Which processor?

[mac_cnc]

So I am really new to ESXi and was going to build a server using components listed in the sticky above. Now my question is what should I shoot for, the 45w Athlon X4 chip or go for one of the new 6 core chips? I know 6 is better than 4 but it also uses about 2.5x more power than the 4 core. I also dont know how stable the 6 cores are as I have never used them.

Any thoughts?

 

[Child of Wonder]

Your first thoughts should surround RAM and disk. So long as you get a quad core CPU based on Intel Nehalem or newer or AMD Athlon/Phenom II or newer your're good.

RAM is probably the first thing your host will run out of. Get as much RAM for your host as possible. I'd recommend at least 16GB. Once your host runs out of RAM and begins swapping things are going to slow down CONSIDERABLY.

Are you going to use network disk or local disk? I would recommend investing in an iSCSI or NFS NAS so you have the option of adding a second host down the line and experimenting with the true features of vSphere: HA, DRS, FT, VMotion, Storage VMotion, etc.

You're going to get the most bang for your buck and performance by finding smaller disks for more spindles. For example, my iSCSI SAN at home has a 4x250GB WD RE RAID 10 array which equals a 500GB VMFS datastore. I have 10 VMs running on that array now and plan on adding more. Those 250GB WD RE drives can be found new on ebay for about $40 each and they come with a 5 year warranty. I chose RAID 10 for the better write performance vs. RAID 5 and because I have no need to use RAID 5 and have a 750GB datastore. Since I thin provision my VMs, 500GB is more than enough.

Moral of the story, don't blow your whole load on the fastest CPU. Get a newer architecture quad core then invest heavily in RAM and disk.

 

[mac_cnc]

Thanks for the tips. I am actually using your build as my template. So I think I will save the cash and drop more RAM in. I had 8gb spec'd

 

[Child of Wonder]

You'll be amazed at how little CPU your VMs use. One of my hosts right now has 8 VMs running on it: a pair of 2008 R2 domain controllers, vCenter, vSphere Mgmt Assistant, a Linux server, and 3 idling 2008 R2 boxes I plan on testing Exchange and Sharepoint with.

Current host CPU usage is 492MHz while RAM usage is 8.7GB.

 

[mac_cnc]

Thanks for the tips CoW. I ordered the Quad core and decided on 12gb of RAM to start with. Bought 3 4gb sticks. Have room for 1 more.

 

[Syran]

Thanks for the tips CoW. I ordered the Quad core and decided on 12gb of RAM to start with. Bought 3 4gb sticks. Have room for 1 more.

When all is said and done, download notfred's diskless vm client, import it into esxi, and let it burn the rest of your CPU. That's what I'm doing, home VM server has (currently) 4 VMs, Q9450CPU, 16GB of Ram. CPU is normally at about 5-7% usage.

 

[Thuleman]

Any thoughts?

I usually try to stay out of these type of discussions because I am pretty opinionated but I just can't help it, I need to respond primarily to the suggestions made.

The very first thing, before thinking of hardware, is to determine the need. I think that all too often when advice is given it is totally out of context of the need and purpose of the setup. Here we are talking about Ghz and GB and iSCSI etc when the reality of things is that even a HA cluster can be run on a bunch of old $300 laptops.

Yes, the performance won't be stellar but often the performance is irrelevant because the whole thing runs on the 60-day trial license and very few home users will be able to set up a "home production" system that takes advantage of all vSphere has to offer. That's because few will be willing and able to fork out thousands of dollars per year just in software licenses.

So before you head out and spend cash on hardware determine the need you have and then size your hardware to the need. Things are a little bit different in the commercial world where there is VM sprawl and your need will before too long exceed your capacity so you have to add more hardware at that point. At home you will not have that issue, you will generally speaking have a very limited and static need and whether it takes 10ms or 30ms to perform an operation is irrelevant, especially if the 30ms version will save you a few hundred (or thousand) dollars.

 

[Child of Wonder]

I usually try to stay out of these type of discussions because I am pretty opinionated but I just can't help it, I need to respond primarily to the suggestions made.

The very first thing, before thinking of hardware, is to determine the need. I think that all too often when advice is given it is totally out of context of the need and purpose of the setup. Here we are talking about Ghz and GB and iSCSI etc when the reality of things is that even a HA cluster can be run on a bunch of old $300 laptops.

Yes, the performance won't be stellar but often the performance is irrelevant because the whole thing runs on the 60-day trial license and very few home users will be able to set up a "home production" system that takes advantage of all vSphere has to offer. That's because few will be willing and able to fork out thousands of dollars per year just in software licenses.

So before you head out and spend cash on hardware determine the need you have and then size your hardware to the need. Things are a little bit different in the commercial world where there is VM sprawl and your need will before too long exceed your capacity so you have to add more hardware at that point. At home you will not have that issue, you will generally speaking have a very limited and static need and whether it takes 10ms or 30ms to perform an operation is irrelevant, especially if the 30ms version will save you a few hundred (or thousand) dollars.

I think we're all operating under the assumption that this will be for a home lab set up to play with and to load a few VMs on.

As I eluded to, playing with a standalone host does one very little good when trying to learn VMware. The real fun comes with two or more hosts and vCenter. That's where NFS or iSCSI comes into play.

Heck, if all one wants to do is load ESXi just to see it, you can even install ESXi as a VM on VMware Workstation (probably VMware Player, too).

 

[NetJunkie]

If you want to do a couple hosts and shared storage you can still do all that under VMware Workstation. I do whole replicated storage with SRM failover demos under VMware Fusion.

 

[Vader]

I couldn't agree with Child of Wonder more. Most Modern Quad-Core cpus can handle several vm's with ease. Memory and Disk is really the biggest concern.

I'm not running ESXi, but 2008 R2 Hyper-V, and i'm running just 4 VM's, albiet they are memory hogs, Windows Home Server Vail, which is really 2008 R2 with some Home Server functionality, a Windows 7 VM just to run Play-On for the house and a couple of HP Virtual San Apppliances in a cluster for my iSCSI storage. I'm running this on a 1050T as you can see it's memory and disk that's being utilized the most not CPU performance.