choice of vmware lab

Is it better to buy a vmware ready server of ebay or should I use my PC below?
Does anyone have any recommendation of HP servers. budgest is $300-500

Goal is to study for VCP5. Be able to do run HA,FT, DRS, Vmotion. Setup VMs with AD, Exchange.....

3.60 gigahertz AMD FX-4100 Quad-Core
192 kilobyte primary memory cache
4096 kilobyte secondary memory cache
8192 kilobyte tertiary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)
Hyper-threaded (4 total)
16GB RAM
1TB HD
120GB SSD For VM Disks

thank in advance

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darkerosxx

That's plenty. No need to buy more.

jibbajabba

I wouldn't say 16GB of RAM is plenty. As the VCP is your goal then you need to run a nested setup. A cluster has at least two hosts and ESXi needs at least 4GB of RAM.

So you need 8GB of RAM for the virtual host + RAM for vCenter / SQL, AD etc.

It works but it might get frustrating soon

darkerosxx

Yeah, I mean its plenty to do all the test tasks, that's for sure. If you want to actually use it for anything other than test lab, you need more. Gotta remember, doing tests means nothing serious is running on it, so you're rolling minimums across the board. If you're trying to roll a serious AD or Exchange, buy a second PC like you mentioned.

nachodba

I would bump up the CPU if it was in your budget, I am using an 8320 with 8 cores and it runs well.

EV42TMAN

Personally I went with the server hardware option. I got a HP DL360 Gen 7 free from a client and I bought an Dell R610 off ebay for $230. Then I just bought 48GBs of ram (24 GBs for each server). If your on a budget Dell servers are the better value on ebay because between the 2 listed servers about they are pretty much identical the only difference is the HP came with 3 15K SAS drives and the dell came with none. And the dell only came with one cpu and the hp has 2. The cheapest I found on ebay for an HP server to match the server I got from the client was $1000 without drives. Also HP has started requiring service contracts to get bios and firmware updates so that doesn't help anything. I bought a second cpu with the fan kit and heatsink for $50 and now hardware wise the 2 servers match. Buy 2 physical servers regardless of brand costs more, but personally I learn better when I can physically build and cable everything myself. Plus now I have my own home ESXi cluster, if you want anymore ideas on server hardware let me know.

jem7sk

EV42TMAN wrote: »

Personally I went with the server hardware option. I got a HP DL360 Gen 7 free from a client and I bought an Dell R610 off ebay for $230. Then I just bought 48GBs of ram (24 GBs for each server). If your on a budget Dell servers are the better value on ebay because between the 2 listed servers about they are pretty much identical the only difference is the HP came with 3 15K SAS drives and the dell came with none. And the dell only came with one cpu and the hp has 2. The cheapest I found on ebay for an HP server to match the server I got from the client was $1000 without drives. Also HP has started requiring service contracts to get bios and firmware updates so that doesn't help anything. I bought a second cpu with the fan kit and heatsink for $50 and now hardware wise the 2 servers match. Buy 2 physical servers regardless of brand costs more, but personally I learn better when I can physically build and cable everything myself. Plus now I have my own home ESXi cluster, if you want anymore ideas on server hardware let me know.

Just curious on these Dell rackmount servers... It says it supports six hard drives. In a typical work place how would this server be utilized? Would it host six different VMs? I also noticed it has four network cards.

tprice5

CPU is my biggest issue with the specs you listed. For this application, more cores = better. As I always do when someone requests information with a build, I am going to point you to my favorite ESXi site. It has a detailed build for you to follow. Hope it helps.

Deathmage

you could just get a R610 ... they only cost $370 on ebay.... then you would have 16 cores with HT

I'm rocking two of them with 32 GB's each with a Qnap TS-420 NAS for vStorage-vMotion

Oakparktech

thanks all for the replies. I decided I will purchase a server. the question, is which of the following below should I get.

