esxi home server/lab/nas help

[Tim91084]

First, I just want to say this forum has helped me a lot in my research - never knew about it when I started, and signed up just to post this.

I think I've gotten as far as I can go in my research and now I need some help / suggestions. I want to build an ESXI box similar to PigLover's low power rig located here.

Most everything would be the same with a few exceptions:
1.) I want to try to pass through my ceton infinitv to a windows 7 VM.
2.) I want to add a couple wd red's and pass them through to a file server / NAS VM

The DQ77KB has 1 PCIe slot, so I think i can add the infiniTV. As far as the file server/NAS goes - I'm not sure I want to use ZFS because of the memory requirements. The DQ77KB only supports 16gb. So.. I have a couple of questions.

- Are there software raid solutions that don't require that much memory?
- I think I just want to mirror the two drives to have some redundancy in case 1 fails - is this a good idea? - any better suggestions?
- Any idea if the performance with passed through drives is any good? I don't need anything spectacular, but would like to get it to go as fast as I can. I intend to use the pass through feature to give direct access to the 2 wd red's to whatever NAS OS I choose.
- Obviously I'm going to need a bigger case, any suggestions here?
- What size power supply do you think I'll need?
- Will I need any fans since I'll be using a different case and adding more HD's?

The build will look something like this:

case: unknown (suggestions?)
160 watt PSU (that enough?)
Intel DQ77KB thin mini-ITX
Intel Core I5-3470T
16Gb SO-DIMM
2 wd red's for the nas (2 or 3 tb)
1 ssd (or WD black?) for VM's and esxi (500 gig - 1tb) (should I put ESXI on a usb stick?)
1 ceton infiniTV

In general I'm a computer enthusiast and think the project will be challenging and fun. I'm also a web developer and would use the server to host a website using different technologies (linux/lamp, .net/iis, linux/node.js).

Thanks for any help or guidance you guys can give me.

 

[Jesse B]

I wouldn't rule out ZFS. You don't need tons of RAM, its performance just increases as you increase the RAM. Giving the VM 4GB would be adequate, especially with just a mirror. I currently have a VM with a mirror passed through with 6GB of RAM, and I've never had any issues. As far as performance goes, I've got a pair of Samsung F4's, which are 5400RPM drives, and I'm getting 90MB/s write and 170MB/s read on that mirror.

You could of course just set up a simple RAID configuration in Linux using MDADM and EXT4/BTRFS/etc. There are plenty of options for software RAID.

Good luck

 

[Tim91084]

thanks, maybe I will give ZFS a shot, what OS are you using out of curiosity? FreeNAS?

I'm planning to run 4 or 5 VM's
Windows Server 2008 (or 2012)
Ubuntu (or some linux OS that I can run a LAMP stack on)
Windows 7 (for the infinitv)
FreeNAS

If i allocate 4GB for each of those, I'd be out of memory, right? With ESXI, is it possible to overallocate since it's likely that each OS will not allocate all of the 4GB all of the time?

I guess my goal is to have those 4 VM's running all the time, but still have some room to play with. (trying out different linux distros, a mac VM?, windows 8?). Obviously I can make compromises - maybe run the NAS on the linux server. Only allocate 3GB instead of 4GB.

One thing I've read in the forums here though is that you need lots of memory for the VM's - I guess I'm just afraid of running out.

Also since I will be passing through the 2 wd red's, I probably can't use them to host VM's (right?). So.. A couple more questions?
- I'll need a 3rd hard drive to host VM's. Should this be a high performance HD? Perhaps an SSD - does it make a huge difference?
- Can I install ESXI on the same disk that I host VM's on - or would you just install it on a USB stick?

Thanks again - I'm about to start buying some parts! Excited to get this thing up and running. Gotta research a case and make sure I got a powerful enough power supply.

 

[Netwerkz101]

<snipped>
One thing I've read in the forums here though is that you need lots of memory for the VM's - I guess I'm just afraid of running out.
<snipped>

Then why are you going to limit yourself to a Mini-ITX board with only 2 DIMM slots
as opposed to a Micro-ATX board with 4 DIMM slots?
Get the Intel DQ77MK motherboard instead.

Boot ESXi from USB or mSata - leave maximum room for your VM storage.

For best performance and low power draw:
Use solid state where you can. Use mechanical where you have to.

I'm behind the curve on cases and power supplies but in general:
if a lot of tinkering will be done inside the box, get a larger case so
you can easily add on or change around equipment.
Larger cases allow for larger fans @ lower rpm for more peace and quiet.

That's all i got...

 

[Netwerkz101]

Midnight double-post. Can't delete.

 

[Benzino]

Then why are you going to limit yourself to a Mini-ITX board with only 2 DIMM slots
as opposed to a Micro-ATX board with 4 DIMM slots?
Get the Intel DQ77MK motherboard instead.

Boot ESXi from USB or mSata - leave maximum room for your VM storage.

Agreed.

RAM is cheap, go for 32GB. You don't need gaming RAM or server RAM.

I boot from my ESXI from USB. I have an 8GB drive, you could get away with smaller actually.

 

[Innocence]

I know it's generally practiced to put ESXi on SD or Sticks, but my ESXi servers are all booted from a dedicated RAID1 array - generally with whatever small drives I have lying around.

I've had way too many crappy SD cards and USB sticks die on me. The one server at work still booting from an SD card actually just went down on Saturday. It's not world-ending, but a unneeded PITA if you can avoid it.

Just my 2¢

 

[NetJunkie]

Takes all of 10 mins to reinstall ESXi on a new USB drive, if needed. one of my USB thumb drives finally died the other day after probably 2 years. I'll take that over dealing with RAID controllers and all that under ESXi.

 

[Tim91084]

Thanks everyone for your input, really appreciate it. Not to belabor the thread, but if I can get more input it might help me sort things out in my head.

The reason I was going with the mini-itx was because of power consumption. Just looked at the "Max TDP" of both boards..

Intel DQ77KB: 65W
Intel DQ77MK: 95W

Granted, I guess that doesn't tell you what the boards idle at, and this setup will be idling most of the time.. Nonetheless, I think my #1 priority is power consumption, and I can sacrifice some RAM in the VM's if I have to. Are there any micro atx boards that can compare to the DQ77KB in terms of power consumption? Any mini-itx boards that can handle 32gb..?

On another note, thinking i might go with this case if i don't switch to micro-atx. Any thoughts?