ESXi build

[ManateeMatt]

I am kind of at a road block in my build, This build is mostly coming out of my pocket but a few things have been giving to me. This server is just going to be my home testing server, mostly to break stuff and make over complex networks to learn.

This is what I have

1 x Tyan S2912 (bios flashed to -e version)
2 x Opteron 8346 Quad Core 1.8GHz GD Stepping
4 x 4GB DDR2 ram
8 x 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 (donated)
1 x Perc 5/i with BBU and 512MB of ram (stolen out of a dead server)
1 x Corsair 620W

This all boots and will run just fine.

This is what i need help with:

1. The built in nics are not supported in ESXi, I wish they were but are not. Dumb me. Any recommendations? I would like 2 ports min.

2. Case, I am looking at the NORCO RPC-2008, but because of my great wisdom I baught a motherboard that has 2 pci-e slots REALLY close togeter so you can use a riser. (i am ok with that, i just need to find the back window for the case, and the right riser card). If you have any suggestions on a new case or riser card i am all ears.

3. Raid configuration: I am thinking of raid 0+1 just for the awesome IO, and the fact that that would give me a nice 2TB drive for ESX to work off of.

 

[sabregen]

1.) Intel Server Pro 1000 MT or XT NICs. They make multi-port versions as well. These are supported by almost every desktop and server OS on the market, without the need for additional drivers

2.) I would recommend something like this: http://www.soarland.com/Flexible_Single_Slot_PCI-Express_16x_Riser_Card-product-250.html

3.) RAID-10 (0+1) would be just fine. Consider whether you need the redundancy or not to evaluate your needs. If you do need/want it, a 2TB volume is perfect, as the maxiumum addressable single VMFS3 volume (without extents) is 2TB. Of course, you'll have less than this, after formatting and the minimal config required for the installation.

 

[ManateeMatt]

You have any sugestions for other cases? The norco case is what I am looking for, but the backwindow plate does not seem to exist in canada.

 

[lopoetve]

Make sure the logical volume off of the controller is less than 2tb too

 

[ManateeMatt]

I will make sure no matter what type of raid I do I will make sure to have less then 2TB logical volumes.

 

[ManateeMatt]

just as an afterthought...

If I were to upgrade to vSphere and put in a second server, can you use all the "cool" features of it, IE HA, FA, Vmotion with local datastores?

 

[sabregen]

no, the datastores have to be what VMWare calls "persistent" They have to be shared. Any of the cool features requires the following:

Shared storage (SAN, NAS, NFS)
More than one host
vCenter Server implementation
Licenses for all features you intend to use (or the 60day trial, if you're just testing) - ESX hosts and vCenter licenses, as well
networking between hosts and vCenter

 

[ManateeMatt]

wouldn't "persistent" storage bring back the one fail point that they were trying to avoid in HA and FT? or I guess they expect you to have STORAGE ARRAY OF DOOM witch i cant afford.

now can you use a mix of local storage and remote storage, or am I better off trying to make a small external array?

 

[geiger]

wouldn't "persistent" storage bring back the one fail point that they were trying to avoid in HA and FT? or I guess they expect you to have STORAGE ARRAY OF DOOM witch i cant afford.

now can you use a mix of local storage and remote storage, or am I better off trying to make a small external array?

There are fault tolerances built into any enterprise level storage configuration(redundant SPs, redundant paths to the storage, etc.).

HA/FT cover issues with the physical ESX host crapping out.