Test Environment information.

[jverdin]

I need some advice for building a test environment for my home. I'm currently pursuing the VMWare certification and need to build an environment for testing. I currently have a DL385 HP machine, but ran into some issues with virtualizing ESX within an ESX Host. The AMD CPU doesn't have the AMD-V feature that allows building VM images on the Virtualized ESX host. So I'm thinking about building a machine with a processor that allows such a configuration. "Please correct me if I'm wrong". Please share your lab equipment specs if you were successful and if you have ESX virtualized on a DL385 running Virtual machines.

Here are some of the hardware items that are under consideration for purchasing.

MSI 870A-G54 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8GHz 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache

Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor

8 Gigs of Ram.

Thanks for your help..

Jesse

[DSTAVERT]

For a test and learning environment I would suggest that you either get either a real server or take your proposed desktop machine and install VMware Workstation. You will be able to install ESX or ESXi as a VM guest. With 8GB you should be able to install 2 ESXi machines and small 32bit VMs inside those. You can create shared storage as a VM or directly in the host OS. Easy to do multiple configurations and launch as needed.

[jverdin]

I have a DL 385 with the following processors and ram, but have run into some issues with virtualizing an ESX host. I can vitrualize it, but cannot create VM's on the virtualize ESX host. I have been informed that the AMD-V capability allows me to virtualize ESX 4.1 and allows for the creation of Vm's within it. So that's why I was leaning towards buying a AMD-V CPU capable chip.

2 - AMD Opteron™ model 280 2.4GHz - 1MB L2 dual-core

16-Gig of Ram

Thanks,

[DSTAVERT]

The DL385 is a G1 first generation. While you can install ESXi it does not have the hardware virtualization capability that would allow it to handle 64bit guests which eliminates ESXi 4.1

You would need at least a G2 machine but later would be better. You might find an off lease G2 for a reasonable price. The best part about a dl385 would be the ability to support lots more RAM than any desktop.

[Kasraeian]

Hi,

I hope these spec and config helps a little.

I have 2 Desktop system with the following spec:

PC1:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+ 2.30 GHz

RAM: 7GB DDR RAM

HDD: 3x 500GB + 1x 1000GB + 1x 80GB

OS: Microsoft Windows 7

Role: It's my storage server and I have my VI client on it.

PC2:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955

RAM: 8GB DDR

HDD: 1x 160GB

OS: VMware ESXi 4.0 (Build 208167)

Currently I have 20 VMs on it and 14 of these VMs are powered on and working fine.

If you can't use HP DL385 as server for your VMware ESX/ESXi, you can convert it to your Storage and management box and use your Desktop for it.

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Sohrab Kasraeian Fard

[jverdin]

Great! Thanks for the quick responses..very helpful forum.. , Did you have any problems with the virtualized ESX host mapping correctly in the maps tab. I also had iSCSI issues with one host seeing the storage (VM using Windows Storage Server) and the physical host not seeing it, but could ping it.

Thanks,

[Kasraeian]

I didn't have any problem on map tab till now.

And for iSCSI issue, what solution are you currently using? how many host do you have, with which version and are you using vCenter and multipathing?

As I'm using free edition of Starwind for iSCSI server (Target), I have some limitation, like max 2 concurrent connection which means two host with one connection or one hos with two connection, which both are not enough for large test environment.

Can you describe more about your iSCSI issue as it may help to solve your issue.

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Sohrab Kasraeian Fard

[DSTAVERT]

It is always hit or miss installing ESXi directly on a desktop motherboard mostly based on the embedded components (NIC, disk controllers). Finding supported devices to replace the embedded components often far surpass the original cost of the motherboard and CPU and RAM.

[jverdin]

I'm using Starwind and Windows 2008 Storage server. I should be able to get as many connections as I want on the Win2008 Storage server. I have 2 ESX host one physical and one virtual. I'm using vCenter 4.1. I'm at work, but should be able to post my maps and vswitch info when I get home. Thanks for the help. Here is some info on the system that I'm trying to build.

Processor: AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8GHz 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache

Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor

Motherboard: MSI 870A-G54 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD

Motherboard: ASUS M4A78T-E AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

I'm afraid that ESX 4.1 will not support the devices on the motherboard.

What has been your experience?

Thanks,

[Kasraeian]

I have checked a very good source and I found Atheros L1 Hostly I don't know any thing about Atheros L1E which is on ASUS MB, but may be you can do something with MSI one.

The system I'm using as storage server currently was one of my VMware ESXi 4.0 host but as one of my 3 systems died (because of it's age )) I replaced the role and it's no longer running VMware ESXi, it was MSI MB.

Now I'm using to simple Motherboard, Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3P as my VMware ESXi 4.0 host.

It has one onboard gigabit ethernet connection with RTL-8169 chipset and I added one NIC to my system which working great with VMware ESXi 4.0 (I didn't test it on VMware ESXi 4.1 yet, but I will test it soon).

I bought many NIC (because we ca't get many good brand devices so we ending by buying other middle rate one) but none of them work but this one, is cheap and great, just as you know, VMware ESXi didn't support RTL-8169 or any RTL (Realtek chipset) so I downloaded the driver and import it to my ESXi and both NIC (as both using RTL-8169) start working.

You can download my custom oem.tgz and testing it on your system or making your own by just exporting the r8169.o driver from it.

I hope it still work on VMware ESXi 4.1 as I really don't want to buy any other NIC )

Note: before using my custom oem.tgz, let me tell you that I have changed the welcome page, so don't be shocked if you using the whole package.

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Sohrab Kasraeian Fard

[tacticsbaby]

Has anyone tried to install ESXi 4.1 and run a 64-bit VM with this configuration? I ask because that is exactly what I am doing now. I am using Opteron 280 and 880 CPUs and I am running vsphere 4.1. I have no problems hosting 64-bit VMs in this environment. Someone please let me know what is the truth here?

[DSTAVERT]

If you have a configuration that works great. I would post your results on the http://vm-help.com website and be specific about all the components in your setup.

[tacticsbaby]

Thanks for the feedback, will do.