Total Price

1 APEVIA X-QPACK2-NW-BK/500 Black Aluminum Body/ Front Mask MicroATX Desktop Computer Case 500W Power Supply
Item #: N82E16811144140
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy -$10.00 Instant

$94.99
$84.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811144140

1 NETIS ST-3123 10/100/1000Mbps 8-Port Giga Ethernet Switch
Item #: N82E16833389013
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy -$10.00 Instant

$39.99
$29.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833389013

2 Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) ECC Unbuffered Server Memory Model KVR1333D3E9SK2/8G
Item #: N82E16820139262
Return Policy: Memory Standard Return Policy
$139.98
($69.99 each)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139262

•Intel Xeon E3-1230 Sandy Bridge 3.2GHz LGA 1155 80W Quad-Core Server Processor BX80623E31230
Item #: N82E16819115083
Return Policy: CPU Replacement Only Return Policy
•SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCM-F-O LGA 1155 Intel C204 Micro ATX Intel Xeon E3 Server Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813182253
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy -$5.00 Instant
-$59.99 Combo

$444.98
$379.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.890841

Subtotal: $634.95
 
BugginOuT said:
@ pitne: Dual NIC is good to have. Redundancy and Team Bonding, if needed, and it's the cheapest hardware found on eBay. Might even have some laying on a decom server in the data center for free.
Click to expand...

redundancy? Like if the nic dies at the hardware layer? that seems pretty rare. you'd think if a dual link nic died both ports would go down

why would you want link aggregation? It doesn't seem beneficial in a small environment

I can see it being good to have for flexibility and stuff if you want to test things or isolate traffic for something
 
Understood. I might decide to get another host later down the road and play with some of the "other" features that would probably benefit from it.

Any comments on the cart that I've built?
 
get the xeon with the built in hd intel graphics so you dont need a graphics card :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top