Building a lab at home. Thoughts?

aspiringsoul

I already have a Poweredge 2950. Going to buy two HP Proliants for $195 each: http://www.amazon.com/HP-Proliant-2x2-5GHz-Processors-2x146GB/dp/B0096CMENO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413561022&sr=8-1&keywords=hp+proliant

Also a a 6u rack for them: http://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-SRW6U-Enclosure-Cabinet/dp/B003K1NFY4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413561122&sr=8-1&keywords=small+server+rack

I have a couple of Catalyst 2950 switches and an 1841 router. I might buy some cheap Gigabit switches in the future as well as a cheap NAS that supports iSCSI and NFS.

Preparing for the VCP5-DCV. Thoughts?

iBrokeIT

If I am not mistaken I believe you need a HP Gen6 or newer to get the CPU features to properly run ESXi 5.5

Will the G5 work though? Ya probably but everything might not run as expected which may make your labbing more difficult when you have to troubleshoot unsupported issues.

Check out the VMware HCL (Hardware Compatibility List). Pick your VMware version(s), server manufacturer and then search:
VMware Compatibility Guide: System Search

iBrokeIT

Also, there is no way you are going to fit a full length server like a G5 or G6 in that rack. You would need to go with the 12U Deep to make it fit or get some new micro server like Asus or Super Micro.

aspiringsoul

Good catch. I should have checked the dimensions on that rack. I'm still in the early planning stages of the equipment though.

This guy says that 5.5 will work with G5, although there might be a bit of additional configuration required: VMware ESXi 5.5 and HP P400i (DL360G5/DL380G5) health monitoring « TriathlonMike

I could probably take a step up to the Poweredge 2950 Gen 3, but it would cost quite a bit more...

http://www.amazon.com/Dell-PowerEdge-2x2-33GHz-Processors-2x146GB/dp/B005D7VSKQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1413568243&sr=8-2&keywords=dell+poweredge+2950

Asif Dasl

Your Cisco 2950 won't do the job, 1 GigE minimum is required for vMotion. You can do iSCSI & NFS on a domain controller or vCenter server if cost is an issue - have them nested inside ESXi. By the looks of things you are building a physical lab. I think you need a G6 to nest ESXi inside ESXi, have a look at Jibbajabba's picture for an idea on how a nested setup works. You only use 1 server with a lot of RAM in a nested setup - might be a better way to go.

http://www.techexams.net/forums/virtualization/102943-need-help-build-virtualization-lab.html

aspiringsoul

Thank both of you for your input!

Deathmage

Just get a Skeletek 24U rack with a rear rail.

I'm a big fan of Dell R610's you can get one for around $400 with decent RAM.

If you want suggestions this is what I'm rolling:

Forgive the somewhat poor cable management, I only have a single 1U cable management tray.

HP 2848 - vMotion / iSCSI switch (Jumbo Frame, MTU @ 9000 on vnic's)



QNAP TS-420 NAS - 6 TB's RAID 5 - (3) 600 GB LUN's being used as datastores for ESXI cluster - 1 is shared between both ESXI clusters for vStorage-vMotion



vCenter Appliance (2008 R2 [Technet Edition] - vCenter installed locally) - Twin Dell R610's (both have 16 GB's of RAM and 8 nic's each [2 for vMotion, 2 for iSCSI, 2 for production traffic, 2 for management)



Complete lab with Cisco AP on tippy top, 101mbit cable, Sonicwall up top (the 3 raspberry PI's on the left - one is the PDC with a Samra LDAP AD DC), Cisco Routers underneath, 2848 below that, 2910 below that, Cisco lab the next 6 or 7 U's and then the Appliance and servers. Not seen is the twin APC UPS's in the rear with 20 minutes of runtime under load and a KVM switch on my desk for all of the servers:



Here is a flowchart:



If you need any design help just ask.

jibbajabba

Just go nested. The Dell T5500 is cheap as .... Here my setup:

Lab – Physical Setup « Open902

jibbajabba

As for Switches , have a look at the Cisco SG300 series.

tomtom1

I'm extremely happy with my lab running on Mac Mini's. Shame is that they don't support more than 16 GB's of RAM. But, on the plus, they don't consume much space or power.

