XenServer Home Lab

Hello,

I'm going to be taking part in a XenServer/XenDesktop/XenApp/NetScaler/Citrix Provisioning Services, etc. roll out in a few months and want to familiarize myself with Citrix products.

I want to setup a home lab and I don't need anything fancy, but I wanted to double check if my equipment will be suitable to get the lab environment up and running to try and replicate as much functionality as possible for the above listed products.

I was looking at an LGA1155 setup, but using a cheap G530 dual-core processor (no HT, but has VT-x). I would pair with 8GB ram. Motherboard is the cheapest H61, and has gigabit nic. It does support up to 16GB ram if I did choose so.

Would this be sufficient, or would I need more cores/ram? Also, would this single desktop be sufficient from a hardware perspective to get all of the above up and running, or do some components need to be on additional standalone hardware? I understand I won't be able to configure for HA. Not sure if Provisioning Services would be virtualized or not.

I plan on using my i5/4GB laptop for the user device and console.

Thanks!

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Comments

pumbaa_g

I am not sure if I am correct on this but if you want a cheap bang for the buck Whitebox you may want to look at AMD Zambezi as well. I am building a Home Desktop cum Whitebox for Vmware with the Zambezi 8 core Processor/32 GB RAM/120 GB SSD/3x2 WD Caviar HD using the 970 chipset. Apart from this I am using my old & lame workhorse Phenom II X4 920 790 GX Chipset with 6 GB RAM & 1 TB HD as the ESXi Server. When connected together this should allow me to setup HA & DRS (I think)

Oops sorry forgot to mention this is for VMWare

gunbunnysoulja

Thanks for the reply. The Zambezi is quite a bit more than I'm looking to spend. With the G530 (Sandy Bridge), I can have a complete system up and running for <$160 (have spare 1TB HDD). The processor and motherboard are both under $50 each.

jibbajabba

If Xen Client will be part of your lab make sure the CPU doesn't just have vt-x but vt-d as well.

gunbunnysoulja

I should be able to use XenClient wthout VT-d but I won't have access to the 3D graphics options (since VT-d is just for directed I/O, right?

Most Intel desktop processor's don't support VT-d unless you go to the server counterparts. I'm not sure I even plan on using XenClient. I do plan on using XenDesktop, XenApp, and XenServer.

I thnk I read older XenClient had a requirement for VT-d, but newer ones don't.

MentholMoose

The hardware is a bit anemic to run all that. I suggest 16 GB RAM (2 x 8GB RAM kits have dropped in price lately, so watch for deals... I saw one last week for $50), and possibly an SSD for storage. One 1 TB drive for all those VMs will probably not work very well, but you could use it for now and add another hard drive or an SSD later one when it is necessary.

jibbajabba

gunbunnysoulja wrote: »

I should be able to use XenClient wthout VT-d but I won't have access to the 3D graphics options (since VT-d is just for directed I/O, right?

Technically yes - I suppose it depends what you intend to do with the virtual machines you run. It should be ok for a lab.

Also depends what version you install - Xen Client 2.1 - Citrix homebrew, will complain that you don't have vt-d, but offers to continue to install, 4.1.2 - the nxtop rebranded version - doesn't have any GPU support yet ANYWAY - so VMs run pretty poor.

To give you an example ... The splashscreen of CentOS build up character by character - GNOME took quite a while to build the screen and the graphical installer was almost unuseable - Windows 7 - Performance index gives you a "1" in graphics - so you won't be able to use Aero for example or use the OS for anything but "normal" stuff ..

Again - it works for a lab I suppose .. Just thought I mention it JUST in case you intend to use it for anything fancy (I for one tried to run it on my laptop without VT-D and had to get rid of it again).

gunbunnysoulja

Cool thanks again for the clarification. I just want to do a minimilistic setup for the sole purpose of testing the configuration.

Plus work is paying for it so I didn't want to get more than I needed for learning purposes. They are very good to me so I didn't want to take advantage.

They just ordered my stuff today so I'll throw it together out as soon as I get it and see how it works out.