ESXI SFF Build

redscope

redscope

redscope

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28 Jul 2015
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6
Hello,

I am after some advice with a build for a lab machine to run ESXi on. Up to now I have been using to vmware for workstation to run a lab environment. I have about 5-10 machines with a DC, SQL server, Application servers, and a number of workstations. I mainly use it for testing application builds or problem solving work issues with a freedom to screw it up rather than the companies one :)

I want to move this off my main computer on to a new machine but I want it to be slightly more portable so I can take it off to the customer sites. Hence why I am looking for a SFF build.

I like the look of the BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case, looking at a 500w modular cool master power supply, with about 16 gig of ram, and a 2TB WD Red drive. I have a spare SSD I can use with a plan to upgrade as required.

What I am struggling with is the choice of CPU or the number of cores I can present to the VM's. I would like to keep the cost down go for an Icore 3 CPU. That has 2 cores but with hyper threading it would give me 4 in total. However for a bit more the AMD FX8350 Black Edition 8 Core Processor has double the number.

I am planning on sticking with the GPU on the chip rather than a separate graphics card if that makes any difference. I might upgrade in the future to consider a steam stream box for when staying in hotels :)

I also want to ensure the CPU and motherboard are fully supported by ESXI so any advice would be useful and any thoughts on a core issue. What I dont want to do is create any future bottlenecks on the CPU usage.
 
I can give some general advice:

In terms of where performance problems will hurt first, it's generally Disk, then memory and finally CPU. Some decent SSD's and a chunk of memory are a good starting point; more CPU cores are always better, but they shouldn't be your primary focus.

Motherboard generally won't be a concern unless you need to have a graphics card or tuner card, etc directly available inside a VM.
Your main area of concern on this will be having a NIC from the approved VMWare list, I think motherboards with one built in are fairly uncommon, so you may just have to buy an intel e1000 or similar.

One thing you stated in your post is: "I might upgrade in the future to consider a steam stream box for when staying in hotels".
ESXi is headless, if you plug a monitor and keyboard into it you get the ESXi config screen and nothing else, you can't switch to a guest machines desktop.
To access a VM's desktop you need a separate windows machine with the vsphere client installed
 
Liquidfox said:
Sounds like OP will be configuring networking so that won't be an issue.
Click to expand...

For general use or on remote sites I will be taking a laptop with me to act as the vm client.

However Little_Crow I think was referring to me using it as a steam box in hotels. I was thinking that I could dual boot the machine or simply run an OS off a USB disc. I have not tried it but I assume I could use Linux as an os to stream from my windows PC. That is a nice to have rather than critical at this stage.

In terms of CPU I was thinking about Intel i5 4590 Quad Core CPU or the Intel i3-4160 Dual Core Processor

I was looking at Asus H81I-PLUS Motherboard to support them.

I heard the stock coolers are rubbish but I am not going to be over clocking it so I dont want a water cooler. I was thinking something cheap but small to fit in the ITX case like a ARCTIC Alpine 11 Rev.2
 
You'd have to look into dual booting ESXi and windows. It should be possible, but not something I've ever done. If anything, the way simpler solution would be to install ESXi to a USB stick and boot from that when you need to.

For safety in this case I'd disable auto mounting partitions in Windows. You don't want to click yes to the 'do you want to format this partition' prompt when you're half asleep and nuke your ESXi datastores.
 
You could look at the Avoton c2750 based motherboards... The Asrock C2750D4I is a Mini ITX with an Avoton C2750 (Octacore), with 4 memory slots (not often seen on Mini ITX boards) and supports up to 64GB memory and has more SATA slots than your ever need . The Network card is natively supported i believe in 5.5 update 1 onwards. Could be ideal for a home\portable ESXi host.... Comes with built on heatsink and a case fan is good enough to keep it cool

As long as its not being used for anything to heavy duty it could be ideal. Not too expensive either.
 
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