Hello
I want to try vSphere 4 in a test environment.
I have the following setup:
Desktop PC with:
Quadcore CPU
8gb RAM
If I purchased a SCSI controller (my board supports PCI-X), a SCSI disk for the vmfs and a NAS box for the shared storage
Could this work?
I would setup everything else as virtual machines
I know a propper server would be better for testing and I will eventually get one but for now I could do without the extra noise and heat a server brings
Cheers
Robert
Hi Robert,
That setup could definitely work. Have a check on :
http://www.vm-help.com/esx40i/esx40_whitebox_HCL.php
to make sure that your components are on the unofficial HCL!
Dan
You don't need a full server class system for a test lab... I'm using a Dell Precision T7400 workstation for my home ESXi host server... It runs quiet (cannot hear it even with it right next to my desk), cool, and uses little power (compared with most servers). I'm running with dual E5405 Xeon's, 16GB RAM, a PERC 6/i RAID controller (SAS), two 146GB SAS drives for the boot array (where ESXi 4.1 resides) and a pair of 1TB SAS drives for my datastore (both pairs are mirrored sets). I am planning on getting a SAN in place here too, since I'm over provisioned on my storage (using a combination of thin and thick provisioned). The chassis will run me somewhere between $1200-$2400 depending on which one I end up with (haven't decided yet).
CRITICAL items for the host include not just CPU, memory and RAID controller, but also the NIC on the motherboard. If it's not one of the supported NIC's, you won't be able to install ESX/ESXi on the system until you install a compatible NIC (or enough ports to do the job too)... You can get a refurb T5400/5500/7400/7500 starting around a grand on the Dell outlet site... You will (still) need to either add a RAID controller (to use local hard drive storage) or get the SAN for VM's and boot ESXi off of an USB flash drive (2-8GB in size, I'd use a SanDisk Cruzer model since I've had that work with both ESXi 4 and 4.1)... If you do end up with a SAN, make sure you get one that's on the VMware HCL and lists the latest release in the compatibility matrix... Also check for problems on these boards so that you don't get buggered right out of the gate... I'm looking at both QNAP and Promise Technology (VessRAID iSCSI line, 1830i or 1840i). I favor iSCSI over just NFS for several reasons, not the least of them is being able to use either thin or thick provisioned VMDK's... With NFS you're locked into thin provisioned VMDK files (you cannot use thick)... Even VMware doesn't say to go 100% thin provisioned. Their official line for when it comes to using either thin or thick provisioning is 'it depends'... It depends on what you're doing, what the guest OS is, and how your performance is on thin... If you want best possible performance, you're still better off staying with thick provisioned... Hence my staying clear of using just nfs for a SAN (actually, would be a NAS)...
Depending on the make and model of your desktop system, you could run into major headaches when trying to install ESXi onto it... I would also suggest going with SAS drives over SCSI (new tech over old tech)... I would also stay clear of trying to use SATA drives inside the host server (SAS gives better, more reliable, results). Depending on how many VM's you plan on running, you could quickly run out of RAM on the host (that's where I'm starting to run into troubles, running between 11GB-15GB used)... Depending on what actual processor you have, you could run into issues there too... There are quad core desktop processors that are NOT compatible with ESX/ESXi... If you have a Xeon from when they started using number designation's (such as 5000, 5100, etc...) you should be safe...
Otherwise, if you cannot get your hardware to work properly with the bare metal hypervisor option, you could always go ghetto and go with a nested ESXi install (within Workstation 7.x)... You'll need a lot more resources to do the same job, in storage, RAM, CPU since you'll have the overhead of the main computer's OS, then Workstation's requirements, giving you less resources for ESXi... You'll also only be able to run 32 bit operating systems for guests (on the ESXi nested server) which is another limitation.
Personally, I see getting real hardware that WILL be able to run ESX/ESXi properly is a wise investment. It's not one you'll need to make all that often either. I've been using my current hosting hardware for almost three years now. Once I get my SAN in place, I'll have to decide if I'm going to increase the RAM in the existing host, or get a second system to load balance with (as well as use things like HA with)...
VMware VCP4
Consider awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers.
I dont want to purchase a server at present, I simply want to test the product.
Thanks for the replies so far, I will have to find a motherboard on the list posted above.
Cheers
You could also setup VMware Workstation and run ESXi in it with 2 hosts to your shared storage. The only issue with that is no 64bit guests therefore no support for 4.1 Vcenter.
