Lab server (vmware/hyper v etc)

JJJJNR

anyone using a home lab setup for testing, and cert work, I've a fairly decent spec workstation that I build a few years ago, which I've been using as a PC, but since I've moved jobs and lost access to my work lab I need to invest in a second machine, and some cheap storage for vmware 6, (budget is about 400 - 500 euros) I could build a replica of my current machine but want to see what other people are using before I do that.

roast

Poweredge R710's are really popular at the moment on certain fora for home lab stuff. I've got one and a few older poweredge models running VMware and KVM. They pop up on eBay from time to time, though you might need to spend a bit extra getting rails/disks etc.

Of course, it depends on what kind of setup you want too, rackmount or tower, and noise/power/heat could be an issue for you too (Though I find the R710 is actually pretty quiet, considering the specs).

vibe666

I got myself two HP ML150 G5's because 1. they were cheap for what you get, 2. they use standard parts, 3. it's a tower case, 4. because of 2 & 3 you can replace all the jet engine noisy fans and the standard heatsinks with off-the-shelf parts like (much!) quieter PWM fans and closed loop water coolers and you'll hardly hear a peep out of them. the PSU fan is still quite loud, but nothing by comparison to the standard internal fans, and my next job is to see if I can replace the PSU with a regular quiet PC one so they don't make hardly any noise at all.

other specs of interest are:

a pair of socket 1156 CPU sockets (although some only come with one CPU installed, so watch out for the dualies if you're fishing on ebay etc.).
12x DDR3 DIMM slots, which will take up to a confirmed 48gb total ECC Registered RAM, and possibly 96gb if you use 8gb DIMMS, but I haven't confirmed that yet.
3 external 5.25" bays and another 4 internal 5.25" that can be used for up to 8x 3.5" disks with the (already supplied) disk trays.
6 sata ports, at least 8x PWM fan headers, although the BIOS demands you have at least 4 connected or it won't boot, which was really annoying me when I built the first one, I eventually found out that you can use a jumper to overcome this.

The dual socket 1156 was one of the main reasons I went for them as this will take anything from al cheapo celerons and clarkedale i5/i7's (if you want to start with only one CPU) or a pair of the lower end X3430 2.4Ghz Xeon's (for as low as 25 euro each 2nd hand) if you only have the lower end of low budget, all the way up to a pair of the 3Ghz quad core H/T lynnfield Xeon X3480's, which still have a respectable CPU Mark score pushing 6000, which would put a pair of them nipping at the heels of the best current gen single socket Xeon's, which for less than 200 euro a pop 2nd hand, is a lot of bang for your buck.

All in all, you can get a decent test rig with a bunch of ram that is good enough to even manage nested ESXi/Hyper-V if you really want to have a good play with enterprise level stuff like SRM etc., and keep it all very quiet, which is great if you don't have anywhere to put them where noise isn't an issue, like me.

Going to try not to hijack this thread, but will be following it closely as have similar requirements but not a whole lot of hardware expertise! I've got my eyes on a specific setup, and it might match you too.

Am looking at buying this server - http://www.serversplus.com/servers/tower_servers/dell_tower_servers/20-3708
(Qualifies for £70 cashback so is remarkably cheap)

And putting 16+gb of ram into it with some (to be decided - help needed!)

It seems like this particular server has some issues with installing ESXi, due to the network card not being picked up in the Dell-provided build, but there are workarounds here (last post is v helpful).

From what I've read the Xeon's are tailored for virtualisation, and 4 x 3.2Ghz should be more than enough for what I'm looking to do, even if this isn't a brand new CPU.

I reckon/hope I can get up and running for <£300 / €450. Would this setup suit you too? Is there anything I'm missing?

vibe666

ram ram and more ram!

seriously, in a lab environment your cpu's will likely just be ticking over on idle most of the time, but you still need plenty of ram to get anything done.

you can get away with a certain amount of memory overcommit/ballooning in vmware (not sure on hyper-v, but assume so too), but you still need a decent amount of ram to begin with, particularly if you plan on running a nested vmware cluster on a single host with multiple ESXi hosts and a VC as the VC appliance tends to crap itself if it has less than 8gb of ram (although you can get away with less if you install the windows VC), so between the 2gb minimum for each hypervisor even with no vm's (possibly even 4gb on ESXi v6 I can't remember), you've already eaten 12gb of ram before you have any test VM's loaded into the environment, so all of a sudden that 16gb of ram doesn't seem all that much when you're only left with 4gb free.

ram is cheap enough these days anyway, so worth loading it up with as much as it will take.

Yup, planning to put at least another 16gbs of ram in to it. Server maxes out at 32, which might be in budget. Is there any particular recommendations for type/speed etc? (recall my ignorance!)

There's nothing else 'missing' from that server that would be useful though? The plan is to run it headless and RDP into the VMs from my laptop. My missus would like to be able to have a mess around with a CAD build, so am unsure about whether or not it makes sense to put a graphics card in it either. I think not, but am open to correction on this.

File Server, SQL Server, TV Server tvheadend, a few different dev environments, .Net, Python & Q/kdb+, couple of linux VMs for experimenting with etc. My requirements aren't massive, but I'd prefer to go OTT with the spec and have headroom!

I've already got a 840 EVO and a couple of 1TB drives to stock it.

Edit - Is having different brands of Ram a no-no? Or do I just buy this pair, or two of these and throw them in with the 4GB already in the server? Thanks

ED E

Make sure the IPMI is decent, very handy when it comes to headless boxes. Other than that looks like a good plan.

ED E

ED E wrote: »

Make sure the IPMI is decent, very handy when it comes to headless boxes. Other than that looks like a good plan.

I'll run it headless, but have a screen available for any trouble shooting. I was under the impression that ESXi provides a web interface for tinkering (is this what you mean by IPMI?), am I talking nonsense, or something else altogether?

It does specify in the spec sheet that the server does have support for it, but not much other details.

Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) support Yes
Intel Intelligent Power Node Manager N
Intel Intelligent Power Node Manager No
Intel On-Demand Power Redundancy Technology No
Intel Server Management Software N
Intel Server Management Software No


Thanks

vibe666

HP servers usually have what they call an iLO (integrated Lights Out) management interface that can be configured to alert you to any issues and even used for remote console access with an 'advanced' license, but ESXi will give you pretty much everything you need to know anyway and allow you to manage your enviropnment or will warn you of most standard hardware issues too (assuming it's on the VMware HCL), plus if the server is right there next to you, it's mostly redundant.

ponzook

Better off in the pc building and upgrading forum. For 500 euro you would get a savage server, xeon, 24 GB of ram.

H81 Board - 40 euro
350W 80+ Power supply 30 euro
Xeon v3 - 270 euro
Case - 30 euro
24 GB Ram - 114 euro
1TB hard drives - 55 euro

Total - 531 euro

Missed the deal on the server I posted originally, am now considering the lazy way...

http://www.serversplus.com/servers/server_bundles/70a50022-esxi