I'm planning to replace my old home lab vSphere host server (Dell workstation running a pair of E5500 series processors) before the end of the year. I've been looking at boxes using the newer E5-2600 series processors. Some with the E5-2620 v0 or v2. I'm just wondering if anyone [on here] has any idea how long those processors will actually remain supported for newer releases from VMware. I know the processors inside my current host went to the 'unsupported' list with 6.7 (and can cause a PSOD if you go to install 6.7 on that box).
That being said, I don't want to spend decent money on a newer host box only to get just one, or two, more major updates on it. I won't have a lot to spend, and plan to get a pair of hosts this time around. Mostly because I have the VMUG Advantage membership (so have 6 CPU licenses for vSphere) and I want to be able to do more functions in the home lab. Plus it will allow me to have easier upgrades of the hosts, and such. I also plan to take advantage of the newer tech inside the boxes with the much newer processors.
Right now, I'm looking at Dell tower servers to use for the host. Either single or dual socket. I've found them on ebray for not crazy pricing (some actually affordable) with a solid amount of RAM installed right off the bat. My oldest host box would be about 10 years old now and it's processors have finally gone into the 'unsupported' list. Is that the trend that I should count on??I say 'would be' because I went to a slightly newer box about a year or two ago (the one with the processor mentioned above).
IF I have the budget during the next several months, I'm also debating adding another SAN to my environment. Or, maybe, deploying a vSAN setup (again, VMUG Advantage provides me licensing to do this). IF I do go with some vSAN, I'll need to add some 10Gb networking to the mix. With the pricing of that hardware becoming affordable (pretty easy to find smaller 10Gb switches for a reasonable rate now, as well as 10Gb adapters), that shouldn't be much of an issue.
