• 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.

Lab Suggestions

What should I buy?

  • Dell PowerEdge T420

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Dell PowerEdge T320

    Votes: 2 15.4%

  • Upgrade the Whitebox

    Votes: 11 84.6%
  • Total voters
    13
  • Poll closed .
L

l3thal6

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 26, 2011
Messages
322
Greetings,

I am looking for your collective thoughts on a fork in the road that I am facing in my home lab.

Currently I am whiteboxin' ESXi 5 on the following hardware:

ASUS Maximus Gene-Z
i5 2500K
16 GB DDR3
2x WD RE4 500 GB (No RAID)
1x WD Green 320 GB
1x 4GB USB Flash (ESXi boot disk)

I run 4 VM's with moderate loads, mostly just a Windows domain that all of my other computers are joined to that provides a few internal web sites, Exchange and file/media shares.

Over the next few months I plan on scaling up so that I can start drilling into my VCP after I complete CCNP. I have 4 years of production experience with VMware (1.5 in a pretty decent sized DC) that I would like to represent with a VCP.

Additionally I will test out ideas that I have at work on this system before I even test them on my work lab ( 4x Cisco 3750G (from 2005), 3x Dell R510 w/dual X5650 and 1x NetApp FAS270C :) )

Environment variables:

I have a $2000-2500 budget (being single is awesome)
I have an extensive Cisco lab with 1000BASE-T deployed in some segments

Desired End Result:

Stable, efficient system hosting a Windows domain and a nested vSphere 5 Lab. The vSphere 5 Lab will contain 3 ESXi VM's and a FreeNAS VM to provide shared storage along with 3-5 nested VMs. The Windows domain will contain 4 guests running the same services as previously described. If I get a Dell I will be buying a Dell IDSDM to install vSphere on and moving all of the HDD's from the whitebox.

Options:

1) Upgrade my whitebox with a RAID controller, 32GB DDR3 and an i7-2600K

2) Sell the whitebox and buy a Dell T320
1x Xeon E5 2420, 32GB


Refrences:
http://www.chriscolotti.us/vmware/vsphere/vmware-vcloud-in-a-box-for-your-home-lab/
 
Last edited:
I just got a t320 for a client, it's a very nice machine (sitting right next to me at the moment). Extremely quiet for a server, pretty darn close to my T110-II that I use for my home/lab vm host, that's with 2 15k & 5 7.2k drives in it. You could easily run the thing under a desk next to you and it would barely be noticeable. With ceiling fans and the A/C running in my house, I can't hear it at all.

I have the perc 710p in it, not sure of the performance yet as I'm using 2 ssd's for the initial setup & migration (sbs 03->11), then transferring the finished vm to the spinning drives.

If you go that route, be aware the onboard sata is not individual connectors, but a single 8087.
 
I like Dell's or similar for full support. However, you can get more more bang for the buck by building your own. The biggest advantage of a second box is the ability to rebuild at will.
 
Thanks for the replies!

As far as processors go, I have settled on the Xeon E5-2420, gobs of L2 cache and 6 cores at an attractive price point has me sold.


I also just configured a T320 and T420 identically.
Cabled chassis for 4x 3.5In HDD (I really don't need hot swap drives on a non-production box)
1x E5 2420
1x 2GB ECC RAM (Dell forces you to buy RAM :( )
1x 500GB HDD (Dell forces you to buy an HDD :( )
1x Perc H310 RAID Card
1x Dual Internal SD Card

T320 came out to $1655
T420 came out to $1825

For a $170 premium, I'll take the leap to the T420. I can easily scale out the box if the need arises in the future by dropping in another E5 2420. Also, I'll obviously be getting more RAM for the box, I have my eye on a nice 32GB $300 kit on Newegg.
 
Last edited:
Not much on barebones models, but maybe a little. When I got my T110-II, my rep couldn't beat the price I got, as I was getting the minimum config and adding drives, ram etc on my own.
 
If I could get the T420 without drives and RAM I would save close to $300. That would be awesome.

I am chatting with a rep now about it.
 
Last edited:
Well, unfortunately I do have to buy HDD and RAM with the server. In that case I'll be snagging the T320, I also decided that I don't need the dual internal SD card so that will save another $100. The T320 should be around $1550.
 
Yeah, I didn't go with the sd cards either. I bought a couple of 8gb usb sticks and will keep the spare with the config already on it.
 
Contact Dell directly. They'll do a No-HDD server. They're just not configurable via the website.
 
So, after a little more thought, I'll be keeping the whitebox!

Just gotta snag 32GB of RAM. According to vSphere client I've been swapping/ballooning all day today with 16GB.
 
Last edited:
My 32GB Kit just came in this morning thanks to Amazon prime. Slapped it in the whitebox, it feels great to have so much overhead now, time to BUILD!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top