Your home ESX server lab hardware specs?

Yesterday i sold my HP Microservers... cause they where to slow for what i wanted to do with them..

So i orderded a new system with more performance + i have now VT-D what i missed in the Microserver..

What i ordered:
Yeong Yang YY-0420
Asus P8B WS
Intel Xeon E3-1220
Patriot 4*8GB (32GB) DDR3
IBM M1015 IT Flashed
8x3TB Seagate drives

Pics will follow when the hardware arrived.
 
LightStar said:
Yesterday i sold my HP Microservers... cause they where to slow for what i wanted to do with them..

So i orderded a new system with more performance + i have now VT-D what i missed in the Microserver..

What i ordered:
Yeong Yang YY-0420
Asus P8B WS
Intel Xeon E3-1220
Patriot 4*8GB (32GB) DDR3
IBM M1015 IT Flashed
8x3TB Seagate drives

Pics will follow when the hardware arrived.
Click to expand...

That is a good spec, lovely.

Did you look at the ML110 G7?

http://www.bussink.ch/?p=446
 
LightStar said:
Tnx, no didnt look at that one, because i allready bought a large case to handle the disks, the other parts i selected on what i wanted to do with it.. (VT-D so i can run my fileserver virtual)
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Welcome, looking forward to your pics and setup. Good luck :)
 
Currently running a small 2008R2 domain on:

Asus Maximus Gene-Z Motherboard
16GB DDR3
Intel PCI-E NIC
Intel i5 2500K
2x WD 500 GB RE4
1x WD Green 320

ESXi 5.0.0 623860

I need to get a hardware raid card since my motherboard came with a fakeraid that isn't recognized by ESXi.

Providing AD, DNS, DHCP, RADIUS, DFS Share and Spiceworks. Once I get more RAM I will be standing up an Exchange server, SQL server and Sharepoint server.
 
l3thal6 said:
Currently running a small 2008R2 domain on:

Asus Maximus Gene-Z Motherboard
16GB DDR3
Intel PCI-E NIC
Intel i5 2500K
2x WD 500 GB RE4
1x WD Green 320

ESXi 5.0.0 623860

I need to get a hardware raid card since my motherboard came with a fakeraid that isn't recognized by ESXi.

Providing AD, DNS, DHCP, RADIUS, DFS Share and Spiceworks. Once I get more RAM I will be standing up an Exchange server, SQL server and Sharepoint server.
Click to expand...

16gb ram is more then enough, i'm running 10 server on my system with 16gb ram.
 
First pictures (the system is nog complete yet... waiting for the IBM M1015...

First the case with only the mobo inside
DSC_1658.JPG


The boxes
DSC_1670.JPG


ESX Console
esx.png
 
You can run two separate systems in that case right? If so that's sweet.
 
FYI, Synology released the DSM 4.1 Beta today with full VAAI support. That's pretty damn cool.
 
Blah. Just had Synology confirm that VAAI support is only in the xs series. Trying to get more info on why that is.
 
Whitebox : Phenom 1055t - 16 gigs - 3 random HDD's - On-board NIC and vid

Plan on turning my "gaming box" into another white box.
Llano quad - 16 gigs - 2 raptors and 1 1TB - On-board NIC and HD 4850
 
Just something I tossed together to learn the basics with.

AMD Phenom II 965 BE
MSI 970A-G45
12GB of DDR3
1 x 1TB WD Black - VM storage
1 x 250 GB Maxtor - currently used for ISO storage

No raid as of this time. Looking at picking up Synology DS212 and run iSCSI in a couple months. So far two windows VMs been running solid for about a week.
 
I am running a Dell PE1950 gen 3.
Dual quad core cpus, 16gb ram, 4 300gb 10k sas drives.

Running on 2008r2 with workstation 8. Best $200 I ever spent. Just run esxi in ws8 and all your machines under that.
 
My rig:

  • Rosewill BLACKHAWK Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case.
  • AMD FX-8120 Zambezi 3.1GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core.
  • G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333.
  • GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0
  • HIS H675F1GD Radeon HD 6750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16
  • 2x Seagate 1tb 7200RPM disks
  • 1 Seagate 500gb 7200RPM - already had
  • 1 Seagate 400gb 7200RPM - already had
  • 2x Digital Thermometer Temperature Meter Gauge C/F PC MOD to monitor case temps. Got these from suntekstore.com
  • 1100w Tagan BZ PSU - already had (anyone know where I can get more cables for this?) - already had

I added one more fan to the top of the case as exhaust. Not too happy with the temps on the CPU with the stock cooler. Planning on using some different thermal compound on the cooler and running it this weekend to see if temps are any different. May end up replacing the cooler with something later.

Will also be replacing the video card with something less powerful as I have discovered that ESXi doesn't play well with this card and Win 7. I had planned on building a video-editing VM using this card but doesn't look like that is gonna happen.

This build has also inspired me to try my hand at cable-sleeving. Already did a couple of the fan leads for practice. Waiting on more materials to arrive before I tackle the rest.
 
