ESXi Labs Build - how to get the best out of my hardware

[emeraldnomad]

I use VMWare workstation a great deal to test/simulate a market leading Email/Files/SharePoint archiving solution. My HQ are sending me a new system - please see the spec below:

• Dell Precision T7500
  
• Dual 2.13 GHz E5606 Xeon CPU's
  
• 32 GB Memory
  
• 2 x 1 TB 7200 Sata II Hard Drives
  
• AMD V5800 1 GB Graphics Cards
  

I would like to deploy ESX(i) on this machine in order to have a much more fluid/productive testing platform - however I am aware that getting the most out of this machine will involve adding/changing out hardware - which is fine to some extent. My thoughts (right or wrong) are below:

1. Run ESX(i) on a 30 GB SSD
   
2. Install an ESX friendly dual ethernet adaptor
   
3. Install a decent RAID controller
   
4. Make additional drives available for a RAID 5 storage solution.
   
5. Perhaps look at a DIY external storage solution
   

I am admittedly something of a novice so your patience and advice are most appreciated. I don't want to break the bank and I don't need to run more than 10 VM's - 2 of these will be low resource client machines - there will be at least 6 - 7 concurrent machines running.

Thanks

[AureusStone]

You may need to replace the NIC if it is not on the VMware HCL.

A good raid controller and some additional disks would be a good idea.

I wouldn't bother with a SSD.  Just boot off a USB or SD card.  When you boot, the hypervisor will be copied in to memory.  There is a very good chance the next version of vSphere will support swap to SSD.  So it is your choice if it is worth it.

Seems like you know what you are doing. 

[logiboy123]

You don't need expensive SDD for ESXi as once it loads it runs almost entirely from memory. This is why a lot of people use boot from USB or SAN. For my whiteboxes I use spare old drives without an issue.

You should look at using a shared storage solution instead of local attached storage. A good free iSCSI solution is the openfiler system;

http://www.openfiler.com/community/download/

Regards,

Paul

[emeraldnomad]

Thanks Aureus. I was looking at the dual Intel Pro 1000 - link below:

Link:

I already have a 30 GB SSD so that's not an extra cost -  I figured I may as well use it for ESX.

I certainly don't know what I'm doing - basically feeling my way with this build - the forums have bene great and I've had two helpful responses form you guys already.

[emeraldnomad]

Thanks Paul, is there a good guide on getting OpenFiler up and running?

Another question would be - if I opt for a local disk array - what RAID controller card would you recommend - I can't break the bank so this would have to be a reasonable price?

[logiboy123]

You could try the following OpenFilder & ESXi article;

http://www.petri.co.il/use-openfiler-as-free-vmware-esx-san-server.htm

For the Storage Controller I would try the following link and look for a model that you can buy cheap on ebay;

http://www.vm-help.com/esx40i/esx40_whitebox_HCL.php

Regards,

Paul

[Yudoka7]

You may want to double check that system model for your testing.  A google search for precision t7500 and vsphere or esxi and you'll find a few people with issues getting it on there.

Also, I have a T7500 and I haven't been able to get 4.1 on there. Fails consistently at the same spot.. right after you accept the license agreement, it starts the install and throws error related to vmfs failing to load.  A few other people seem to mention  disabling onboard stuff to try and get it to work but I have yet to hear anyone be successful in installing it. Plus I have disabled, everything on this board that wasn't essential and still the failed.

When I get a chance I can throw the exact error message up, but you might want to shoot for a T410 or something in the poweredge line.  Mention installing esxi on precisions and the first thing anyone says is "it's not on the HCL!".

If you do get it to work, let me know as I to want to throw a nice testbed system together using this.. had nice plans to use a ZFS storage pool and run my vm's from it all on this box..

[DSTAVERT]

Welcome to the communities.

Motherboards are seldom an issue. The problems come from the embedded components. The most likely cause is the embedded NICs. ESXi will not start to install without a supported NIC. Embedded disk controllers may not work but the vast majority do. Embedded software RAID controllers are not supported. You can use the HCL http://vmware.com/go/hcl or the whitebox at http://vm-help.com to find a supported NIC.

[Yudoka7]

Here is a link to what someone else posted on the forums..  exact same error I got.

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/288806?tstart=0

vmkctl.HostCtlException: Unable to load module /usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/vmfs3: Failure

I disabled both the integrated sas and sata controller and tried installing to usb key just to see if the controllers were causing the issue and still couldn't install.

Then I worked my way down the list of items to disable on thte motherboard and again, no luck.