Asif Dasl

Watch out on the new Mac mini's as they are not upgrade-able now...

You can't upgrade the new Mac mini's RAM

kj0

Asif Dasl wrote: »

Watch out on the new Mac mini's as they are not upgrade-able now...

You can't upgrade the new Mac mini's RAM

Which is a real shame, you would have hoped they'd design them to be able to handle at least a Max. 32Gb if that. At that price for 3, I would just look at a Mac Pro with 64Gb.

It's just like the days when Jobs went to and started NeXT.


Now back to the build, Jib is probably best on the money. Although, I have found that building a workstation and getting in a bit or RAM and some SSD's works just as well. My main rig has 16GB and I run my VMs off 2 x Raid 0 120Gb SSDs. Runs pretty well. However, I will upgrade shortly to 32gb and maybe another 256 as I am running out of room.

Asif Dasl

kj0 wrote: »

Which is a real shame, you would have hoped they'd design them to be able to handle at least a Max. 32Gb if that. At that price for 3, I would just look at a Mac Pro with 64Gb.

Speaking of which I see the Mac Pro is going to be a fully certified and supported server with vSphere 6 (and 5.5 u3). That would make an awesome home lab machine - a really nice looking piece of kit - you could probably build a supermicro build with an 8 core Xeon & 128GB of RAM for the same price though...

aspiringsoul

Thoughts on this server guys? Looks good for the price:

HP Proliant DL160 G6 1U 2X Xeon QC L5520 2 26GHz 4XTRAYS 72GB DDR3 000491532004 | eBay

Asif Dasl

Looks fine, I think Shdwmage and a few others have that same server..

Deathmage

If you can get two of them, even in a nested setup having a cluster allows you to test things more thoroughly.

bermovick

Not to hijack the thread, but what do you mean here when you say nested? The other times I hear it it's usually referring to doing something like running ESX within VMWare workstation/player on my desktop PC, where you get inception levels of virtualization. I get a bit confused when used in this situation since I would assume you're running ESX directly on the hardware for these devices.

kriscamaro68

aspiringsoul wrote: »

Thoughts on this server guys? Looks good for the price:

HP Proliant DL160 G6 1U 2X Xeon QC L5520 2 26GHz 4XTRAYS 72GB DDR3 000491532004 | eBay

I have written quite a few write-ups about both these servers as well as the dell c1100 servers in many of the lab build threads. I think even one of the links provided above is one of them. I have 2 of them in a Hyper-V cluster at home and they work great. Same hardware pretty much as the dells just with HP nics instead of Intel like on the dells. You will want to get a 4 port intel nic or maybe a 10gb nic if you want to go crazy and a small ssd for the os and your set.

Asif Dasl

bermovick wrote: »

Not to hijack the thread, but what do you mean here when you say nested? The other times I hear it it's usually referring to doing something like running ESX within VMWare workstation/player on my desktop PC, where you get inception levels of virtualization. I get a bit confused when used in this situation since I would assume you're running ESX directly on the hardware for these devices.

You can have ESXi nested inside VMware Workstation, or you can have ESXi nested inside ESXi... with these servers if you are only using one then nest ESXi inside ESXi. If you are using two (or more) then that's a physical lab - which is more expensive. Check this video out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdqtT_FcYgk

kj0

Asif Dasl wrote: »

If you are using two (or more) then that's a physical lab - which is more expensive.

You can still go nested with 2 physicals. This would allow you to use each as a separate cluster or even DataCenter. Maybe even stretched or Multi-vCenter. The options are endless.


Start with one and then scale out you "Company".

Asif Dasl

Sure, but could you not just use one for multi-vCenter or stretched though? Is it really necessary for a second machine?