Home Server time

GJUK · 22 May 2014 at 14:54

Hi Guys

I like to get another server at home up and running for playing with Hyper visor(s) and VM running

Currently running HP micro server for Media storage which I leave as is

I have a 4U case that I can use and couple of caddies for hot swap drives

Other parts I have

Perc 6 which will do for now

PSU 650W corsair
selection of 80mm fans to help with temps
2 port Intel Nic

so thinking i5 or some sort 16GB ram

suggestions of missing parts etc please

Gary

Steveocee · 23 May 2014 at 13:42

If you're VM'ing then more cores the better IMO. Rather than i series (i5, i7) a xeon would be better as you don't want to be overclocking it and you don't need the embedded graphics of an i series processor.
4 core/8 thread xeon would probably be similar price to an i5 as well.

Essexraptor · 24 May 2014 at 02:29

look at the Hypervisors first... decide which one your going to use.... the limitations of each when the trial period ends.

The costs if you pay for a subscription... then build your host machine to suit.

RAM is the other consideration... the more the better... cores have already been mentioned by Steveocee... and a Xeon (4/8) is a goody. If you can get your hands on anymore cheap (auction site) dual port Intel NICS ... do so. I've seen some in the low 30's... high 20's ..... obviously server rip outs but still good value

my limits on the ESXi 5.1 hypervisor hosted on a dual core N40L with 16GB of RAM is 2 maybe 3 full time running instances.

EDIT

If, like many, your going to using this for a "Lab".... may I suggest you control the host from a small cheap laptop and place both in a DMZ or VLAN or even a 2nd LAN and isolate them away from your main home network..... nothing worse than trying to recover everything when it goes pear shaped with a DNS Server or AD/DHCP Server connected to everything else... even virtual instances can cause mayhem

GJUK · 24 May 2014 at 09:19

Hi

Ok Xeon sounds the way to go, there seems to be hundreds of the little buggers, is there recommended one or model to go for?

Motherboard will need to support 32GB will start with 8/16GB just to get up and runing

I want to try/test all of them, I work with VMware all the time, so like to try MS and Citrix ones, just to get an understanding..

My live stuff will for now stay on the HP Micro server I have so that stay out the way, I would like long time to have maybe 2 hypervisors and a storage solution at some point, but for now I looking at getting a server up and running so I can play with 2012 R2 and other MS software