Worth it to use a NVMe M.2 SSD for a ESXi 6 home lab?

N

Neutrino

Gawd
Joined
Nov 10, 2005
Messages
602
I am in the process of rebuilding my home lab and I was wondering if it is worth it to use a fast NVME M.2 SSD for a ESXi 6 home lab (something like a Samsung 950 pro)

I will probably be using a i7 6700 as cpu with 32-64 GB of ram (depending on final budget)

Will the increase in IO give me a decent performance boost over a cheaper SATA SSD?

----------

PS. I just found in the documentation of this mobo:

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Core/Z170/C7Z170-SQ.cfm
http://www.supermicro.com/manuals/motherboard/Z170/MNL-1720.pdf

that is supports VT-d

Do you think this would be a good choice as a motherboard?

Thanks :)
 
Are you going to be running any databases on your lab?
Will this be your primary storage for your VMs?

I would actually install and run ESXi on a USB drive, load time is a bit longer initially then an SSD, but once ESXi is loaded, it all generally runs in memory, the hypervisor is very lightweight in its footprint. So, if you are looking to make your VMs speedy, I'd go for a large sata SSD and spend money elsewhere (memory, memory, memory!) and then more memory (I can't stress enough that memory is the biggest bottleneck typically). If you are going to be storing a lot of data, then just get some nice decent sized 7200 RPM hard drives, or 10k/15k raided if you have the ability to do SAS drives.

Most motherboards of that generation support VT-d, typically SuperMicro does put our nice, stable, workstation and server boards, but don't think for a home lab you have to use one of those types of motherboards, any typical motherboard should work just fine, esp. if you aren't going to OC.
 
Neutrino said:
I am in the process of rebuilding my home lab...

Will the increase in IO give me a decent performance boost over a cheaper SATA SSD?

that is supports VT-d

Do you think this would be a good choice as a motherboard?
Click to expand...

First, what hardware are you coming from? Why are you upgrading the lab? Do you need increased IOPs now? Do you need vt-d?
 
Syran said:
Are you going to be running any databases on your lab?
Will this be your primary storage for your VMs?

I would actually install and run ESXi on a USB drive, load time is a bit longer initially then an SSD, but once ESXi is loaded, it all generally runs in memory, the hypervisor is very lightweight in its footprint. So, if you are looking to make your VMs speedy, I'd go for a large sata SSD and spend money elsewhere (memory, memory, memory!) and then more memory (I can't stress enough that memory is the biggest bottleneck typically). If you are going to be storing a lot of data, then just get some nice decent sized 7200 RPM hard drives, or 10k/15k raided if you have the ability to do SAS drives.

Most motherboards of that generation support VT-d, typically SuperMicro does put our nice, stable, workstation and server boards, but don't think for a home lab you have to use one of those types of motherboards, any typical motherboard should work just fine, esp. if you aren't going to OC.
Click to expand...

I will be running some SQL servers but not under load, they will be mostly used as a back end for some of my test powershell scripts + C# + IIS (front end) devOps apps

Indeed I was planning to run the hypervisor off a USB stick, and keep the M.2 for the VMs that I need to be the most responsive and maybe add a regular SSD for the less used VMs.

------------

I should've also specified some of the usage. I will be running mostly enterprise environment "simulations":

AD forests, with several DC, a few "user computers" and maybe an exchange system, a few linux servers, perhaps play with an UTM or a NAS.

None of them will be under serious load or store lots of data, they are just test machines. But I want them to be as responsive as possible. I don't wait to sit on my hands while waiting to deploy/reconfigure/restart a server for example.

peanuthead said:
First, what hardware are you coming from? Why are you upgrading the lab? Do you need increased IOPs now? Do you need vt-d?
Click to expand...

My old esxi machine was a AMD 8350 that for some reason broke down. I don't really have the time to fix it plus is was rather power hungry.

I am thinking about switching to a nice modern low power skylake ... maybe even the 35W 6700T to save up on electricity

I don't need VT-d right now, but there is a possibility I might need it in the future (maybe). problem is most consumer boards do not have it enabled in the BIOS

----

A bit later I might add a second machine + NAS to grow the lab and play a bit more with vMotion/HA etc...
 
I'd probably buy a board with an M.2, but just use standard Sata SSD for now, and add an M.2 if I find it really that slow. I typically find VMs boot really quick no matter what for the most part.

As for VT-d, I was just saying it's supported in Z170, so you can use any motherboard with BIOS support for it; so you might not be stuck with just a supermicro motherboard as an option.
 
Personally I love SSD for labs, but I also do a lot of cloning. Being able to clone and spin up VMs really fast is great.
 
Syran said:
I'd probably buy a board with an M.2, but just use standard Sata SSD for now, and add an M.2 if I find it really that slow. I typically find VMs boot really quick no matter what for the most part.

As for VT-d, I was just saying it's supported in Z170, so you can use any motherboard with BIOS support for it; so you might not be stuck with just a supermicro motherboard as an option.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah I will only consider boards with M.2, I was just wondering if the (not huge for the budget) 100 EUR premium (e.g. 230 to 330 EUR 850pro vs 950pro at 512GB) is worth it in performance

The problem is most consumer boards do not mention in their tech specs if they have the possibility to enable VT-d in BIOS so it's a bit of a lottery.



KapsZ28 said:
Personally I love SSD for labs, but I also do a lot of cloning. Being able to clone and spin up VMs really fast is great.
Click to expand...

My thought was if a SATA SSD is good an NVMe M.2 is even better ;) - they are a lot faster on paper

I just wonder if that translates in the real world.
 
Why not get a server board and processor and ECC RAM?

IPMI is sooo nice to have, and why waste $$$ on a desktop CPU made for over clockign?

Use NVME, that's my vote!
 
KapsZ28 said:
I came across an article this morning about the 950 Pro that I thought was interesting.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3010...-review-stacked-nand-stacked-performance.html

Out of the box it was only getting 35MBps in a speed test on Windows 8.1 until they installed the NVMe driver. I am curious if there could be a similar issue with ESXi.
Click to expand...

ESXI 5.5 has a NVME driver that does make a difference.
ESXI 6.0 should have it 'in' already.

If you're running Windows Guest then you should make sure those drivers are up to date too.
 
ToddW2 said:
Why not get a server board and processor and ECC RAM?

IPMI is sooo nice to have, and why waste $$$ on a desktop CPU made for over clockign?

Use NVME, that's my vote!
Click to expand...


The availability (for me at least) of server parts is a lot lower that that of consumer level hardware, the prices are also higher, otherwise yes I would much rather use server components.

I just found the nvme version of the SM951 500GB for only 30 EUR more than an 850Pro version...with such small price diff might as well just go with the M.2
 
Neutrino said:
The availability (for me at least) of server parts is a lot lower that that of consumer level hardware, the prices are also higher, otherwise yes I would much rather use server components.

I just found the nvme version of the SM951 500GB for only 30 EUR more than an 850Pro version...with such small price diff might as well just go with the M.2
Click to expand...

I have Intel 750 in my ESXi 6 hosts. They are FAST! much faster than Sata SSD.

The main benefits of NVMe is extreme low latency and high queue depth. When you have multiple VMs running on it, performance is crazy comparing to SATA SSD.
 
That is exactly what I was hoping. Aside from the faster interface the NVMe standard looks much better suited to this task :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top