VMWare ESX Server 3.5 hardware for under $1000 dollars?

pwjohnston

Ok you want to build a server to run ESX Server 3.5 and you have a $1000 dollar budget for hardware.

What would you get?

dynamik

Is this for studying or production?

RTmarc

Hopefully it isn't production.

pwjohnston

Studying and home use.

I need a new computer and I'd like to get one that can handle ESX so I can learn it in the process. I'm thinking just about any normal PC I would build could run it(terabyte mirror, 4gb ram, quad core pentium), I'd just need to get a SCSI raid card and a couple drives.

I'll probably be running XP off it, Fedora, and maybe Server 2008 if I decide to start working on the MCITP in the future.

royal

There's a TON of articles out there for how to build an affordable ESX(i) whitebox. Things to keep in mind is to make sure you get a compatible NIC (Intel), compatible motherboard , and compatible Hard Drive Controller.

Here's a list that will show you compatible hardware:
http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3.5/Whiteboxes_SATA_Controllers_for_ESX_3.5_3i.htm

pwjohnston

royal wrote: »

There's a TON of articles out there for how to build an affordable ESX(i) whitebox. Things to keep in mind is to make sure you get a compatible NIC (Intel), compatible motherboard , and compatible Hard Drive Controller.

Here's a list that will show you compatible hardware:
http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3.5/Whiteboxes_SATA_Controllers_for_ESX_3.5_3i.htm

Oh sweeeeeeet. Thanks!

astorrs

http://ultimatewhitebox.com/ is another resource you can use in combination with the one royal mentioned. Remember there are two different bare metal hypervisors available from VMware, ESX and ESXi, both have slightly different driver sets so make sure you know which one you want to use (or double-check that the HW you want to buy supports both).

As royal said the two biggest challenges are NICs and HBAs, the rest is usually no problem.

dynamik

Are you studying for the VCP or do you just want a virtualization box? If you're doing the VCP, something else you might want to consider is picking up some old servers on eBay. I got a couple of HP DL360 G3s for around $300 shipped. It's nice having two for VMotion, DRS, etc.

royal

Plus, if you want RAID, get a real server. I initially was going to go with ESX till I realized that I couldn't get RAID going on a Whitebox. I then just opted to do Hyper-V instead since I absolutely want RAID and didn't want to buy a real server.

astorrs

royal wrote: »

Plus, if you want RAID, get a real server. I initially was going to go with ESX till I realized that I couldn't get RAID going on a Whitebox. I then just opted to do Hyper-V instead since I absolutely want RAID and didn't want to buy a real server.

Why do you think you can't use RAID on an ESX whitebox? Both of mine have RAID...

ColbyG

I grabbed a Dell GX620 for ~$150 (plus some RAM) off Ebay to learn ESX. It has worked out nicely for me.