- Oct 5, 2012
- 13
- 0
- 10,510
Hi all,
Hoping for some help with a home build that's sole purpose is for running ESXi.
I'm not a complete n00b when it comes to this, but haven't done it in about 10 years, when it was all Pentium P3 and AMD Athlon with 512mb ram if you were lucky / rich. So it's true to say that I am not up to date with all the latest technology and concepts.
Objective
I'm a software developer by profession, and I use VMWare virtual machines extensively for a variety of purposes. I have been using VMWare Fusion on my Macs for a couple of years with great success. I've been running small Windows domain setups, and a range of other W2k8R2 servers with things like SQL Server 2008 / 2012, particularly for SSAS/SSRS and a lot of SharePoint 2010.
I've got a few other machines I run - I have a LAMP server running on Ubuntu Server, a few Windows client machines, and I'd also like to setup a dedicated Handbrake and iTunes streaming server, for streaming video to an AppleTV (so possibly a virtual OSX machine.) and possibly a central storage / NAS / san of some sort.
At the moment I run these off either my Laptop (Intel Macbook Pro) or my desktop (Intel iMac) with VMWare Fusion.
However, I've started to hit performance barriers where I'm limited to how many machines I can have running at one time.
Therefore, I want to build a dedicated ESXi server that can be running 24/7 with many or all of these machines up and once. Obviously noise, heat and power consumption are a consideration but I'm quite relaxed about it. Obviously being relatively future-proof would be an advantage too.
I don't do any gaming, or anything else particularly graphics intensive. Not looking to overclock either.
Confession
I didn't do enough reading up on this before starting to collect hardware. I was a bit naive because everything works so well with VMWare Fusion with no configuration. I find the VMWare ESXi HCL a bit confusing. I determined that I needed a processor and mobo that would support VT and then started buying. I started looking at the old HP / Dell servers that you can buy on eBay for not much cash but decided against due to noise/power consumption. I then started looking at desktop server boards/components, but the price soon added up. So in the end I settled on standard desktop components based around Intel chipset.
However, I've since done what should I have done first - some proper research. And, now I've got all the bits, I'm questioning whether it's the right mix for what I want.
Current Kitlist
The kit I've bought so far is:
■ Intel Core i7-3770K S1155 3.5GHz 8MB
■ Asus P8Z77-V S1155 Intel Z77 DDR3 ATX
Other bits
■ 2x Western Digital Black 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB
■ 2 x Corsair CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10 Vengenace 16GB 1600MHz CL10 DDR3 Memory Two Module Kit (32gb total)
■ Corsair Carbide Series 500R Mid-Tower Gaming Chassis, White
■ Corsair 750W Enthusiast Series TX750 Modular Power Supply
Budget was around £600, but I blew that, mainly due to going to 32gb RAM and upgrading to the Black edition of the hard drives rather than the green.
The problem
I think this machine would do the job (and do it well) but essentially it would seem that I've built a gaming rig, rather than something ideally suited for running VMs. It's clearly overspecced, and I've since learnt what the K insignia on the processor means (i.e, unlocked) and that it does not support VT-d and a few other features. It also seems that the motherboard (nor any ASUS) will support VT-d.
I also made mistakes with the case - it's absolutely enormous, and I'm a bit concerned the 200mm fans in it are going to be noisy. I'm also not sure I need the 750w PSU, but anyway, for another day perhaps.
So I'm wondering if I can change it a bit, and if I reduce the spend, so much the better..!
Questions, then...
1. Do I need Vt-d [IOMMU] support? Based on reading what this means, I think it can be simplified down to: "if I want a particular guest OS to have access to a piece of hardware, that ESXi does not have driver for, then VT-d enables the guest OS to see the hardware natively and so you can then install the native drivers in the guest OS."
At the moment, I can't see this being a requirement, as everything is pretty standard. However, I don't really want to rule it out as something I may want to do in the future.
2. Should I scale this back to get hardware more suited to virtualisation? Have been looking around, and either the Core I7-3770 (non K edition) does support VT-d, or the Xeon E3-12** series also support it (ironically this were the chips I first started looking at.) (useful info...)
If so, which mobo should I go for? ASRock seems to be a popular choice, and I think this would do the job... and is a lot cheaper than the ASUS!
I guess the only thing that I would prefer is to get something that will work the RAM I've already bought.