My rig is an old HP media center PC :(

Q6600
8 GB RAM
1x 750GB HDD
onboard LAN and extra intel PCIe network card.


Doesn't support PCI passthough or any more memory. I also had to jury-rig a 80MM fan I had laying around to blow on top of the memory as in the case there is no airflow over that spot and I get crashes with 4 DIMMs in it.

Been thinking of upgrading to a supermicro board and xeon CPU but haven't seen a case I would like to shove everything in.. and the money issue
 
I have two hosts currently, with Enterprise+ licensing (got it via work who paid for half of it at the time, woo!). Here's the specs:

Host1:
Dell PowerEdge 2950 II - 2x Intel Xeon 5345 Quad-Cores, 16GB of DDR2 RAM, 3x146GB SAS drives @ 10K RPM on the PERC 5/i, RAID5 (only has ESX on it)

Host2:
Dell FS12-NV7 (aka C2100) - 2x AMD Opteron 2419EE Hex-Cores, 32GB DDR2 RAM, 1x 250GB SATA @ 7200 rpm on PERC 5/i, "RAID0" (only has ESX on it)

Eventually, I think I'm going to combine my NAS into Host2, but for now it's its own whitebox (I'm a little nervous about moving the array):
GIGABYTE GA-M68M-S2P :: AMD Athon II x2 240 :: 2 GB DDR2 :: Dell PERC 6/i :: 7x2TB in RAID5

The NAS has my ISOs and VMDK/VMXes on it, as well as most of my other files and such for myself. Now that I've played with vMotion and such here at home in my lab, I'm half thinking about moving all the VMs to the C2100 and making Host1 a folder, or just retiring it all together.
 
Currently I am running a Windows Lab and a vInception (Virtualized ESXi) cluster on top of the following hardware.

Intel i5 2500K
32GB DDR3
2x WD RE4 500GB (Non-RAID)
1x WD Green 320GB
 
My old gaming rig...

GA-965P-DS3
C2D E6300 @ 2.8Ghz
8GB Corsair DDR2 @ 866Mhz
NVIDIA Quado (had a different card when gaming)
300GB WD Raptor
650W PS

It's been running 4 Server 2008 R2 and 1 WIN7 VM since Sept of 2010. DC, Exchange 2010, Dev (RRAS), and Web/FTP. The 8GB max memory is the only real drawback. I specifically over-committed to learn more about ESXi balloning and swapping and it hasn't let me down. This is a great lab and the absolute best way to learn about ESXi and Windows server for certifications.
 
wildbill001 said:
I built this system last year as a lab system to run some software from work. It started out originally running ESXi 4.0, then 4.0 Update 2, then 5.0 Update 1.

CPU: Athlon II x4 635
MB: Asus M4A785TD-M EVO
RAM: G.Skill F3-8500CL7Q-16GBRL (translation: 16GB)
2 PATA disks (160gb and a 320gb) which I already had
2x1TB Sata II
Boot from a 4gb Kingston USB (traveler I think it what it is called)
1 - Intel Pro 10/100/1000 ethernet
1 - Realtek 8111E 10/100/1000 ethernet (now supported on ESXi 5.x)
On-board video (not sure what it is)

Total cost was about $500 or just under. Already had an Antec case, PSU (400W) and other misc stuff.

This was a total gamble for me because I really wasn't sure what I was doing (not that I know what I am doing now either). I didn't (and don't) need vMotion, vCenter (alhough it might be furn to play with). I just needed multiple system in a small package. But it ran and ran well with the following VMs:

1 - 8GB RAM, 4vCPU running RHEL 5.4 and my work software
2 - Win2K8R2-64, 1gb 4vCPU
1 - Solaris 10x86, 1gb, 4vCPU
2 - RHEL 5.4, 512mb, 2vCPU
And a few others that I only turned on when I needed to test something. When all of the above were going, the system was sluggish but very useable. Certainly faster than a work lab system on the other side of the world.

All was well until the mb up and died (was probably a bad slot or something around the memory--yeah I know how un-probable that is). But, it was still under warranty so RMA'd to Asus, waited two weeks and just got it back today. So far it is back to it's rock-solid self.

Bill W
Click to expand...

Your sluggishness might be due to the fact that you gave out vCPU's like candy...lol!

It's always best to check performance before hand and if you *really need* another vCPU you give 1 and test some more. I've got an Exchange 2010 VM with 2.5GB's of RAM and, up until recently, only 1vCPU. I gave it a 2nd vCPU a month ago thinking I would see (statistics-wise) better performance...but I didn't.
 
mbedk said:
I just completed my new build.

  • ASUS MAXIMUS V GENE
  • Intel Core i7 3770 Ivy Bridge
  • Intel X25-M SSD 80GB
  • Corsair Force Series GT 240GB SSD
  • Corsair Builder Series CX500 V2
  • Corsair 32GB DDR3 1600Mhz Dominator
  • Windows Server 2012 Beta, Hyper-v 3
  • Lian Li PC-V354B Black

Pictures taken with Nokia Lumia 800, seems to be OK.
Click to expand...

