VM Server build suggestions

ramdor · 2 Jan 2014 at 12:25

Hi folks,

I wonder if any of you VM server bods out there can offer some suggestions for a build.

We are looking for :

CPU or CPU's
Mobo (with on-board video, 2 x gig Ethernet)
Ram (ecc)

The machine will run 4 vms, one of them with 12gig at least allocation (SBS + Sql server), the other 3 probably 4 gigs each. We do want to future proof the build due to us potentially consolidating a number of stand alone boxes, so the total VM count may increase to 6-8. The 3 VM's will have 2 cores assigned each, the primary SBS/Sql will have at least 4.

It will be housed in an X-Case RM 424, 24 bay hotswap, with a 9280-24i4e MegaRaid SAS, which we already have.

We have a budget of about £4k, but ideally would prefer not to have to spend all of it if we can get away with it. That being said, we want to invest wisely to extend the lifetime of the machine.

Cheers,

Richie.

ramdor · 7 Jan 2014 at 11:28

Thanks for the replies, but we don't want to go with an off the shelf solution. We have looked into dells+whatnot but as it is a home+small business server, and we already have a 4u xcase+raid card, we figured we might as well just put something together ourselves.

We are thinking about the following :

- Supermicro X9DRH-ITF
- Supermicro active cooler
- Intel Xeon E5-2690v2 3.00GHz 10-Core
- 64gig of registered ECC 1600 ram, in 4 x 16gb modules, probably supermicro badged

Approx cost of the above is 1100 for ram+mobo, and 1500 ish for cpu.

Expansion possibility with more ram and another cpu.

What I am concerned about atm is the power usage and resultant heat from the cpu(s).

ramdor · 7 Jan 2014 at 11:30

jameshurrell said:
You also mention SQL... I would personally run this on a separate VM (i.e. member server) to SBS for performance and also for integration reasons -

thanks for the info James. What os would you run as the sql member server.

ramdor · 7 Jan 2014 at 18:05

Caged said:
You need to have a really good reason why a PowerEdge / Proliant won't suit your needs. Your reason isn't good enough.

Just buy something, and sell the case.

the good reason is the cash comes out of my pocket, not some multinational bank account

...but yes, in an ideal world I know where you are coming from. It is not a mission critical server, so downtime (within reason) is not a problem.