Build an ESXi/Hyper-V Server

M

mrmcburger

New Member
Hi,
I’m beginning to look to build an ESXi or Hyper-V server to have my own lab.
I’m planning on running a dozen of VM (not greedy in ressources). The most important points to me are :
- A quiet server
- Low electric consumption
- If possible a cubic case like this : http://www.ldlc.com/fiche/PB00154189.html to save space. But I don’t know if it’s fit for the motherboard.
The goal would be to have a simple server to run a dozen of VMs without costing to much (700$ possible)? I hesitate between 8 and 16 Go of RAM, but It’s more to choose the motherboard and the CPU that I’m a little lost. What about the harddisk? Should I choose an SSD if I don’t want to stock big amount of data? And if so can I take an SSD and a 1To HD side to side and use the 1To just for the VMs requiring a lot of data?
Thanks to those responding.
PS : Sorry for my English (French guy :P)
 
I would recommend 16GB of RAM, simply because it's quite cheap and it would give you much more room to play with your VMs.
The Coolermaster Elite 130 is a small case, and cheap. Fits an ITX motherboard and a few drives, which sounds like what you need. You can also look at a Fractal Design Node case, but they tend to be more expensive, while allowing many drives.
I'm at work and my break is soon done, so I'm not gonna find links and prices, but I can list a sketch of how I imagine it could look like.

Case: Coolermaster Elite 130
PSU: Corsair CX430M/500M
Mobo: Asus H81I-PLUS
CPU: Intel i7-4770S
RAM: Kingston HyperX/Corsair Vengeance 16GB 1600MHz+
HDD: 2x Seagate Barracuda 1TB/Western Digital Blue 1TB (Optional, but you can put them in RAID 1 so you won't lose any data if an HDD fails)
SSD: Samsung 840 Evo 120GB
ODD: Samsung or Asus (they all cost the same, so I always choose either of those)
 
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Thanks for your time. I'm very interested in this configuration. However it seems to be a bit expansive. Is this possible to still have enough performances to run 10-12 VMs with a cheaper CPU? What about dropping the SSD and just take an 1To HD?
 
I was thinking about that. I don't know the workload you'll be doing, but if you could by with an i3 you'd save a lot of money, yeah.
SSD is if you want your actual OS to be real fast. You could probably find a cheaper 60GB one, since you'll install VMs on HDD.
 
Is the SSD mandatory? I mean is there really a big difference in the OS administration? Because at the end what I want is working in good conditions in my VM and the OS isn't that important for me. But I'm probably missing a point.
What cheaper CPU with good performance enough would you recommend me?

Thanks.
 
An SSD isn't mandatory, and it won't effect your VM performance at all. It's just for making the server faster when booting up and such.
You could buy an SSHD which is a middle-ground of HDD and HDD+SSD, but frankly I have no idea how RAID would work with those. But that's only if you wanted to use RAID for backup :)
The cheapest CPU I would recommend is the i3-4330T. The T makes it much more power effecient, reducing it from 54W to 35W (at the cost of a few hundred MHz)
 
Some SSDs are 32Go (http://www.ldlc.com/informatique/pieces-informatique/disque-ssd/c4698/p1e48t3o0a1.html), I guess I could buy one of those for the system. The CPU you propose seems to be very cheap, is there something on the middle between Intel i7-4770S and the i3-4330T (i3 have 2 cores right? Isn't 4 cores important for virtualisation?). Also I can't find it on http://www.ldlc.com/, which is important for me because I'd like to order the computer builded. Just for the information, does 32Go of RAM seems important to you? (even if I don't want 32Go at the time It could be an upgrade later).

Again thanks for your time.
 
The i3 has two cores and HyperThreading. HT is what the i7 also uses to duplicate its cores, giving it four threads in total. It will show up in Windows as a quad core.
The i3 I suggested is the lowest end CPU you can choose, of course you can get an i5 which is a true quad core, giving it more performance in multithreaded applications. The i7 is an i5 with HT basically.
 
Hi,

I made some searchs, and what do you guys think about this configuration ?

viewer.php

http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=852304ScreenShot20131121at201839.png
 
It's hard to decide if the value is good, since you're from France. Prices are different in pretty much all countries, but the configuration seems good. I know you're set on a small form factor, but I wouldn't recommend that with AMD FX chips. The motherboard you've selected is pre-FX chips, and you can hardly find a FX-ready motherboard that's small. By FX-ready I mean it's intended for FX chips.
Something you should keep in mind, is that the motherboard you've selected probably won't work with your CPU untill you've updated the BIOS.
For your needs, I would really recommend Intel. Normally if the performance is similar I would go with AMD, because they're the underdogs, but here I would go with Intel.
 
So in this case if I keep all the components except the CPU/Motherboard (Intel), what would you recommend to me? Here is some criteria I’d like to be fulfilled :

- The CPU should have good value(virtualization) /price ratio and the price like 150€ (200$)
- The Mobo should be micro-ATX format, support RAID 1, 4 slots of RAM up to 32Go (if I want to make some evolutions later) and under 100€ (135$) if possible
- If it’s possible CPU/Mobo available on http://ldlc.com

Again thanks for your help and time.
 
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You need a graphics card with the AMD option, as it doesn't support onboard video on the chipset. That's about $50 at least I would say. Intel has a very good built in GPU, that'll be better than what you can get for $50.
You could buy the AMD FX, the Gigabyte mobo and a cheap GPU and it would work - but it would use sooo much more power than the Intel option. AMD: 125W + ~40W GPU | Intel: 84W + 0W GPU
The Intel even has way better power management. So if the system is idling, it'll use next to none power on the CPU and GPU side.
The Intel will also last longer, based on the power draw. Many things can happen of course, but 125W vs 84W going through those low end motherboards make a difference in the lifespan.

Don't get me wrong, I really like AMD. And everything I say obviously is what I would do. Normally there's a lot of input on gaming machines, but these topics tend to be skipped.
 
Looks good! Is it intentional that you buy two extra SATA cables?
The motherboard will come with 2-8 (different from motherboard to motherboard, but at least two are included, sometimes more)
 
Not sure how many sata cables will be included with the motherboard... I Just want to be sure that I'll have my 3 SATA cables when I build my server.
 
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