Hardware recommendations for running VMWare ESXI

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Roidster

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Hi guys,
I need some advice, Ive been at this for 3 days and have not managed to find a single configuration that is not a full blown server at R45k+ or is even reported to be fully supported by ESXI. (Actually I found 1, but they dont have it in SA) :mad:

What I want is to run 2 strong VM's (Win7 64bit and winxp 32bit) that I can alternate for different development environments, and 2 more strong VM's for databases and testing... all at the same time.

All of this needs to fit into a tower size case that is not too noisy since it will be at my house.

Ive resigned myself to possibly having to buy a separate NIC and RAID controller, but would REALLY prefer not to do that.

Hardware that I plan to put in includes 12 or 16 Gigs of RAM, 2x 1T SAS drives on a RAID 1 and a xeon processor (maybe 2, budget permitting).

Any advice on this, or user experience would be very much appreciated. First prize if you actually know of a working configuration that I can use :love:

My budget is around R20k.

Also, if anyone out there can answer some specific question, It will also help allot!
Some questions:
For what I need would I be better off with dual xeon E5506's or a single E5520 processor (Im thinking the E5520 for its enhanced visualisation technology and hyperthreading, but Im no expert on that kinda stuff)?
Is Registered RAM worth the extra cost?
Should I give up on ESXI and just run a regular VM Server on top of Ubuntu :confused:
 
I run ESXI at work. It is a dual Xeon i7 with 24 GB ram.
From my experience you have to look out for the following.
The type of network interface is the biggest problem. You cannot run any Marvel/Realtek cards. It only likes Intel or 3 COM.
Raid will only work with real hardware raid cards. None of this fake raid crap, that includes the raid that comes on Intel server boads. You will have to buy a add-on card. The ondoard SATA can be used as single device access. i.e. ESXi will see a 1 TB SATA drive plugged into the onboard SATA.

To try and do all that for 20 K will be a bit hard, if you want to go for a dual Xeon setup.
Only alternative is to look at the entry level server boards. The will take 1 Quad XEON CPU, and it takes DDR 3 memory, so it is cheap. The dual onboard LAN "should" wotk with ESXi.
Just get a entry level raid card, as long as it is hardware based. Intel , Adaptec, LSI should work.
If this is for testing and development only raid 5 might be a bit much, but depends on how much you need the data that is on there.
Unfortunately it is a bit of a hit and miss with ESXi, but as long as you use server class hardware, even entry level ones it should work out. Normal P.C. hardware might work, bot no guarantees.

p.s. if you want to run XP on ESXi you must load a seperate LSI driver, using F6. Just google it.
 
The problem with Xeon processors is that they are expensive and require a Xeon board for MP which is also expensive. Then if you go for Exsi, or any type 1 hypervisor, you will need a hardware RAID controller which is also expensive - the FakeRAID will not work. Lastly, you will need another machine to connect to the VM host in order to use the guest VMs.

A better idea, as you queried, is to not use Esxi and rather run a type 2 (host based) solution, like VM Workstation (not free), or VirtualBox (free). Then get a decent Quad core processor (i7 is really not necessary - I can show you very detailed stats of large companies running production machines on WAY less than i7 spec). For memory get as much as you need - try to refrain as far as possible from thinking that you need lots of memory - you don't. You only need as much as your machines are going to use - if you have 10 machines each running 4GB but you only use 512MB, then you need 5GB and not 40GB RAM. As it is a test environment you can be more generous with your memory sharing.

Lastly, and assuming that you use a type 2 hypervisor - stay away from RAID and rather get multiple smaller disks - you will get better performance from 6 x 320GB disks (costs R3000), when compared to 2 x 1.5TB disks also costing R3000. If you need better performance on a disk, then you can RAID two 320GB disks using FakeRaid, which will work with a type2 HV. You can then assign each VM to its own disk and this will improve performance - especially during installs/reboots etc.

Lastly, regarding the actual software to use: for a test/dev environment, a host based HV (VMWorkstation) is better. It will allow you to have everything you need on a single machine - including software installs, VMs, networking etc. Snaps will be easier to do, as will cloning and full VM backups. Running Esxi will only increase complexity and offer no real benefits for testing....
 
Thanks a lot guys, very usful stuff, I have some thinking and designing to do on how I want my office VM's to support my work. I will post back when I have it.

To ConradL:
Thanks for the extra info on ESXI, I didnt know you had to remote to it, and the splitting of H/D's makes a lot of sense.
I have no problem with connecting from another PC, but doing actual work on a terminal session can get annoying so if I do go for esxi it wont be for something that I actually need to work on directly.

Any more advice is still very welcome, I wont be buying anything till next week :)
 
Not really qualified to give advice on this but whatever.

Since you say you will be alternating between the win7 & xp VMs its likely that only 2/3 of the 4 VMs will be under load at any given time. So you might get away with high powered consumer grade stuff like conrad said.

