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Agrikk posted:There's CCNA in the title, but hopefully this thread is for IT labs of all types, including infrastructure builds and environment simulation. This is sorta what I want to run at home but with a lot less equipment. I would like to virtualize as much as possible since I am taking some vmware classes and want to keep up the momentum. I was thinking of a single server with beefy specs to use for ESXi, I know I can find 3+ year old equipment with decent specs for 400-500, I may even be getting a free server from an old boss. The networking is my weakest point but I do plan to buy some routers/switches within the next 6 months for practice. Do you think it would be a good idea for me to host a small single server with 2 routers and 3 switches?All for practice of course.
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Aug 7, 2013 17:13
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Dilbert As gently caress posted:Remember, You can run ESXi inside ESXi, there are some virtual routers and switches out there where you can make some really interesting virtual network which can mimic things like WAN latency/speed, failures, and many other things you won't have to spend a buck on. I was originally looking at something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/251269644666 I have spare 500GB Sata drives I wanted to throw into it. Eventually I would want to add a second host but want to make sure I understand basics before I put money into it. Agrikk posted:I think it is silly for IT folks to not have an IT lab in their home. It is very easy to get rusty on skills that you don't use every day and having the right gear handy is a great way to brush up on stuff (especially before interviews, etc). I agree, I already have a really beefy gaming system and am the family IT guy so I build and repair their stuff all the time, so I feel like hardware I am decent on all ready. I also have some old 2950(not sure of model, at work right now) switches from a previous job so I already have a head start on that. evol262 posted:I always think two servers with lower specs (but lots of memory, which is cheap) are better than one, so you're not screwed with a hardware failure and you can play around with clustering without nesting ESXi instances. I would normally agree but was thinking of the following server as my starting point. http://www.ebay.com/itm/251269644666 I have older sata drives I will use so it not coming with any HDD is fine.
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Aug 7, 2013 18:25
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Dilbert As gently caress posted:This is my lab So do you think that server I link will be able to do pretty much all the stuff you are doing? I would thin spec wise its above and beyond your system but is the price decent for the hardware?
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Aug 7, 2013 18:33
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evol262 posted:Unless you've done this before and know what you're doing, you almost certainly do not want a 1U with a 5 year old Xeon, no matter how enticing it looks on paper, especially if you want to do nested virt (which has improved dramatically from the hardware side in the last 5 years). Good point, I am simply looking at the specs and not thinking about the improvements that current hardware has over older stuff. I am just confused I guess, I would be fine using a white box, i have a ton of old drives i can use including an ssd. At the same time having some old refurbished systems to play around with still sounds, to me, like a decent idea. Edit: should have added onto my last comment, I cant delete this one so I apologize for the double post.
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Aug 7, 2013 18:37
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Dilbert As gently caress posted:It will probably work, however I am not sure if any off the shelf drives will work in dell servers. Some vendors drive lock where the HDD's won't be accessible. And storage is probably where you'll see some of the most slowdowns in a VMware lab. This is another question I was going to ask, if off the shelf drives would work as long as they fit in the hdd trays.
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Aug 7, 2013 18:41
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Dilbert As gently caress posted:Most likely not. You probably want to look into something that Agrikk posted, or if you want do tell your budget and I can post a whitebox build. Budget is around 600-700 for a white box since I can buy components over time. If I were to buy a refurb server I would say a budget of 500 since its a single big purchase.
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Aug 7, 2013 18:45
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Agrikk posted:So there are a bunch of people telling you why this is a bad idea, but if you want to do the goon-in-the-well thing, be my guest. You are 100% right, I did respond to Dilbert to see what he suggest on a whitebox. At the end of the day I will get tired of the increased bill and the loudness. I am by no means asking for advice then resisting it, so I apologize if it seems that way. Edit: Evol, your build looks good and I will definitely be building myself a white box. Should a server come my way for free from the old boss I will still gladly accept it but I will rather stick with new, quiet, power efficient hardware. Indecision1991 fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Aug 7, 2013 |
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Aug 7, 2013 18:50
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Agrikk posted:Ah hah hah hah holy poo poo! Maybe its my second account and I am just setting up a troll train? Nah jk'ing...either way thanks for the input, will wait for dilberts white box recommendation and begin to spec out a white box. If a server does fall on my lap ill just use it to mess with, nothing serious.
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Aug 7, 2013 19:58
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Agrikk posted:The Home Lab Thread: Please don't talk to us about http://www.ebay.com/itm/251269644666 OP should put this with bold letters.
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Aug 7, 2013 20:07
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Sepist posted:Updated the OP with an example of how loud they are TBH, I did do some research on the C1100 before posting here and found this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xToSKwWFO_o So yes it is loud to start up but once it gets going it tones itself down.  Either way, its not for everyone and I think we have made this clear so lets move onto helping others.
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Aug 7, 2013 20:27
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thebigcow posted:I have a 1U Dell but I put it in the basement at work where they can pay for the power. If I'm in after hours I can hear it through the floor boards. I was playing devils advocate in that it doesn't sound like a jet  . Besides what home lab is going to be on 24/7? A home lab is a home lab, not a production environment that needs 99.999% up time and is being pushed hard all day long.
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Aug 7, 2013 21:38
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Thanks guys, I appreciate all the input everyone has provided.
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Aug 8, 2013 20:19
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Tekhne posted: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). Oh oh, people here dont like refurb servers so dont expect praise or anything. I learned the hard way...either way good find, let me know how the sound is.
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Aug 21, 2013 03:19
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