Home ESXi Server (Spec)

tntcoder

tntcoder

tntcoder

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Hi,

I'm hoping someone can spec me a cheapish home server that fits the hardware compatibility requirements for running VMWare ESXi. Also having enough juice to run at least 4 VMs.

Would this do? http://www.techhead.co.uk/new-hp-proliant-microserver-a-decent-vsphere-lab-server-candidate

And am I correct in wanting ESXi over VSphere? I think VSphere is for multiple distributed boxes isn't it?

Also can anyone give me an idea of how much it would cost to run said box 365/24/7 headless and at average work loads. I think I pay about 17p per kwh for the first 900 per year than its < 10p.

Thanks :)
 
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I think the hp microserverr is borderline for esxi. Get a ml115 it will be much better if a little noisier. I've got a ml115 and had 4 hosts running no problem and am getting my hp micro server on Wednesday to use as a nas or iscsi target.

FYI, you need esxi not sphere. You will see no difference aside from an empty wallet in a home setting.
 
TBH its impossible to suggest specs by just saying 4vms. What will those VMs be doing, will the be CPU / disk intensive?

My home install is fairly rubbish spec wise, nothing more than an old desktop pc.

1.8GHz Dual Core
8GB Ram
4 HDDs.

Uses about 90watts when I last measured.

I have a DC (overkill but usefull none the less), a file server (windows 7 so I can make use of desktop software like mozy at home). Then a few test servers, at the moment I have 4 server TS farm. Test has its own resource pool given the lowest resources and the Live (DC01 & FS01) have a resource pool with high.

No point in going for the compatibility list - its not going to be production working environment. If I upgrade my system I'll be looking at the 6core AMD chips and 16GB with a lot of drives. Spindles help!
 
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ecksmen said:
TBH its impossible to suggest specs by just saying 4vms. What will those VMs be doing, will the be CPU / disk intensive?

My home install is fairly rubbish spec wise, nothing more than an old desktop pc.

1.8GHz Dual Core
8GB Ram
4 HDDs.

Uses about 90watts when I last measured.

I have a DC (overkill but usefull none the less), a file server (windows 7 so I can make use of desktop software like mozy at home). Then a few test servers, at the moment I have 4 server TS farm. Test has its own resource pool given the lowest resources and the Live (DC01 & FS01) have a resource pool with high.

No point in going for the compatibility list - its not going to be production working environment. If I upgrade my system I'll be looking at the 6core AMD chips and 16GB with a lot of drives. Spindles help!
Click to expand...

Nice thanks, How do you get ESX running on a standard box if you don't follow the HCL? Or have you just brought a supported disk controller :confused:

VM load wise, 3 out of the 4 i want to run will be doing absolute minimal work, while the 4th will be doing folding style CPU intensive work.
 
The HCL is more for support from VMWare it'll run on most hardware but you'll struggle to get VMware support if its not on the HCL. Just go for popular well known chipsets etc... and with a quick google it'll be confirmed as working... I think you'll struggle to find modern kit that doesn't work.
 
vSphere is just a bit of branding to describe ESXi 4 and 4.1 as oppose to the previous ESX/ESXi 3.X. I'm currently running 4.1 on a HP ML110 G5....got one of the MicroServers on the way too :). RAM is definately the biggest consideration for whatever you buy/build.
 
Ok thanks guys, ive pretty much decided on the following spec, where the motherboard is rated to have basically full compatibility for an ESXi whitebox :) Seems like more bang for the buck when going custom.

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.66GHz
ASUS P5Q-VM DO - motherboard - micro ATX - iQ45 - LGA775 Socket
2TB HDD
MicroATX Case + 500w PSU
8gb 667mhz DDR2 RAM

= £400


One last ESXi question, if i set all that up on the single 2tb HDD - is it trivial to add in a second hard drive at a later date for new VMs to utilize? Not bothered with RAID.
 
Its really easy to add more storage as needed, you can then just move VMs to the different VMFS volumes to balance it out a bit. Another thing to consider with the storage is that you can 'thin provision', ie you can allocate space to a VM but it only takes up the actual space which its using. 2TB should be plenty.
 
Also, go for a 4GB usb pen drive to install ESXi on and boot from that.

I'd also look to reduce from 2TB to smaller but more disks. I have an old 80GB drive that contains my ISO images and also the swap files for each VM.

I then have 3 other drives which have the VMs spread over. I don't bother with RAID. Mine is set up like this.

Disk 0 80GB -
ESXI, ISO and SWAP

Disk 1 750Gb

FS01 - 50GB c:\
FS01 - 650GB D:\

Disk 2 750GB
FS01 - 650GB e:\
DC01 - 50GB c:\

Disk 3 300GB (thin disk)
AP01 - 100GB
AP02 - 100GB
AP03 - 100GB
AP04 - 100GB

Disk 3 I always thin provision on, its a single disk for testing. Performance isn't important.

My file server has a 650GB share (d:\) on it, this is mirrored twice a day to e:\ with robocopy, if I loose the a disk at worst I am only 12hours of data loss without the overheads of a full RAID disk.

Both the c:\ drives are split over spindles and the fileshare is very low IO.
 
Ok brilliant thanks, will go with a few smaller drives instead, that makes sense. I wasn't aware you could distribute a VM's storage space over multiple drives, pretty cool.

Christmas project sorted :D Just hope I won't get too badly screwed on electric bills!
 
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