First time ESXi Server

[Omgosh32]

So I want to build an ESXi server. A coworker of mine suggested this would be something really good to learn as well as a good way to have a single machine do a bunch of things at once. If it is not already obvious, a have no experience with ESXi. My intention of building this server is to learn as well as actually deploy several VM's for real application such as a PLEX media server, file storage and most likely a Server 2012 w/ AD/DNS/DHCP (Something else I want to learn more about). I plan on using the free version of ESXi 6 which if I have read everything correct limits me to 8 VM's.

VM1: Windows Server 2012 w/ AD/DNS/DHCP
VM2: PfSense (I intend to make this the router for my whole network which I understand is risky so I may just use it as a firewall in the end)
VM3: PLEX/Media Server (Possibly add capture device maybe to mix)
VM4: File Storage (Was going to do FreeNAS originally but I read that is not a good idea)

The remaining VMs will most likely be Windows 8 or 7, to work with the first VM and practice with in general.

This may be more than I can chew but I like the uphill battle. Now for the main part. I have been trying to decide what parts for actually compose my server of to handle the above machines. I originally wanted to go the road of AMD since I was cheaper and would most likely meet my demands but would limit me for adding parts in the future if I wanted. (Such as only 3 PCI express slots). So I am now leaning more toward Intel since their v3 CPU's would support plenty of Express ports and are faster. I am only need to decide on CPU, Mobo and RAM (maybe RAID controller too, already bought some Intel NICs in prep as well)

Currently I am thinking the following: (Newegg Pricing)
Asrock X99 WS LGA 2011-3 Board ($253 after rebate)
Xeon E3-1650 V3 Haswell CPU ($599)
Crucial 32GB (4x 8GB) DDR4 ECC Reg 2133 RAM (~$375)
Adaptech ASR-6850 RAID (~$200 on ebay w/ battery) *Planning on 4 2TB in Raid 10 to start*

I am open to any suggestions on this. Price is not really my concern but rather that I meet what I want to do and if its way overkill dial it down or maybe use that extra overhead to do some other cool stuff with. Any thoughts on the build are greatly appreciate and if I am going way to big in terms of what I want to do on a single server, someone please ground me more in reality.

 

[Burpo]

This NEW Dell Power Edge w/Ivybridge Xeon already has all the hardware required & is overkill for what you want to do, unless you just want to burn $$$. All it needs is your specific amount of RAM & Hard drives, but is even CPU upgrade able.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-PowerE...429?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4194f62495

There's really no need to build NEW Haswell & spend the amount you're talking about for your purposes. Just saying.
Buy your ram, hard drives & software, install & go to work. Simple, painless, cost effective & STILL overkill..

 

[hasu]

This NEW Dell Power Edge w/Ivybridge Xeon already has all the hardware required & is overkill for what you want to do, unless you just want to burn $$$. All it needs is your specific amount of RAM & Hard drives, but is even CPU upgrade able.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-PowerE...429?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4194f62495

There's really no need to build NEW Haswell & spend the amount you're talking about for your purposes. Just saying.
Buy your ram, hard drives & software, install & go to work. Simple, painless, cost effective & STILL overkill..

Slightly cheaper..
www.ebay.com/itm/161685866185

(But I personally like rack mount

 

[zir_blazer]

If you're already going to use a Xeon and Buffered w/ECC RAM, go with a proper Server Motherboard. X99 is intended for high end Desktop, go for C612. Look around for Supermicro.

May I also suggest you to check Xen? I don't know why everyone chooses ESXi by default.

 

[Burpo]

Slightly cheaper..
www.ebay.com/itm/161685866185

(But I personally like rack mount

An i3? Really?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Slightly cheaper..
www.ebay.com/itm/161685866185

(But I personally like rack mount

4GB of RAM? Really?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

If you're already going to use a Xeon and Buffered w/ECC RAM, go with a proper Server Motherboard. X99 is intended for high end Desktop, go for C612. Look around for Supermicro.

May I also suggest you to check Xen? I don't know why everyone chooses ESXi by default.

