Request suggestion for new build for Virtualization

[mrniranjan]

I am looking for suggestion for new build purely for virtualization (openstack). Currently looking for a single system,

CPU: AMD (Ryzen preferably) ,
FormFactor: MiniITX
Motherboard with 2 NIC's
RAM: Minimum of 16GB
Decent IO for hard-disks,
At any point of time there will be 4 VM's that will be active,
I/O on the VM's is very minimal, there is no heavy IO, (i am using mainly for testing some applications).
No Gaming absolutely.

If anybody can share their builds where virtualization is used.

If there any NUC's (again preferably based on AMD Ryzen) that i can just use as compute nodes, if anyone has built such please do share.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

If this isn't production (you don't need ECC), you're not doing a lot of I/O, and not maxing out CPU, yes, a NUC will work as a compute node, but Ryzen is too much of a beast to fit in something like that, as of yet.

PCPartpicker doesn't list any ITX Ryzen boards with dual NICs. In fact the only one I could find was the GA-AX370, which is an ATX one. With a uATX board, you can drop in a dual port NIC, but Ryzen needs some kind of GPU, so you can't do that on an ITX platform. (2 slots minimum, so you need a uATX or the not-very-common DTX.)

Using a low end Intel CPU (you don't need a crapton of threads to run VMs if the VMs are mostly idle, after all) gets you an IGP and lowers the size/cost of the rest of the platform too.

Example: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/kGQpqk

 

[VirtualLarry]

I hate to say this, but owning both Ryzen / AM4 micro-ATX boards, AND Coffee Lake (1151v2) ITX boards, I have to say, for this application, Coffee Lake hands-down.

I've got an ASRock CFL / 1151v2 Z370 board, it is ITX form-factory, has dual Intel NICs, an M.2 PCI-E socket for an SSD, and a PCI-E 3.0 x16 slot, and six SATA6G ports. Enough for everybody. Coupled with a relatively inexpensive i3-8100 CFL quad-core 3.6Ghz (I think) CPU, and some DDR4, it makes a potent combo. I've got mine on offer on FS/FT forum, but I may just keep it. I need to find the outboard PSU for the tiny ITX case I currently have it in.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157795

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Oh, brain had a thing. I know there are laptops with the Ryzen-based APUs around out there. They'd probably make a pretty good NUC, but it doesn't look like there are any for sale yet.

 

[Genx87]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Power...157035?hash=item59031a7d6b:g:eHwAAOSw56NaKFLL

Lots of these on Ebay.

 

[mxnerd]

If you don't need a lot of CPU power, why Ryzen?

Ryzen is too new and still have some compatibility issues.

You have much more choices if you choose Intel platform.

I will choose low TDP Intel i5 or i3 since you are going to run the system 24/7.

16GB memory probably is a bit low for lab testing.

Suppose you are talking about VMware ESXi?

Then v6.5 alone needs 4GB minimum. You would have only 12GB left.

Intel quad ports NICs recommended. You can easily find them on Amazon.