**Dell PowerEdge T20 Mini Tower Server - Owner Thread**

[shine]

Thanks for that. Does the Dell image work with the T20 nic or is that why you put in another network card?

The Dell image does not include the driver for the Onboard NIC. This is why the instructions in post 7 of the link posted by Steveocee needs to be followed.

I added the extra NIC as I need the extra ports for some specific tests I need to run in my lab.

 

[Little_Crow]

Also does anyone know if I can migrate the two vms form my N54l with 5.1 on it over to the T20 with ESXI 6.0

You can absolutely do that, just move them, register the vmx file and you're done. Then it's just a case of upgrading the vm tools, and optionally the VM Hardware.

 

[rickjames]

Finally ordered one, due to arrive tomorrow. A couple of questions...

For my MCSA Server 2012R2 I want to configure it like the TLG provided here by MS - http://bit.ly/1PFLIO8

I have 3x128gb SSDs and 1x60gb SSD. What's the best way to sort storage for the above? Install the OS on one of the 128gb drives, set up the remaining 3 as a storage pool and split that space evenly across the VMs I need? Or is there a better way?

 

[chris06]

I installed ESXI 6.0 U1 without issue and the T20 Nic worked without any additional steps. Maybe the drivers have been added in the latest release of the official Vmware build

 

[Dandle]

Thanks Chris that's good to know.

 

[Etheco]

Well, My Server will arrive today i am excited to finally make use of all these hard drives sat on my desk since Christmas!

I am going to be sad to turn my old machine off, up 439 days lol.

 

[Oh Ed not again.]

2 pages and no pics of builds, boo!

 

[Etheco]

Surely they all look the same ?

 

[rickjames]

Mine has arrived and is sitting at my desk.

Regarding the disks I have above that have old Windows 8 data on them, can I just format them and plug them in or am I sorting them via the RAID controller?

 

[Dandle]

Got mine today. Can also report the NIC works fine with the Dell ESXI build.

 

[quickshot89]

The T20 does not have iDRAC.

Foes it come with any form of remote management built in? I'd love to get one of these as a hyper-v host but id want to have the ability to remote manage

 

[shine]

Foes it come with any form of remote management built in? I'd love to get one of these as a hyper-v host but id want to have the ability to remote manage

The Xeon model has Intel AMT (Active Management Technology), but I've not enabled it on mine. There's more info here.

NOTE: AMT is not available on the non Xeon T20's, even if you upgrade the CPU later as it is disabled, more info here.

 

[rickjames]

So, got the 4 drives in which was a bit of squeeze, ran the usual BIOS tests, passed all fine and installed Server 2012R2 without a hitch. Ran Windows Update all fine and seems pretty zippy.

Think I'll just go through the course material before doing anything ridiculous regarding storage/VMs etc

 

[quickshot89]

The Xeon model has Intel AMT (Active Management Technology), but I've not enabled it on mine. There's more info here.

NOTE: AMT is not available on the non Xeon T20's, even if you upgrade the CPU later as it is disabled, more info here

What a con

 

[Michael Myers]

looks like I have missed the boat on these deals

 

[Etheco]

looks like I have missed the boat on these deals

The one i got is still in stock search "T20 Dell cashback" the one i got was around £170 then £70 cashback soon.

 

[Michael Myers]

yeah I was after the xeon version as im going run a lot of VM's and it looks like that deal has ended and price hiked up!

 

[rickjames]

If I were you and desperate for the Xeon I'd say look at the TS-140 instead, £225 odd after cashback right now.

 

[-TA-]

Got two, but undecided what OS to run on them, all I need them for is a simple file server, but running the crashplan app on one (fed up of the faff keeping the it running headless on my synology nas!)

Any tips? Never even looked at Linux before!

 

[Little_Crow]

Got two, but undecided what OS to run on them, all I need them for is a simple file server, but running the crashplan app on one (fed up of the faff keeping the it running headless on my synology nas!)

Any tips? Never even looked at Linux before!

I think you should try out ESXi, then you can try out the various Linux flavours till you find one that suits.
Virtualisation particularly lends itself to this as you can take a snapshot before you try anything that might brick your server, and just roll back if it all goes pearshaped.

I did exactly this when building my first Linux server (Running Plex and sabnzbd). I wanted to run it as a server with no GUI. I just spooled up an Ubuntu desktop and Ubuntu server, figured out how to do it with the benefit of the GUI on the desktop, and replicated that in command line on the server.