Need hardware ideas for an enterprise VI3 build, on a low budget

[buskeyl]

Hello everyone!

We want to build a modest install of VI3, that is more focused on being a platform for developing VI competencies, and showcasing the technology than to actually host buckets of VM's. We do want to be able to RUN VM's, but only 10 or so, and those will not be under a lot of pressure. We have limited access to a much larger VI enterprise for heavy lifting. Thus the need to keep costs down, but want to be able to use all the Enterprise features..

I need ideas about what the most cost effective solution is that's still on the compatibility list.

Some examples of my questions are but not limited to :

Should we use I-SCSI for storage? If so, what the cheapest way to do that? Can we get away with IDE drives or need to use SATA?

Can I save money building my own hosts? Will they be supported?

Whose got the cheapest capable physical host that's on the supported hardware list?

Thanks in advance...

Message was edited by:

buskeyl

Message was edited by:

buskeyl

Message was edited by:

buskeyl

[oreeh]

Should we use I-SCSI for storage? If so, what the cheapest way to do that? Can we get away with IDE drives or need to use SATA?

The cheapest way is to use a Linux box, attach the disks and install iSCSI Enterprise Target.

Can I save money building my own hosts? Will they be supported?

You can - but White Box systems are not supported (the same is true for IET).

If you need supported systems, check the HCLs and get older certified systems from ebay.

[esiebert7625]

The HP ML350/DL360 are good cheap choices and support SAS drives, ESX does not currently support IDE/SATA. You can get ESX to install on IDE/SATA but you can't create VMFS volumes for your VM's. You might also try and pick up some older hardware used on ebay like the DL380 G3 & G4 servers.

[oreeh]

just to clarify: IDE/SATA in the ESX host doesn't work.

IDE/SATA in the storage (iSCSI, FC) works.