VM/OpenFiler home setup

[cphillips]

Hi Guys

I am looking to setup an ESX solution at home.

Would the following scenario work for 3 to 4 lightly used VM's? (2 x Win 2008, 1 x Ubuntu Server and possibly 1 x Openfiler):

Install ESX Server on a 400Gb or so disc and install all VM's on this disk and run them locally. I then have 4 HDD's of the same size that I would like to install Openfiler on and run as a RAID10 array - these are in the same physical box as the 400Gb drive (everything is in the same box).

The VM's would be fairly lightly used, the most demanding one would be an Exchange 2007/10 server with a few users on.

I know I can setup an Openfiler VM to run on the ESX Server and act as a storage area for my data (music, films, work etc not VM data file storage). My question is, would it be quick enough? Or am I better running it on a seperate physical machine? The ESX Server is a quad core cpu with 8Gb RAM.

If possible I'd like to run it all on one physical box, keeps the electric bill down a bit, and the noise! Of course, if the performance is going to be rubbish then I maybe better off having two physical boxes.. Hence all my questions!

Look forward to your responses.

Thanks - Colin

 

[lopoetve]

IOPS will be your limit - single spindle contention as well for the 3 servers, but probably not too bad for just those 3. I wouldn't try to run SQL or anything on a single disk.

 

[archivalbackup]

I would get a HW RAID controller, put all of your disks in to the HW RAID and format with ESX. Then make a VM for operfiler with the space you need for your streaming / sharing tasks. It would be a more equal distribution of performance.