Don't have up-to-the-minute numbers, but last time I looked, ESX had like ~60% of the virtualization market and Hyper-V had around 20%. Everybody else. (Xen, KVM, qemu, etc., etc.) were fighting over the last tiny chunk.

The really old-school guys just use chroot environments.

Not saying Xen isn't also a good hypervisor (then again, I use VirtualBox at home, so maybe an endorsement from me is suspect?) but, well, the market is where the market is - if you're building skills for a resume "eff Xen, get money."

OP - you should learn how to use as many hypervisors as possible. Including Xen (Citrix Xenserver is probably the most user-friendly variant. Overall similar to ESXi, but different. Learn the differences, learn when one is better than the other.)

 

[mfenn]

I plan on using the free version of ESXi 6 which if I have read everything correct limits me to 8 VM's.

The free ESXi license has no special limitations on the number of VMs that you can run. ESXi has a "configuration maximum" of 1024 VMs per host, but you'd be hard pressed to find a server that can touch that for less than the price of a modest house.

The main thing to think about when building a whitebox ESXi system for learning purposes is whether ESXi has built in drivers for your hardware. Generally if you stick to motherboards with Intel NICs and Intel SATA controllers, then you'll be good to go.

For example:

Xeon E3-1226 v3 $225
MSI H97M Eco $90
Crucial DDR3 1600 16GB $105 - or double to 32GB if you want

 

[dave_the_nerd]

The free ESXi license has no special limitations on the number of VMs that you can run. ESXi has a "configuration maximum" of 1024 VMs per host, but you'd be hard pressed to find a server that can touch that for less than the price of a modest house.

The main thing to think about when building a whitebox ESXi system for learning purposes is whether ESXi has built in drivers for your hardware. Generally if you stick to motherboards with Intel NICs and Intel SATA controllers, then you'll be good to go.

For example:

Xeon E3-1226 v3 $225
MSI H97M Eco $90
Crucial DDR3 1600 16GB $105 - or double to 32GB if you want

Pretty sure the "consumer" Intel NICs like the i218 weren't supported out of the box in ESX 5.5. (Recently build an H97M system and did some reading.)

Did that change for 6.0?

 

[Burpo]

4GB of RAM? Really?

I guess nobody reads.. It is spelled out..

This NEW Dell Power Edge w/Ivybridge Xeon already has all the hardware required & is overkill for what you want to do, unless you just want to burn $$$. All it needs is your specific amount of RAM & Hard drives, but is even CPU upgrade able.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-PowerE...429?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4194f62495

There's really no need to build NEW Haswell & spend the amount you're talking about for your purposes. Just saying.
Buy your ram, hard drives & software, install & go to work. Simple, painless, cost effective & STILL overkill..

 

[XavierMace]

pfSense on a VM has a few unique requirements, one of which is you are going to be dedicating one physical NIC port on your box as the WAN port, so keep that in mind when determining how many ports you need.

I'd also point out that since this is for a lab, a used prebuilt (IE a DL380G6 or Dell R710) would save you a fair chunk of change and ensure you're getting compatible hardware. My DL380G6 hosts are running a pair of Xeon L5640's and 64Gb of RAM. They sit around 170w constant and you get all the niceties (iLo, redundant power supplies, etc).

May I also suggest you to check Xen? I don't know why everyone chooses ESXi by default.

That's like asking why everyone chooses Cisco for their home networking lab. If you're doing it for giggles, choose whatever you want. If you're trying to build marketable skills, that means Cisco for networking and VMWare for Virtualization.

 

[mvbighead]

That's like asking why everyone chooses Cisco for their home networking lab. If you're doing it for giggles, choose whatever you want. If you're trying to build marketable skills, that means Cisco for networking and VMWare for Virtualization.

This. To consider anything else is just not wise. I could see making a case for HyperV, as that is gaining some market share, but the large majority of enterprise business is using VMWare.

If I were the op, I'd give some strong consideration to:

http://flash.newegg.com/Product/N82E16859108077

Add your RAM and disk and go to town.

