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Hello all,
My first post, so please bare with me
.I'm humbly requesting for your help :
I'm trying to build an ESXi whitebox for my home.I would like a single box, running ESXi 5.x where I would be running a nested ESXi cluster with 2 hosts+1 vCenter, which will host a few VMs ( only from DRS/ HA etc testing ) . I'm also considering installing vCloud components .
In other words, my whitebox would be for solely testing VMware products ( vSphere, maybe vCloud ), only running some VMs from HA/DRS etc point of view.
What I have now :
- my DELL laptop N5110, I7 2630 QM , 16 GB of RAM , SSD Samsung 840 PRO, Win 8 .
In win 8 I have VMware workstation, where I'm running 2 VMs ESXi 5.1, 1 vCenter ( which is running on the SSD ) and NAS4Free .
As Storage I have an internal HDD disk@ 5400 RPM( Only for running the ESXi 5.1 VMs - which is OK ) and 1 external HDD @ 7200 RPM connected via USB 3.0 for running the Nas4Free VM ( so the "datastores" of my ESXi cluster ). Kind of lame , I know , but so far it was just perfect, considering that my VMs are running on the ESXi vms inside Workstation running on Win 8 ( lol , inception ) were only running so I can do some DRS , vMotion , etc .
I want to move now to an ESXi whitebox. I've been reading other posts, and have an idea ( kind of... ) . What I'm looking for :
- low consumption and as silent as possible ( it will run in my bedroom .... )
- mATX, as small as possible
- CPU - considering Intel 4770S, or some low cost i5 Haswell... but I'm open for suggestions
- 32 GB of RAM, that's for sure
- Motherboard - no ideea, just to be able to do passthrough and support all needed VT-D etc. ( and to be supported by ESXi 5.5 if possible ).
And the tricky part, the Storage. I was thinking maybe All-in-one box, with 2 SATA III HDD @ 7200, that I will pass through to the Nas4Free VM ( if possible ). The ESXi will run from a USB. Or I'm also considering a NFS storage box with 2 bays ( also open for suggestions ).
As mentioned, the purpose is testing VMware products ( vSphere, vCloud ) . So I'm not interested in running database servers, Webservers or whatever.
Budget ~ 1500 Euro ( give or take ) . If I can find something cheaper for what I need, then it is perfect.
Sorry for the long post, and hope I can get some support. Thank you all !!
My first post, so please bare with me
.I'm humbly requesting for your help :I'm trying to build an ESXi whitebox for my home.I would like a single box, running ESXi 5.x where I would be running a nested ESXi cluster with 2 hosts+1 vCenter, which will host a few VMs ( only from DRS/ HA etc testing ) . I'm also considering installing vCloud components .
In other words, my whitebox would be for solely testing VMware products ( vSphere, maybe vCloud ), only running some VMs from HA/DRS etc point of view.
What I have now :
- my DELL laptop N5110, I7 2630 QM , 16 GB of RAM , SSD Samsung 840 PRO, Win 8 .
In win 8 I have VMware workstation, where I'm running 2 VMs ESXi 5.1, 1 vCenter ( which is running on the SSD ) and NAS4Free .
As Storage I have an internal HDD disk@ 5400 RPM( Only for running the ESXi 5.1 VMs - which is OK ) and 1 external HDD @ 7200 RPM connected via USB 3.0 for running the Nas4Free VM ( so the "datastores" of my ESXi cluster ). Kind of lame , I know
, but so far it was just perfect, considering that my VMs are running on the ESXi vms inside Workstation running on Win 8 ( lol , inception ) were only running so I can do some DRS , vMotion , etc .I want to move now to an ESXi whitebox. I've been reading other posts, and have an idea ( kind of...
) . What I'm looking for :- low consumption and as silent as possible ( it will run in my bedroom .... )
- mATX, as small as possible
- CPU - considering Intel 4770S, or some low cost i5 Haswell... but I'm open for suggestions
- 32 GB of RAM, that's for sure
- Motherboard - no ideea, just to be able to do passthrough and support all needed VT-D etc. ( and to be supported by ESXi 5.5 if possible ).
And the tricky part, the Storage. I was thinking maybe All-in-one box, with 2 SATA III HDD @ 7200, that I will pass through to the Nas4Free VM ( if possible ). The ESXi will run from a USB. Or I'm also considering a NFS storage box with 2 bays ( also open for suggestions ).
As mentioned, the purpose is testing VMware products ( vSphere, vCloud ) . So I'm not interested in running database servers, Webservers or whatever.
Budget ~ 1500 Euro ( give or take ) . If I can find something cheaper for what I need, then it is perfect.
Sorry for the long post, and hope I can get some support. Thank you all !!