Is option 3 a good pickup?
anything I should worry about when studying got my vcp5 on a server. other then noise and electric bill.

option 1: $399
Dell PowerEdge R610 Server Dual Xeon E5620 QC 2 4GHz 12GB 2X 146GB SAS RPS Li | eBay

option 2
$200(craislist)
Model DL360 G5 HP Proliant DL360 G5 Rack Mount (RAILS INCLUDED)
Processor Two Two - 3.0GHz Dual Core 1333MHz 6M L5240
Memory Installed - 16GB Fully Buffered Memory Installed
Memory Size - 2GB x 8 Slots Available - 8x 2GB DIMMS
Hard Drives - 2 2x 146GB 2.5" 10K SAS Drive - Up to Four SAS/SATA Drives (Blanks Included)
Riser Board - PCI-e
1x Full length/height x8 PCI-Express Slot / 1x Low-profile x8 PCI-Express slot
External Media 1 CD-ROM Drive
Power Supply One 700-Watt hot plug power supply
Ethernet Two Embedded NC7782 PCI-X Gigabit Server Adapter
Video Inlcuded Integrated ATI ES1000
Form Factor 1U Rack Mount - 1U - Rails Included
COA Not Included COA or OS License Not Included
Operating System Eval Only Evaluation edition of Windows 2008 Server Std or Windows 2012 R2 (eval). for testing - No License or vSphere ESXi 5.5 60 days trial.
Software Not Included Software Media or Licenses are not included

Option 3 for$300

HP Prolaint DL380 G5 2x Xeon, 16GB 3x 146GB SAS Server 2U - $300 Price is Firm

Optional: more memory and hard drive available

HP ProLiant DL380 G5 Server, Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise/ Windows 2012 R2 (Eval) /Hyper-V Role is install , just import your Physical Server to Virtual Machine.

Or I can install VMware ESXi 5.5 sixty day trial

ITEM DESCRIPTION:
Processor(s) (2) Intel Xeon Processor
Cache Memory 12MB Level 2 cache
Memory HP 8 GB of PC2-5300 Fully Buffered DIMMs (DDR2-667) with Advanced ECC, mirrored and online spare memory capabilities
Network Controller Two Embedded NC373i Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapters
Storage Controller HP Smart Array E200 RAID Controller
Hard Drive(s) 3x Original HP 146GB 10K Hot Pluggable SAS Hard Drive
Dual Power Supply
Optical Drive Optional CD/DVD-ROM, CD RW
Factor Rack (2U)
***Including complete Rails
HP PROLIANT SERVER DL380 G5 364686-001 RAIL KIT INNER & OUTER RAILS

option 4: for $400

HP Prolaint DL380 G5 2x Quad Core 2.33 GHz 16GB 3x 146GB SAS Server 2U - $400 Price is Firm

HP ProLiant DL380 G5 Server Trial Install Server 2012 R2 /Hyper-V Role is install or vSphere 5.5, just import your Physical Server to Virtual

ITEM DESCRIPTION:

Processor(s) (2) Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processor e5430 (2.66 GHz, 80W, 1333 FSB)

Including rails DL380 G5 360322-503-WCA

Cache Memory 12MB Level 2 cache

Memory HP 8 GB of PC2-5300 Fully Buffered DIMMs (DDR2-667) with Advanced ECC, mirrored and online spare memory capabilities

Network Controller Two Embedded NC373i Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapters

Storage Controller HP Smart Array P400 RAID Controller

Hard Drive(s) 3x Original HP 146GB 10K Hot Pluggable SAS Hard Drive

Optical Drive Optional CD/DVD-ROM, CD RW

Dual Power Supply

Form Factor Rack (2U)

thanks a lot in advance!!

Bloogen

HP Servers for VMware labs should be Gen6 or later. The Gen5's and earlier will have an Intel CPU which does not support EPT which you will need for better performance and nested ESXi servers.