Processor for Virtualization Lab (With comptbl Board around 100$ 4 Dimm+onboard Graphics)

[DIONODELL]

Heres some food for thought for my fellow Rig designers.😀
Which processor do i choose among these for virtualisation Lab
I will be running min 8 VM win server 8, win server 12,win 7,ubuntu .
I also need to know what will be best suited board with onboard graphics and which chipset of Amd Board is best.
AMD FX-8320 (FD8320FRHKBOX) Processor

AMD FX-8150 Zambezi 3.6GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Processor FD8150FRGUBOX

AMD 4.4 GHz AM3+ FX 6-Core Edition FX-6300 (FD6300WMHKBOX) Processor

AMD 3.1 GHz AM3+ FX 8120 Processor

AMD A10-6800K Richland 4.1GHz (4.4GHz Turbo) Socket FM2 100W Quad-Core Desktop Processor - Black Edition AMD Radeon HD 8670D

Appreciate quick reply.
kindly give pros n cons of each processor as to why its not suited.
i can shell out some few extra dollars for GPU card if required.

i also tried searching for Dual processor Boards does anyone have idea which boards support "Dual cpu" Piledriver,or Bulldozer .

 

[DIONODELL]

I have to disagree on hard drive reliability. Systems that run 24x7 often have less hard drive issues than systems that are powered off several times a week. I can't figure out why you recommend one core per server, particularly for a lab. If a VM is busy while others are not, all available resources will be used (up to the maximum number of vCores allocated to the VM). When loading a 100 GB DB, I'm more concerned by disk I/O than CPU load.

Harddrives die all the time. Most production servers run a RAID5 or RAID6 so it's not a big issue. But if you are only running 1 drive, it could die. You want to run a daily backup on a Production server is possible. That puts more stress on the drive.

If you are running something BIG, like SQL Databases or large Exchange directories, having more cores will greatly benefit. Having more RAM on your exchange server will be a big help too. Not all applications will take advantage of more than one core, so running an AV scan overnight can drain 1 core.

If you are not actually using your server, you just want to open a bunch of unused VM's, than the quality of your hardware will not matter.

In a production environment, you need good quality server drives. It's a lot of work when people take shortcuts and things break.

https://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/previewBody/21181-102-1-28328/vsphere-oversubscription-best-practices%5B1%5D.pdf

"In a virtual machine, processors are referred to as virtual CPUs (vCPUs). When an administrator adds
vCPUs to a virtual machine, each of those vCPUs is assigned to a pCPU, although the actual pCPU
may not always be the same."

In this Dell white paper, the following vCPU: pCPU guidelines are established:
•1:1 to 3:1 is no problem
•3:1 to 5:1 may begin to cause performance degradation
•6:1 or greater is often going to cause a problem

If you are just experimenting, you may as well pick up the extra cores and not have to worry about data loss, or performance. You'll thank me you are actually running a service, and not just hosting a few blank screens.

This is interesting Info.
So now i have 8cores at my disposal with 4ghz what will i see on esxi Host as cpu count.
And when i allocate resources will it be 1core 4ghz vcpu?
for ex this is screenshot of 6core AMD 6300
http://thehomeserverblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/esxi-home-server-9-overview.png

kindly enlighten me.

8 CPUs at 4 GHz (one CPU per core, e.g., the server I'm connected to shows 48 CPUs). You decide on the frequency assigned to a vCPU, i.e., it doesn't have to be 4 GHz.

What is the Config of your Host?

 

[GhislainG]

That host is a ProLiant DL585 G7 with 256 GB of memory; storage is on a SAN with a bunch of hard disks. My personal servers are less powerful, but they also are quieter and more energy efficient.

 

[DIONODELL]

so you have the 3 opteron CPU server.
I know about this beast.

 

[Alec Mowat]

That host is a ProLiant DL585 G7 with 256 GB of memory; storage is on a SAN with a bunch of hard disks. My personal servers are less powerful, but they also are quieter and more energy efficient.

An actual brand-name server is far better, more reliable and has much better warranty coverage than anything DIY.

If you are just playing around and shutting this system off at night, the FX will be fine.

If you are planning on running this 24/7, going with an HP or Dell or even IBM is a much better option.

 

[Alec Mowat]

I have to disagree on hard drive reliability. Systems that run 24x7 often have less hard drive issues than systems that are powered off several times a week. I can't figure out why you recommend one core per server, particularly for a lab. If a VM is busy while others are not, all available resources will be used (up to the maximum number of vCores allocated to the VM). When loading a 100 GB DB, I'm more concerned by disk I/O than CPU load.

Harddrives die all the time. Most production servers run a RAID5 or RAID6 so it's not a big issue. But if you are only running 1 drive, it could die. You want to run a daily backup on a Production server is possible. That puts more stress on the drive.

If you are running something BIG, like SQL Databases or large Exchange directories, having more cores will greatly benefit. Having more RAM on your exchange server will be a big help too. Not all applications will take advantage of more than one core, so running an AV scan overnight can drain 1 core.

If you are not actually using your server, you just want to open a bunch of unused VM's, than the quality of your hardware will not matter.

In a production environment, you need good quality server drives. It's a lot of work when people take shortcuts and things break.

https://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/previewBody/21181-102-1-28328/vsphere-oversubscription-best-practices%5B1%5D.pdf

"In a virtual machine, processors are referred to as virtual CPUs (vCPUs). When an administrator adds
vCPUs to a virtual machine, each of those vCPUs is assigned to a pCPU, although the actual pCPU
may not always be the same."

In this Dell white paper, the following vCPU: pCPU guidelines are established:
•1:1 to 3:1 is no problem
•3:1 to 5:1 may begin to cause performance degradation
•6:1 or greater is often going to cause a problem

If you are just experimenting, you may as well pick up the extra cores and not have to worry about data loss, or performance. You'll thank me you are actually running a service, and not just hosting a few blank screens.

This is interesting Info.
So now i have 8cores at my disposal with 4ghz what will i see on esxi Host as cpu count.
And when i allocate resources will it be 1core 4ghz vcpu?
for ex this is screenshot of 6core AMD 6300
http://thehomeserverblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/esxi-home-server-9-overview.png

kindly enlighten me.

The server shown in the screen shot has 2vCPU's and 4 GB of RAM. The RAM overhead is the amount of free RAM required for the VM to boot. This is because VMware allows overallocation of resources. You can give 4 hosts 4 GB of RAM each, with only 8 GB total in the server.

However; I don't recommend allocating more resources than you actually have. This can cause issues in the future.

 

[DIONODELL]

All AM3+ processors support IOMMU. Go with the 6300, the 8320 or the 8350 if it fits in your budget; don't buy an older processor like the 8150 unless you get a great deal on it. I'd go for the 8320 as it only costs a bit more than the 6300 and the performance difference with the 8350 is not important on a server (unless its purpose is to run benchmarks).

Overclocking a server is looking for stability problems, particularly with 32GB of memory. I'd select a 1600 memory kit that's known to work reliably when installed on the selected motherboard or buy a 1600 kit and run it at 1333 if it isn't stable at 1600.

You need passthrough to assign a physical disk to a VM; same for the video controller, etc. Read the what the builder said about VMotion and passthrough. My server supports passthrough, but I have yet to find a reason to use it (unless I create a VM that requires direct access to the hard disk and/or video card).

HIIIiiiiii
how are you
can i PM you or email you if possible???
let me know..

 

[GhislainG]

You can PM me.