Also remember to strip down the VM'd OS environments. On a XP install one can disable ~ half the running services without losing much. (Help service etc)

And I hope you've got a solid UPS to cover the gear. ;)
 
Thanks for the help so far guys, here is what I have come up with:

I will have 2 boxes. Box 1 will be pure VM's which I will remote into. Box 2 will be the box I actually work on.

BOX 1: (VM BOX)
--------------------

I am taking Conrad's advice on the multiple smaller drives, having multiple SAS drives for ESXI is too expensive so I will be loading it with Ubunto 64 bit and will be installing VM Ware Server on top of it.

VM1: Win7 64 bit
Active 24/7
SQL Server 2008, dev platform, 64 test platform.

VM2: Win XP 32 bit
Active 24/7
SQL Server 2000,2005 (32bit) dev platform
Delphi 7, VB6, Older MS Access, MySQL 4.1.x (all these for supporting some older client apps)

VM3: Ubuntu
Minimal activity
Mostly for testing Java apps I code, and comparing performance to windows

VM4/5/6/7: various platforms
Minimal activity
Mostly for educational stuff, emulating multi-server environments, web services and SOA.

BOX 2 (WORK BOX)
-----------------------

This will be my main development box. It will run Win 7 64 bit with VM Ware workstation. that workstation will have 1 VM with a second 32 bit dev environment.


I have Box 2 all sorted, my current one is good enough for the job.

For Box 1, I have put together 2 specifications. I am leaning towards the cheaper one, but both are in my budget. The question is will the more expensive setup yield any meaningful benefits.

Here is what I have:

Option 1:
Intel SC5520 mobo
Intel Xeon E5520 Processor
12Gig ECC Registered RAM DDR3-1066 (I think server boards need that)
4x SATA 500G Drives (two mirrored pairs for VM1 and VM2)
1x 2T SATA drive for the other VM's and storage (non critical data).
1x Intel Pilot point case (I only mention it because its Flippin expensive!).

Total Cost: R22,100

Option 2:
Asus Rampage II Gene IX58 mobo
Intel Core i7 930
12Gig ECC UNRegistered RAM DDR3-1333
4x SATA 500G Drives (two mirrored pairs for VM1 and VM2)
1x 2T SATA drive for the other VM's and storage (non critical data).
Nice MIDI Case, much cheaper than the Intel.

Total Cost: R15,200

Phew... So, what do you guys think?
 
Option two. The only benefits that the Xeon configuration has is that it supports ECC RAM, Dual CPU and 100GB RAM. In the current configuration there will be no difference in performance - if you need to scale, up then the first option would be better. An i7 is a powerful CPU and I don't think you would require two Xeons for what you are doing.... Also find out how many RAID volumes the Asus boards supports? Some boards only allow 2/4 disks to be configured for RAID, even though they have 8 SATA ports.
 
Just a quick update on my progress...
This is the final hardware build I have:

Asus P6T Deluxe V2
Intel Core i7 930
12Gig UNRegistered RAM DDR3-1333
5x SATA II 500G Drives (1 boot drive, two mirrored pairs for VM1 and VM2)
1x 1.5T SATA II drive for the other VM's and storage (non critical data).
NVidia geforce 9800GTX
PCI controller for IDE CDRW (could not fit a DVDRW due to no extra SATA adapters)
Cooler Master 690 MIDI Case (This is significant as it has 6 drive bays, most midi cases have 5).

Configuring the on-board RAID allowed me to create multiple raid drives of different raid types. I created 2x MIRRORED drives from 4 of the 500GIG SATA drives.
The processor (i7 930) supports virtualisation but it is turned off in the BIOS. I enabled it.
Installing Ubuntu server was a breeze! It didnt boot from USB, but had no problem from the CDROM.
Ubuntu detected all the drives perfectly. Just as they were defined by the on-board RAID controller. It also detected both on board NIC cards.
Since I installed server, there is no interface (just command line) so I cant say how well it will work with the display card in graphical mode.

I decided to try KVM instead of VM Server since it integrates so well with ubuntu. I will be doing it this weekend and let you all know how it went.
 
So let me understand this correctly - you bought a 9800GTX to run a COMMAND LINE?? :D

BTW Nice post/thread - you should tag it, it will no doubt help people in future...
 
Conradl said:
So let me understand this correctly - you bought a 9800GTX to run a COMMAND LINE?? :D

BTW Nice post/thread - you should tag it, it will no doubt help people in future...
Click to expand...

Haha, I was waiting for that... I took the opportunity to upgrade the Display adapter on my main rig, and put my old card in this one :)
How do I tag the thread?
 
Our company recently upgraded 5 of our servers, and the 'old ones' where sent down to us for a sweet 20k for all :D
At the moment I have ESXi 5 running on one of the IBM machines:
IBM x3650
--
Xeon E5420 @2.5Ghz
10GB RAM
4xSCSi Drives in RAID-0 (YES I chose this, we dont care if it falls over)

It runs 7x64 at the moment with a fairly large PostgreSQL database on it
 
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