My first ESXi box

[Greatone123]

Hello all,


I've been using Hyper-V for all my virtualization needs which I haven't had any complaints about or anything. I'd like to expand my knowledge into VMWare's offering a little. Since they offer ESXi for free I figured that would be the best place to start.


I don't have an extra system laying around so I was surfin the egg for things. I pretty much wanna make the system as cheap as possible since it's just to learn the how to actually use ESXi see if it's something I might migrate to. I'll prolly recycle the leftover parts into a UTM or some sort when I'm done so it's win win either way.


I narrowed the processors down to ones that support virtualization and it's either a AMD 240 regor or a Celeron E3300. I don't plan on overclocking/unlocking/anything to them so I'm looking for the best option for this between the 2.

1 requirement that I have is that the stock heatsink be able to fit in a 2U enclosure, I don't know what AMD's latest heatsinks look like or how large they are, if they would fit in that size of a case. I know that intels design will fit since it's what I've been using on some other machines.

after that I can start figuring out what I'll need for the rest of the system. since I know not all hardware is compatible I'll have to do some looking around unless someone can throw out some cheap motherboards that will work here.






Just to throw in there, my overall goal is to have a 100% free software enviroment, ESXi linux OS's for workstations/servers linux/bsd based storage options for everything. I'm also going to look into ClearOS server software to see what it can do as well. Nothing against windows... but I'll be starting my business soon and I'd like to save as much as I can early on, I figure it's easier to start with open source then move there later if needed.

 

[lopoetve]

best bet: Shop ebay/craigslist for a cheap used HP/Dell server and use that.

Something like a DL380 or 1950 or so.

 

[Greatone123]

That would make sense I guess, since it's more for a actual server environment and all :-P

 

[stiltner]

There's a seller on Ebay that has 1950's in single and dual cpu configs, and I'm almost shocked by their DIMM prices.

4GB DIMM's for $80/ea when you buy the server.

That's pretty impressive, used even thats a pretty solid price for 4GB DIMM's.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-PowerEdge-...ewItem&pt=COMP_EN_Servers&hash=item5191cd558d

Check the additonal memory area. I was gonna put something together for ESXi by hand, but I could stack this with a ton of memory (as CPU won't take a large load anyway). Put together a 16GB system for a pretty decent price this way.

I'm tempted to e-mail them to verify that they are seperate DIMM's as it seems to be listed, or if they are 1GB x 4 setups, I.E. 8GB system max that way, It just seems "too cheap" to be within reason.

 

[Greatone123]

That is a lot cheaper then I would be able to do normally, I've never used ebay before... craigslist yes cause I can deal in person like paper ads...

I see what your saying about he DIMMs tho...'



aww... I would have to pay sales tax... bah

hmm I wonder if they would let me pick it up from their warehouse or wherever... I'm only 45 min away from them

 

[SHaFT7]

man i wish i needed that server. not a bad price, especially for the 4GB DIMM prices.

 

[Greatone123]

i contacted them,since im local i can just go to he warehouse so it will save me onsshipping atleast
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[outspoken]

good deals on that server, definitely could get a nice vmware cluster going with that and some iscsi storage down the road.