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Last night I purchased a Dell PowerEdge C6100 off eBay for my home lab. I was originally going to build two boxes with Core i5s and ~32GB of ram each until I stumbled across this gem. For about $770 I got a chassis with four independent nodes each with 2 Quadcore Xeon L5520s and 24GB of ram. Total that makes it 8 physical CPUs (32 cores) and 96GB between all four server nodes. Each node can be powered up independently from the rest, and they all share the same power supply. According to ITPro's review on this model, all four nodes at idle will draw only 348W (going up to 964W at full utilization). What am I going to use this for? I'll pop a USB stick into each server and install VMWare ESXi on them. Also I'll throw in a spare hard drive in each server and install HyperV on two and XenServer on the other two. I'm planning on going through lots of different scenarios that I encounter in my job - SBS migrations, Exchange upgrades, Citrix XenApp deployments, VMware View, XenDesktop, etc etc. In case anyone is interested this is the unit I purchased - http://www.ebay.com/itm/251283578250?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
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Aug 21, 2013 01:29
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^^^ Good post, but I don't understand the hate against refurb server hardware for a lab. I'm assuming your post is at least in partial reaction to my previous one since you mentioned a Dell without HDDs. While I did enjoy your sperg on installing the hypervisors, I too can do them in my sleep. That being said there isn't much reason to put someone down over something like that. I'm sure no one gives a poo poo that you can tie your own shoes (I'm assuming here) but I bet you were pretty proud the first time you did it. One thing I didn't mention is I already have a FreeNAS setup with bonded NICs. I also have two PCs with i7 3370's and 16GB of ram. These are my gaming machines and like you suggested in your thread I've been using Workstation to build up my lab on top of them for quite a while. Its been working fine, however an upgrade was in order as I am wanting to get into performance testing, DirectPath scenarios, automation, etc. Due to these needs I wanted to move away from the inception build and have the hypervisor on the physical hardware. The obvious choice was build up two new whiteboxes and dedicate them for my lab. The cost would have been roughly $1100 or so. Once I found the C6100 for $770 and that it contains four independent servers within its chassis, I was sold. Sure the L5520 line was released in 2009, but its got plenty of power for what I am trying to do. The power consumption is low and the noise / heat won't be an issue as I have a dry basement that could use some heating in the winter.
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Aug 21, 2013 14:14
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alo posted:So this isn't homelab material (I already have a Norco with an E3 Xeon loaded with m1015's and drives -- it's terrific and quiet)... but... I purchased the C6100 for my home lab recently and am very happy with it. Mine has 4 nodes each with 24GB ram and dual Xeon L5520's. This particular model has 12 HDD slots - normally three go to each node, but with a little modding you can have all 12 go to one node. In my case I have all 12 going to a node running FreeNAS for now. There are some trays that you can buy for a few bucks to fit an SSD into it. This particular seller accepted my offer of $769.99 (with some haggling, so start low). Additional info on this model can be found here. As for power usage, all four nodes on and idle use 121.1 watts.
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Sep 13, 2013 12:54
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evol262 posted:Noise at load: 77dba. That's a car driving 65mph passing you at 25 feet. Or a vacuum cleaner. Not accurate in the least. I'm not sure why you feel the need to criticize my purchase every chance you get. Every post you make on this subject is so full of assumptions and inaccuracies its ridiculous. If your criticisms were actually based on fact, then they might be valid. For starters, he was asking for recommendations on a work lab, not a home lab. He specifically stated he didn't care about power or noise. He also stated he was looking at the C1100's and wanted opinions on if there are any better solutions out there for the price that fit into a rack. Additionally he mentions that he'll need to create a storage array. Did I not address all of those with my post? Sure there are plenty of other options, but you have yet to actually recommend one that fits his requirements. Secondly the noise is very minimal, certainly not like standing next to a running dishwasher. In fact I just measured it with Noise Meter on my Android phone. Not the most accurate reading I'm sure, but from exactly two feet away from the back of the chassis, it measures 32.5dB. 5 feet away at my desk it is 28.7dB. My ultimate plan is to put it in my rack in the basement, in which case I wouldn't hear it at all. Additionally this is not a five year old server kit. In fact this is a Gen 11 server that first came out in 2010. My particular server has a build date in 2011. Most enterprises don't replace their servers but every 4-5 years. Considering this is a 2-3 year old server, I think it will manage. Yes the Xeon E5520 was launched in 2009, but it is still supported by Intel and does the job just fine. Just for kicks, why don't you make a build list of the components you would purchase for your 8 core system so we can see how it compares dollar for dollar. Be sure to include cases, power supplies, cables, etc as not all of us have spare parts laying around. Once you make those two hosts, also add another for storage as I have mentioned twice now that I use FreeNAS (and note it is not a VM) so your recommendation also needs to have the ability to account for storage. Since I make no mention of the drives I use, you don't need to spec those out. Maybe your next post can contribute something useful.
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Sep 13, 2013 17:14
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