Spec me up a virtualisation host

Discussion in 'VMware Certifications' started by BraderzTheDog, Mar 23, 2013.

  1. BraderzTheDog

    BraderzTheDog Kilobyte Poster

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    Hey all,

    Hope you are doing well! I have hit a bit of a predicament, I am looking to get a nice home network setup and in prod.

    I am when it comes to Virutalisation a bit of a noob, but know enough to get by. However, I am confused when it comes to what hardware to get. I am probably looking at getting a blade server to mount in my network rack.

    I've been looking on ebay at a Dell Power edge dual core xeon with 6gb of ram. I just about recon this will be enough for what I want to virtualise, what do you think?

    So im dropping the Juniper SSG's from my network and will be deploying a checkpoint firewall and security manager, both can be virualised and I would usually spec these up at allocating a single CPU and 2GB of ram (no problem so far). Then I want to get a DC on there and put my own clients onto the domain, theres only about 10 clients tops, a mix of windows 7 & 8. So will Windows SBS do for this? How much resources should I allocate and will this end up stressing out the VM too much?

    Also will be putting a Juniper SA SSL VPN on the VM also, this ticks over at about 512MB, quite a lightweight server, and the last thing is how much of the resource allocation does ESX eat up?

    My thoughts are its doable but there isn't much spec for anything else.

    The server itself is quite cheap, linky!

    Dell PowerEdge SC1425 Dual Xeon 2x2.8Ghz 64-Bit 6GB RAM SATA Server 1U Rackmount | eBay

    PS* I know it doesn't come with sata drives, I've got a few Western digital ones somewhere.

    Thanks!

    - - - Updated - - -

    Looks like I wont be using SBS its quite resource hungry after doing more research. Probably go with Windows Server 2008 32 bit, 2GB of ram should do for this?


    *** edited by Simon because this is asking for a host, not a VM.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 24, 2013
    Certifications: CCNA R&S, CCNA-SEC, CCSA, JNCIA FWV, MCITP, MCTS, MTA, A+
  2. SimonD
    Honorary Member

    SimonD Terabyte Poster

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    I would look at investing in a Microsoft Technet subscription at the same time, that way you can play with more than just a DC.

    I think you're going to want a lot more than 6GB of ram as ESXi requires 2GB on it's own, that won't allow for much else to be running at the same time.
     
    Certifications: CNA | CNE | CCNA | MCP | MCP+I | MCSE NT4 | MCSA 2003 | Security+ | MCSA:S 2003 | MCSE:S 2003 | MCTS:SCCM 2007 | MCTS:Win 7 | MCITP:EDA7 | MCITP:SA | MCITP:EA | MCTS:Hyper-V | VCP 4 | ITIL v3 Foundation | VCP 5 DCV | VCP 5 Cloud | VCP6 NV | VCP6 DCV | VCAP 5.5 DCA
  3. reverb

    reverb Byte Poster

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    ESXi loves ram so the more the better. I'd personally up it to 16GB.

    By the way have you checked if that server is on the ESXi HCL?
     
  4. BraderzTheDog

    BraderzTheDog Kilobyte Poster

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    Hmmm no I haven't checked if its on the HCL I recon it should be since its a blade server but better to be safe!

    Yes and Simon I think you are possibly right then, I didn't realise ESX chews up that much memory! Gawd!

    I suppose if im gonna do this I want something thats a few hundred quid and has plenty of ram, get something thats of real value and has room for further vm's. Looking at the price of ECC ram too, I need to wind my jaw in!

    How much is technet subscription too? Is it like £200 a year? What perks do you get from purchasing it also?

    Many thanks!
     
    Certifications: CCNA R&S, CCNA-SEC, CCSA, JNCIA FWV, MCITP, MCTS, MTA, A+
  5. BraderzTheDog

    BraderzTheDog Kilobyte Poster

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    Just bought one of these: IBM X3455 Quad Core AMD Opteron 2.60Ghz 12GB RAM VMware ESXi SATA 1U Rack Server | eBay

    Recon it will do the job?

    Has anyone ever had these AMD processors in their Blades before? I was wondering if they are any good, the reason being well for the same spec machine with Xeon's it was another £50. Admittedly the Xeons were running at a high frequency 3.2GHz dual core x2 whereas these run at 2.6GHz.

    Will it be enough for a home lab?
     
    Certifications: CCNA R&S, CCNA-SEC, CCSA, JNCIA FWV, MCITP, MCTS, MTA, A+
  6. Coupe2T

    Coupe2T Megabyte Poster

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    Given that it's listed as being ex-corporate and removed from a live install etc, then I am sure it will be fine for a home lab mate. May not be as quick as it could be but for labbing purposes I suspect it will be absolutely fine.
     
    Certifications: ECDL, Does that Count!?!
  7. BraderzTheDog

    BraderzTheDog Kilobyte Poster

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    I suppose for a hundred quid its not too bad. What sort of specs would you recommend I give a DC?

    I'm not expecting to be running too many services and there will only be about 10 - 15 clients attached.

    Also does anyone know where I can get a cheap service / networking rack from?

    Cheers,
     
    Certifications: CCNA R&S, CCNA-SEC, CCSA, JNCIA FWV, MCITP, MCTS, MTA, A+
  8. SimonD
    Honorary Member

    SimonD Terabyte Poster

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    1vcpu, 1gb ram for the domain controller, depending on OS then I would probably look at 40GB disk partition as well.
     
    Certifications: CNA | CNE | CCNA | MCP | MCP+I | MCSE NT4 | MCSA 2003 | Security+ | MCSA:S 2003 | MCSE:S 2003 | MCTS:SCCM 2007 | MCTS:Win 7 | MCITP:EDA7 | MCITP:SA | MCITP:EA | MCTS:Hyper-V | VCP 4 | ITIL v3 Foundation | VCP 5 DCV | VCP 5 Cloud | VCP6 NV | VCP6 DCV | VCAP 5.5 DCA
  9. BraderzTheDog

    BraderzTheDog Kilobyte Poster

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    Planning on using Server 2008 now I have a better spec box. Maybe 4GB is more suitable?
     
    Certifications: CCNA R&S, CCNA-SEC, CCSA, JNCIA FWV, MCITP, MCTS, MTA, A+

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