Is that PS intake fan flush against the inside wall of that case!?!
 
Today I got my homelab running.

Lian Li PC-V354B case
Asrock Z77 Extreme4-M Motherboard
Intel Core i7 3770 Boxed CPU
Corsair Dominator CMP32GX3M4X1600C10 32GB RAM
Areca ARC-1882i SAS RAID controller
2x Crucial m4 CT512M4SSD2 512GB SSD
Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 520W PSU
HP NC360T PCI-E 2port network adaptor (412648-B21)
HP v165w 16GB USB stick

Installed july 12 patch and installed latest (2011) drivers from Areca to let my 1882i work.
I shall contact Areca because my 1882i is recognized as a 1880i. New drivers are needed. Also the Crucial SSD is recognized as a non-SSD.
Vt-d is working.
 
My ESXi 5.0 U1 server specs are:

ASUS P9X79 WS motherboard
Intel i7-3930k (C2 model for vt-d pass-through support) LGA 2011 CPU
64 GB Corsair XMS3 low profile quad channel DDR3 1333 MHz RAM (the kit is eight 8GB sticks)
ATI Radeon HD 5450
LG super multi DVD RW SATA drive
two 500 GB Western Digital Caviar Black's (used for ESXi and Hyper-V storage)
Patriot Super Sonic XT 8GB USB 3.0 flash drive (used to boot ESXi)
Antec 1200 full size case
Antec TruePower Quattro 1000 watt PSU

I installed the 64 GB of RAM because I also use Hyper-V on the system for testing so i figured I'll max it out for one and then just buy and upgrade license for ESXi if it works out pretty well after my trial period is done. So far the system runs fine and the potential of the system is enormous. I'm thinking of running my own media server for my house as well as a ventrillo or teamspeak server for my friends and I to do chat for our games or maybe even play my games remotely from with a vm from some where else in my house.
 
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I installed my 32GB kit that came in the mail today and I got a little VM happy.

406184_10150943211243155_2115546424_n.jpg


Hosting a 3 host nested ESXi lab with 5-8 nested guests

4 guest windows domain AD,DNS,DHCP,DFS,WSUS,SharePoint, RADIUS

Web Server for my new blog (still under development)

Thanks to the magic of resources pools and shares everything is nice and snappy. The greediest RP is the vSphere Lab RP, since I can't install VMware tools on VMware vSphere the balloon driver doesn't work so I reserve around 70% of their total vRAM allocation and set the reservation to expand to 105% of their vRAM allocation to minimize the chance of swapping to disk.

I need to find some room to squeeze 2 Windows 7 VM into the mix since I will be using those to provide lab access to a few friends that are now far away :)

I can afford to choke the windows domain a little bit more and the blog server is given reservations for everything it is allocated.

376747_10150943221413155_1520192529_n.jpg


I can't wait to get my blog up, its going to be full of posts just like this one for those interested!
 
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l3thal6 said:
I installed my 32GB kit that came in the mail today and I got a little VM happy.

406184_10150943211243155_2115546424_n.jpg


Hosting a 3 host nested ESXi lab with 5-8 nested guests

4 guest windows domain AD,DNS,DHCP,DFS,WSUS,SharePoint, RADIUS

Web Server for my new blog (still under development)

Thanks to the magic of resources pools and shares everything is nice and snappy. The greediest RP is the vSphere Lab RP, since I can't install VMware tools on VMware vSphere the balloon driver doesn't work so I reserve around 70% of their total vRAM allocation and set the reservation to expand to 105% of their vRAM allocation to minimize the chance of swapping to disk.

I need to find some room to squeeze 2 Windows 7 VM into the mix since I will be using those to provide lab access to a few friends that are now far away :)

I can afford to choke the windows domain a little bit more and the blog server is given reservations for everything it is allocated.

376747_10150943221413155_1520192529_n.jpg


I can't wait to get my blog up, its going to be full of posts just like this one for those interested!
Click to expand...

Wordpress on 2k8 = good or turnkey build = also good !

Dashpuppy.com is Wordpress... I need to order 6 x8 gig sticks to get 64 gigs
 
Looks good dash, I'm currently testing Blog Engine .NET to use as a platform but I will consider Wordpress also.
 
Wordpress on a small ubuntu installation beats it all :)

But i just moved my blog to a plesk platform at my new work. still works great :)
 
TCM said:
Or not.

You have links to 172.20.*

Know what you're doing...

Edit: Also, href="http://96.10.61.0/wordpress/..." hardcoding IP adresses :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

:eek:

I am still a noob when it comes to web serving, I am a network infrastructure/M$ AD guy. I am learning though.
 
l3thal6 said:
:eek:

I am still a noob when it comes to web serving, I am a network infrastructure/M$ AD guy. I am learning though.
Click to expand...

Plus 2 gigs ram is so over kill.

The turnkey iOS image is so easy to get going, loved mine..
 
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