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Home lab advice

A

akode

n00b
Joined
Apr 4, 2012
Messages
41
hey guys, just found this site a few months ago and have checked this subforum daily since then, i have wanted to build a home lab and finally have some cash, first thing i want is a esxi host, what is the cheapest i can get the following features.

what i want is something that i can power up over the network, has low power consumption and can 5-6 vms at once, 2-3 windows servers with gui, 2-3 linux servers no gui.

wanted some advice on the hardware for this, minus the hard drives as i already have plenty of those

thanks in advance
 
I am a big fan of Supermicro's IPMI (KVM over network), the java based console and power management features work nice.

Here's a board I'd recommend checking out (I'm using it in two of my builds:

MBD-X8SIL-F-O Xeon X3400 / L3400 / Core i3 series Dual LAN Micro ATX Server Board w/ Remote Management
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182211

I am using a Xeon X3430 proc:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117226

With 16gb of RAM, I can run 6-8 windows based VM's per host (comfortably), I feel 10-12+ VM's is very reasonable if their resources are properly allocated.
 
I have nearly the exact same setup as shnelson and it works beautifully. Used it extensively to pass my VCP5 exam. IPMI is really nice.

I basically built the same hosts that Jason Nash built here. Amazingly quiet, power efficient and still can do what needs to be done.
 
Visit the link I provided. It's the exact same thing I built and it's all laid out for you.
 
This is my exact build:

1 x LIAN LI PC-A04B Black Aluminum MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case
1 x SUPERMICRO MBD-X8SIL-F-O Xeon X3400 / L3400 / Core i3 series Dual LAN Micro ATX Server Board w/ Remote Management
1 x Intel Xeon X3430 Lynnfield 2.4GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Server Processor BX80605X3430
2 x Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) ECC Unbuffered Server Memory Model KVR1333D3E9SK2/8G
1 x Antec NEO ECO 400C 400W Continuous Power ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
1 x Mushkin Enhanced Prospector 4GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive Model MKNUFDPR4GB

Everything is compatible & runs flawlessly.

I'd like to note that I actually purchased 3 of the mushkin usb sticks and ran into an issue with one. It causes any machine I plug it into not to boot beyond post, but works fine if you plug it into a machine with the os already loaded.

Also, I wish I would have went with the same case that Jason mentions in the linked blog post. I love the mini towers that I picked up, just not for an ESXi server with no local disk.. a smaller footprint would have been preferred but I was in a hurry to place my order & didn't compare the dimensions.
 
I used 2 patriot 16GB sticks in mine. I only went with 16GB because I was going to play with XenServer eventually and I seem to recall it needing that much space. They were only $20 each. Drop in the bucket.
 
akode said:
can that board handle 32gb ram?
Click to expand...

Yes it can. I would also look into a processor that supports Hyper-Threading. I bought the wrong ones on accident. Either way you'll most likely run out of RAM before you run out of CPU.
 
Tiporaro said:
Just curious, any reason you're recommending the X8-series with a 34xx over X9 with a 12xx? Similar prices, similar options. In fact, newegg still is running a decent combo on the latter - http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.890841

Just trying to figure out if I'm missing something here, as far as going with a 1p setup.
Click to expand...

No not really, infact I'm glad you brought it up because it might be a more viable solution. When I was building my system out, I was looking at price point & low power, memory type/cost was also evaluated and proved to be a better option to stay with X8. Now, prices have come down (awesome combo) and I'm tempted to bite the bullet again :)
 
QHalo said:
Yes it can. I would also look into a processor that supports Hyper-Threading. I bought the wrong ones on accident. Either way you'll most likely run out of RAM before you run out of CPU.
Click to expand...

^ There is a lot of truth to this, especially if you are running mostly windows. I haven't seen my processor utilization exceed 35% yet, I have been able to consume all available memory when not being careful though.
 
I agree that combo is very attractive. At the time, what I built after doing some serious searching was the best price/power/noise point that I could find and thus what I went with.
 
I'm thinking of building something similar. I'm assuming that, like desktops, it is cheaper to custom build than it is to order a namebrand one. The OP didn't mention hard drives, but what would recommendations for those be?
 
Custom built white boxes are going to be cheaper to keep powered on. You can find some killer deals on old (powerful) enterprise equipment, but it'll catch up to you in the power bill every month.

I'm at about $700 cost USD per ESXi host, and they consume under 100w each with moderate load. Much less when idle.


For storage, I am using a third server running FreeNAS & serving iscsi. This was the most expensive box due to the current high disk cost. It also consumes the most power with 8 spindles going (hell I even tried to keep it down by going with green disks). You can save yourself a lot of money here if you don't need shared storage for your lab - go pick up a 250gb SSD and mount it local to the host. Thin provisioning will be your friend, you can also add a spinning high capacity disk for archive data if you need the storage.
 
eventually i will want separate storage when my budget will allow, for now ill go with something like shnelson is saying, a 250ssd and a 1tb regular drive if i need more on the host itself
 
netwerkz101_lab2.jpg


^^^ This was my proposed build for my next lab hosts. It's about a month old now so prices should be less on some components.

What I actually ended up with is i7-2600's and 32GB ram each.
 
Last edited:
That 300w PSU should be more than adequate - remember you're not powering a hungry graphics card or array of hard drives.. the cpu will likely never be under full load either unless you intend for it to be.

Both of my esxi boxes consume less than 100watts combined... my iscsi box is at about 120w and my 24p gb switch eats about 24-28w
 
hi Netwerkz101

I found you setup really interesting , i knows than I7-2600 is a great chips.(doing FT vt-d etc)
I like to know if you were able to make everything work FT , VT-D.
I want to buy the same setup as your. (2 like this).
Can you post some picture of vsphere client (summary screen of the host).
And by the way if everything is working, you will be the only one i found that his setup is low cost and can make FT VT-D run with also 32g of ram.

Thanks ;)
 
bcorneau said:
hi Netwerkz101

I found you setup really interesting , i knows than I7-2600 is a great chips.(doing FT vt-d etc)
I like to know if you were able to make everything work FT , VT-D.
I want to buy the same setup as your. (2 like this).
Can you post some picture of vsphere client (summary screen of the host).
And by the way if everything is working, you will be the only one i found that his setup is low cost and can make FT VT-D run with also 32g of ram.

Thanks ;)
Click to expand...

Well... I don't run VMware ESXi.
I run Citrix XenServer and XenClient.
I do have plans to bring ESXi into the mix.
 
Hi
Does anyone have REAL working config that support:
Esx with 32Gb RAM , FT VT-D
But when i said working, he personally tried it.

Thanks
 
The configuration that I have posted does all of that. You still need shared storage unless you're going to do an all-in-one type of box.
 
hi

i tried to find your config ,but you have a lot of post ;).
Can you give the link

thanks.
 
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