That's probably enough for now - but obviously any other hints, tips or stuff I've missed/advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Matt
Hoping for some help with a home build that's sole purpose is for running ESXi.
I'm not a complete n00b when it comes to this, but haven't done it in about 10 years, when it was all Pentium P3 and AMD Athlon with 512mb ram if you were lucky / rich. So it's true to say that I am not up to date with all the latest technology and concepts.
Objective
I'm a software developer by profession, and I use VMWare virtual machines extensively for a variety of purposes. I have been using VMWare Fusion on my Macs for a couple of years with great success. I've been running small Windows domain setups, and a range of other W2k8R2 servers with things like SQL Server 2008 / 2012, particularly for SSAS/SSRS and a lot of SharePoint 2010.
I've got a few other machines I run - I have a LAMP server running on Ubuntu Server, a few Windows client machines, and I'd also like to setup a dedicated Handbrake and iTunes streaming server, for streaming video to an AppleTV (so possibly a virtual OSX machine.) and possibly a central storage / NAS / san of some sort.
At the moment I run these off either my Laptop (Intel Macbook Pro) or my desktop (Intel iMac) with VMWare Fusion.
However, I've started to hit performance barriers where I'm limited to how many machines I can have running at one time.
Therefore, I want to build a dedicated ESXi server that can be running 24/7 with many or all of these machines up and once. Obviously noise, heat and power consumption are a consideration but I'm quite relaxed about it. Obviously being relatively future-proof would be an advantage too.
I don't do any gaming, or anything else particularly graphics intensive. Not looking to overclock either.
Confession
I didn't do enough reading up on this before starting to collect hardware. I was a bit naive because everything works so well with VMWare Fusion with no configuration. I find the VMWare ESXi HCL a bit confusing. I determined that I needed a processor and mobo that would support VT and then started buying. I started looking at the old HP / Dell servers that you can buy on eBay for not much cash but decided against due to noise/power consumption. I then started looking at desktop server boards/components, but the price soon added up. So in the end I settled on standard desktop components based around Intel chipset.
However, I've since done what should I have done first - some proper research. And, now I've got all the bits, I'm questioning whether it's the right mix for what I want.
Current Kitlist
The kit I've bought so far is:
■ Intel Core i7-3770K S1155 3.5GHz 8MB
■ Asus P8Z77-V S1155 Intel Z77 DDR3 ATX
Other bits
■ 2x Western Digital Black 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB
■ 2 x Corsair CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10 Vengenace 16GB 1600MHz CL10 DDR3 Memory Two Module Kit (32gb total)
■ Corsair Carbide Series 500R Mid-Tower Gaming Chassis, White
■ Corsair 750W Enthusiast Series TX750 Modular Power Supply
Budget was around £600, but I blew that, mainly due to going to 32gb RAM and upgrading to the Black edition of the hard drives rather than the green.
The problem
I think this machine would do the job (and do it well) but essentially it would seem that I've built a gaming rig, rather than something ideally suited for running VMs. It's clearly overspecced, and I've since learnt what the K insignia on the processor means (i.e, unlocked) and that it does not support VT-d and a few other features. It also seems that the motherboard (nor any ASUS) will support VT-d.
I also made mistakes with the case - it's absolutely enormous, and I'm a bit concerned the 200mm fans in it are going to be noisy. I'm also not sure I need the 750w PSU, but anyway, for another day perhaps.
So I'm wondering if I can change it a bit, and if I reduce the spend, so much the better..!
Questions, then...
1. Do I need Vt-d [IOMMU] support? Based on reading what this means, I think it can be simplified down to: "if I want a particular guest OS to have access to a piece of hardware, that ESXi does not have driver for, then VT-d enables the guest OS to see the hardware natively and so you can then install the native drivers in the guest OS."
At the moment, I can't see this being a requirement, as everything is pretty standard. However, I don't really want to rule it out as something I may want to do in the future.
2. Should I scale this back to get hardware more suited to virtualisation? Have been looking around, and either the Core I7-3770 (non K edition) does support VT-d, or the Xeon E3-12** series also support it (ironically this were the chips I first started looking at.) (useful info...)
If so, which mobo should I go for? ASRock seems to be a popular choice, and I think this would do the job... and is a lot cheaper than the ASUS!
I guess the only thing that I would prefer is to get something that will work the RAM I've already bought.
That's probably enough for now - but obviously any other hints, tips or stuff I've missed/advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Matt
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