HP DL380 G5 and SSDs

Osiapstndp · February 2013

Hello. I am interested in purchasing the following HP machine for a lab to study for the VCP5-DV certification.

www.ebay.com/itm/251141888946?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

It is my intention to use the following SSD as the primary means of storage for ESXi and a few VMs. I do intend to hopefully run at least three total hypervisors (one instance on the bare metal and two nested instances).

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006VCP7YA?ie=UTF8&force-full-site=1&ref_=aw_bottom_links

I have read that HP servers sometimes do not play nicely with third-party hardware - I'm this case "third-party" refers to Intel.

The HP sever has one SATA II port (I realize that the SSD is SATA III, but that should not cause a problem).

My question is this: will the components within the HP machine be compatible with the Intel SSD? I do not want to pull the trigger on this purchase until I know that I can buy a cheap Intel drive for it. If it is not compatible, then perhaps I will have to look for higher capacity SAS drives, but so far I haven't found any appropriate HP SAS drives for a decent price.

Thank you very much for your time.

Essendon · February 2013

Run ESXi inside of ESXi, that way you dont have to worry about purchasing other hardware. Here are the instructions > virtuallyGhetto: How to Enable Nested ESXi & Other Hypervisors in vSphere 5.1 . I too have a 380 G5 and the thing runs 3 nested ESXi 5's (6 VM's run on these ESXi's), 1 x AD/DNS, 1 x vCenter, 1 x vMA, 1 x UMDS server with NO issues. I have 32GB RAM and about 2TB in disk space.

Put some more RAM in the server, 32GB would be very nice. Chuck some disk in too. If you find the total price is getting too high, consider a desktop with SSD's for storage.

Osiapstndp · February 2013

Essendon,

I do plan on running one instance of ESXi on the bare metal of the HP and two nested instances on top of that. Thank you for the other information.

I would like to know whether or not the HP DL380 G5 supports installing an Intel SSD. I realize that this is a very specific question to ask, but any sort of insight would be very helpful.

Thank you.

Essendon · February 2013

I dont know if it does or not, a Google search didnt yield much. I'll run it past our HP guys at work and see what they say. I know these SAS disks arent cheap, a 600GB is easily equal to the cost of this server. I got really lucky when my previous employer was chucking out some servers and this little beauty I have showed up in the corner. I saw the generous amount of storage and when I popped the lid and saw 32GB RAM in it, I was like a kid in a candy shop. Was able to snag it for $150!

Perhaps wait for the right ebay deal to come along. Have you looked at building a desktop instead?

Osiapstndp · February 2013

Essendon,

Thank you again for the information! I was considering purchasing the components for a desktop, but the cost for it all was always in the $800 to $1,000 range. When I saw the HP DL380 G5 on eBay for $345 I started thinking about setting up a lab again.

The last time I did research for a home lab was about a year ago. Perhaps prices have gone down a bit since then. However, considering that I aim to have one physical machine to run everything I need for the VCP5-DV certification, I think that a high price is inevitable. My limit right now is about $500 maximum, so if this HP won't work I'll have to put this on the back burner for a while.

Essendon · February 2013

You can get by with much less though for the VCP5 cert. I had an HP desktop then, with a e6550 processor, 8GB RAM and a couple of SCSI disks and of course it didnt run like the server does, but it did get me by. You wouldnt be able to run more than a few VM's and the setup could be laggy, but I think I spec'd it right and I was okay. You dont need a high-spec'd machine really, easily get by with much less. You'll be surprised.

blargoe · February 2013

Essendon is right.

I ran my entire VCAP lab on my existing work laptop - a 16GB Quad Core i5 or i7. I added an SSD for my VM's. It was more than adequate.

I used VMware Workstation, which uses linked clones... that saved A LOT of disk space.

Point is, that you don't necessarily need to fork out huge piles of money on hardware for an adequate lab for exam prep.

Osiapstndp · February 2013

This gives me hope! Thank you both very much!

I have one Asus laptop with a Core i7 processor and 16GB of RAM. It uses a 7,200 RPM 1TB HDD for general storage and an 80GB SSD for Windows. I also have another Asus laptop with a similar hardware configuration.

Based on what both have said, I could use either one of these laptops to become fully prepared for the VCP5-DV. If this is the case then I've been wasting a lot of time not studying!

Essendon · February 2013

It's never too late mate, like they say. Just download ESXi and vCenter, read the article which I linked to in my previous post and build your lab. There are plenty of threads floating around with lab setups. Pick up the Mastering vSphere 5 book by Scott Lowe for your reading material. Read it all, understand and lab it all, pass exam - that simple!

HP DL380 G5 and SSDs

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