 

[Omgosh32]

Thanks guys for the lot of info and grounding my initial setup so I don't waste as much cash. I like all the suggestions for the ready to go systems but I had intentions to use the spare stuff in my apartment (if I got another tower the girlfriend would flip). Its huge, lots of space and I got a spare beefy PSU. So ideally I would like to fill it in instead. I have some Intel NICs that I know work and are ready to go. Also, I just like building something.

So, RAM and HDD options aside (based on everyone telling me to just buy what I need and go) and based off of the options I'm seeing here and the performance, it seems a 300 to 450~ dollar board and cpu combo would be more than enough to do this. Providing hardware compatibility. I dug a bit more at work today and I think I may go back to AMD than.

Asus Sabertooth 990FX $180
AMD-FX 8 series or 9 series ($135-$230)

I've read people having success with the board using RAID controllers (I plan to use one), good amount of PCI Express slots and it support ECC RAM should I choose to go for it. Is ECC ram worth it, I see many places saying it is.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Thanks guys for the lot of info and grounding my initial setup so I don't waste as much cash. I like all the suggestions for the ready to go systems but I had intentions to use the spare stuff in my apartment (if I got another tower the girlfriend would flip). Its huge, lots of space and I got a spare beefy PSU. So ideally I would like to fill it in instead. I have some Intel NICs that I know work and are ready to go. Also, I just like building something.

So, RAM and HDD options aside (based on everyone telling me to just buy what I need and go) and based off of the options I'm seeing here and the performance, it seems a 300 to 450~ dollar board and cpu combo would be more than enough to do this. Providing hardware compatibility. I dug a bit more at work today and I think I may go back to AMD than.

Asus Sabertooth 990FX $180
AMD-FX 8 series or 9 series ($135-$230)

I've read people having success with the board using RAID controllers (I plan to use one), good amount of PCI Express slots and it support ECC RAM should I choose to go for it. Is ECC ram worth it, I see many places saying it is.

ECC RAM is worth it if your data is important and there's money on the line. If you're just building a learning box, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[mfenn]

Pretty sure the "consumer" Intel NICs like the i218 weren't supported out of the box in ESX 5.5. (Recently build an H97M system and did some reading.)

Did that change for 6.0?

Yes, 6.0 includes an updated e1000e driver that works with the 217/218.

 

[mfenn]

So, RAM and HDD options aside (based on everyone telling me to just buy what I need and go) and based off of the options I'm seeing here and the performance, it seems a 300 to 450~ dollar board and cpu combo would be more than enough to do this. Providing hardware compatibility. I dug a bit more at work today and I think I may go back to AMD than.

I'm not sure why you would brave the compatibility issues with AMD when you could get a perfectly good Intel setup for the same money.

The Intel setup I linked gets you more CPU performance for the price because it doesn't waste a ton of money on an overly expensive mobo like Sabertooth 990FX. To make matters worse for the AMD setup, that board requires the addition of a power-sucking, yet mostly useless discrete GPU.

 

[CoPhotoGuy]

I'm not sure why you would brave the compatibility issues with AMD when you could get a perfectly good Intel setup for the same money.

The Intel setup I linked gets you more CPU performance for the price because it doesn't waste a ton of money on an overly expensive mobo like Sabertooth 990FX. To make matters worse for the AMD setup you linked, that board requires the addition of a power-sucking, yet mostly useless discrete GPU.

I'd agree with this.

Be very careful with building a whitebox ESXi system as if you don't have proper NIC drivers it's not going to install.

Another viable option is to use VMware Workstation and a beefy desktop. I have a 6-core Haswell with 32GB of RAM and it can handle a modest POC lab, though 64GB of RAM would be better.

So I tend to use Workstation when I am learning our new software releases but then I get it for free.

 

[core2slow]

As someone who's been working in virtualization with both on esx and xenserver, avoid AMD at all cost.

 

[CoPhotoGuy]

lol...I just avoid AMD period...for everything.