Need Lab Advice - Buy a server?

Hey all I'm kind of stuck with the lab I've been building lately. I'm currently studying CCNP Route material, (mostly on my work laptop and home PC), but also have been building a dedicated lab mostly based on a CCIE lab as described here: CCIE Lab using GNS3 and Quad Nics for Switches | FAQ So in a nutshell what I currently have are (3) 3550 switches, and then I had planned to connect these via (3) quad nic cards on the PC running GNS3 for all my routers. I had everything up and running and working just fine, then the motherboard for the PC I was using decided to die. It's not worth replacing because the motherboard is from about 2003, (and the processor really can't run more than 3 routers anyway), so I need an upgrade.

What I noticed though is that it seems it would be a lot cheaper to simply buy a used Dell server, such as a Dell Poweredge 2850 off of e-bay for around $300 than upgrading the PC I was using. Upgrading to a new motherboard and CPU would easily cost more than $300, not to mention the quad nics won't fit in most modern ATX motherboards. One more benefit I see with buying a Dell 2850 is that it has 3 PCI-X slots which would fit my 3 quad nics, which are also PCI-X. These cards worked fine in my old motherboards PCI slots, but almost all newer motherboards either have capacitors or the southbridge in the way so these wouldn't fit without cutting them.

So basically I just wanted to know if this seems like a bad idea. I don't know if many others are using a PC or server running GNS3 to connect to real switches, I've noticed a lot of people here seem to prefer actual hardware, but I'm trying to be cheap

I'm not sure how the performance of the 2850 would compare with a modern PC but I'd imagine it would be more than enough for my needs and a good deal for around $300.

I'm curious to hear any thoughts or concerns with this type of setup, because I'd like to buy one of those power edges soon after Christmas so I can get my lab back up and running. Below is a picture of the lab before the PC's motherboard died, (the two routers above the switches were not connected).

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Comments

cisco_trooper

The 2850s are power hogs. My only concern on this is power consumption. I think the 2850s can pull 700watts of power if I remember right. The reason I mention this is because it seems like you are looking for the most cost effective option and I'm not sure the power hungry 2850 will be the cheapest long term solution.

astrogeek

Well I did also recently pick up a switched PDU so I can remotely power on and off all of my equipment, as long as the server's BIOS allows it to be turned on when it receives power I don't think that would be an issue since it wouldn't be on constantly. That does sound like a lot of juice though, I don't want to be blowing fuses....especially remotely lol

Do you think that server added with four 3550 switches, (assuming I get another in the future), and possibly a terminal server (2501) would be too much power draw from one outlet?

cisco_trooper

You will have to figure out what kind of breaker is feeding that outlet, and you will also need to figure out what other outlets that breaker is feeding. Before I continue I'm inserting this nice little disclaimer -> I am not an electrician and your final decisions must be made based upon your own research or the advice of a licensed electrician. Now, in the U.S. you will typically find 15 amp, 20amp, or 30amp breakers feeding your standard 120V electrical outlets. A 15 amp breaker can feed about 1800 watts of 120V power feeds, a 20 amp breaker can feed about 2400 watts, and a 30amp breaker can feed about 3600 watts. Luckily, most switches themselves don't draw much over 100 watts, if that. The server will be your big power draw as long as you don't have other outlets on the same breaker with large draws. Think microwaves, vacuums, and anything with a motor such as a bench grinder, etc. And I'm glad you got the switched PDU. It will give an Amp reading on the display which will help you guage how much total power you are pulling. Also, the remote power on and power off is a life saver. I've got three of those suckers for my rack. I installed two new 30amp breakers and ran those over to my rack before I knew anything about how much power I would actually need. I'm not drawing anywhere near 30 amps on either circuit, but I also don't have a 2850 on it.

If you are in the U.K. or Europe I really have no idea what the electrical environment typically looks like over there.

Good luck!

cisco_trooper

Also, in addition to what I said above, you aren't NOT supposed to go over 80% of the capacity of a circuit. So for a 15 amp circuit you won't want to pull more than 1440 watts or 12 amps, and 20 amp circuit 1920 watts or 16 amps, and a 30 amp circuit 2880 watts or 24 amps.

slinuxuzer

IF you decide to get a server, Im not sure how much memory you need, but you might want to look at a HP DL 360 G4p its a 1 U server holding a max of 12 GB memory, Ive priced used hp memory on ebay for this model and your looking at ~15$ per 2 GB stick x 6 or around 100 dollars to max it out, memory price is a big factor in pricing a lab server, the newer the model the newer the memory and the higher the cost. The HP product bulletin is a really good place to find info about what models take what memory, possible cofiguartions, and max capacity. Pay close attention to the bulletin or server lid for info on how to populate the memory, HP has told me its best to use only one memory vendor within a single chassis.

The scsi model your likely to look at uses a 460 watt power supply, also keep in mind that 460 is the maximum power draw, this will depend on installed componets, the largest consumer of power in a server is a processor, the more memory and drives you install will also make an impact, I don't personally use it or have experience with it, but I believe alot of the HP servers have a feature called dynamic power capping which will let you set an upper limit on the amount of power it will draw, I think this is accessed through the ILO interface.

Google for HP power advisor it can give you an idea of what your power draw will be.

I personally am planning on buliding a Vmware lab to work on some Vsphere 5 stuff and it looks like I will be needing alot of memory, so I might be going with the 380 G5 wich can hold up to 64 GB, I'm estimating I need two hosts with 16GB each or more.

Hope this helps.