Recommendations for an ESXi Box

[Scottish_Captai]

Greetings to all.

So, I'm enjoying ESXi so much I'd like to buy a proper dedicated box to run it on.

My budget is around $2200. Out of that, I'd like some form of a quad-core processor and 4GB of RAM. Obviously RAID would be a bonus (only need 250GB of total storage), as would a motherboard that ESXi supports out of the box with thermal monitoring and such (under configuration > health status).

There's a lot of servers out there that match this. There's only one problem though- the system will be sitting in my office, next to my (dead silent) Mac Pro. Obviously, I don't want to be sitting beside a jet engine like those Dell Poweredge 1900's all day, so anything that's preferably quiet would be nice.

Anyone have any ideas what sort of system might fit this profile?

-SC

[malaysiavm]

try to precision workstation from DELL. I am using the DC490 on my desk and is quiet and performing as I need

Malaysia VMware Communities -

[matuscak]

If you're going the white box route, you can address the noise problems with your choice of things like the power supply and case fans. In general, I've found the stuff that comes in the stock cases tend to be cheap and noisy. Buy the separate stuff and look at the noise ratings (and be prepared to pay a bit more). I don't know if you're in the US, but Newegg.com has reviews that help pick the quieter gear.

[kuldipsingh]

I have been using the following white box which is very stable and did not cost that much.

Asus P5Q Pro = $150

Intel C2D Quad core Q6600 = $250

RAM: OCZ (4x4GB=16GB) = $360

HD: 6x500GB SATA (3 TB space) = $420

Gigabit Ethernet card (2x Intel Pro 1000) = $80

USB memory stick (1GB) = $10

Cheap video card = $30

CASE: you can pick the one which suits your needs of quiteness.

Off course, you need to make some changes to make this machine work but once done it is a work horse. Also, you may adjust the configuration to suit your needs.

[ChristopherB001]

You could always install it on your Mac Pro... That is what I did on my Mac Pro (early 2008) and it works fine. The only downside is that you can't run Mac OS X at the same time...

[Rich0001]

I've successfully installed ESXi on a MacPro. Configuring it was no problem. But it would not come up on a reboot after configuration. Tried using rEFIt, but keep getting "Missing Operating System". Did you work around that issue also? ?:|

[ChristopherB001]

I didn't have that issue. The only issue I had, before I replaced the GUID partition table with a Master Boot Record type partition on the target disk using diskutil, was that I couldn't download the client interface. Once I repartitioned with the MBR partition type, it worked perfectly. I never had a "failed to reboot" problem. What type of Mac Pro are you using? I installed it on a Mac Pro (early 2008) with 6GB RAM.

[J1mbo]

See

and

for a very cost effective, quiet option with OK performance.

[Rich0001]

Thanks Chrisopher ... Ours is an early 2007 MacPro1... 4x 2.660 GHz Dual-CoreIntelXeon

Perhaps there are some firmware issues... I'll try to update that and then try again.

Thanks J1mbo ... ESX and ESXi seem to work very well with general Dell and HP servers. Your hardware controller info will be handy for another installation I have coming. I'm trying the MacPro to see what can be done with it and Linux, Windows & MacOSx clients.

BTW: I have successfully installed/config'd ESXi on a Sun V20z server. However, even though it is a 64-bit (AMD) it will not allow 64-bit clients to be hosted. Have you gotten around that?

[StevoIBM]

You can also look at the X3200 M2

its cheap quiet and never breaks.

They start at about 950$

and come in a desktop form factor.

[Rich0001]

I used the Mac Disk Utility tool and was successfully able to install ESXi, configure it and reboot it several times. Super!

I was also able to install ghosted Linux and Windows clients. Yahoo!

Now I am trying to get a Mac client running. It does not even recognize the install disk. Did you try a Mac install? Did you have to trick the installation process?

[ChristopherB001]

Glad to hear it also works for you!

Yes, Linux and Windows work fine. Unfortunately, VMware does not seem to support Mac OS X virtualized on anything other than VMware Fusion. My understanding is that Apple only allows Mac OS X Server to be virtualized on Apple hardware and though VMware (the company) can guarantee that Fusion only runs on Apple hardware, they can't do the same on ESXi boxes which is probably why it isn't supported.

Anyhow, I was a little bummed to discover that I couldn't install ESXi on my Macmini as I really have to use Mac OS X on my Mac Pro so can't dedicate it to VMware ESXi (hardware support probably), so I tried XenServer. Not sure I should mention it in a VMware forum, but a silent way of hosting both Windows and Linux clients on a quiet and power efficient Macmini is through XenServer. I got 8 vms (on one machine + extra Firewire harddrive using 32 watts) running in parallel on my Macmini. That is 4 watts per virtual server. This is a low load scenario as it is for a lab, but I was pleased with the performance. Your mileage may vary.

But as a plug to VMware, if ESXi worked on my Macmini I'd probably use it instead and may end up going back to Fusion regardless...

[Rich0001]

Thanks for the MacMini info.

ESXi is a super first-choice VM which works great with a small footprint and easy maintenance. But it is finicky with certain hardware.

It is too bad that only Apple server can be used with Fusion. Why would that be? Is it to control the licensing?

[ChristopherB001]

You can also use Apple workstations with Fusion. Anything that runs Mac OS X. I believe the reason why Apple doesn't want their OS virtualized on any other hardware is that they expect part of the revenue to come from the hardware and not just the sales of the software (Snow Leopard will only be 29$... They make 30% margins on hardware, though...) and also because to guarantee the "Apple Experience", ie, that things work well (no driver problems or flaky hardware) they just want it to run on hardware that they design.