Reply to: Cheap/Best Value VM host

[amanwhoisquiet]

How does the server cope in the garage with the extremes of heat and cold?

It's not doing anything so important that I'd be upset if it died during, but it's seemed fine so far over these last few weeks and that's been the coldest I've ever known my part of the country to get. I'll let you know this summer if it decides to flip its lid over the heat, but the garage overall is big enough that it never gets sweltering.

[SimonMac]

I got an old monster of a rack server off ebay for about £200 (12 cores and 64GB) (with no rack to put it in). It's alright in the garage and because I don't need it running all the time I can just cable up the ILO port as well as one or more of the proper NICs and power on/off the server itself through that interface.

How does the server cope in the garage with the extremes of heat and cold?

[fatJock]

I use an HP microserver too - brilliant bit of kit and there’s often cash back.

[amanwhoisquiet]

I got an old monster of a rack server off ebay for about £200 (12 cores and 64GB) (with no rack to put it in). It's alright in the garage and because I don't need it running all the time I can just cable up the ILO port as well as one or more of the proper NICs and power on/off the server itself through that interface.

[spongeym]

HP Microserver

I've got the previous generation of this.
https://www.hpe.com/uk/en/product-ca...009955118.html

Have got 8gb RAM, 4 various hard drives I've used in a NAS and it's running my Windows 2012 & 2016 labs, albeit at minimum spec, they don't need to be anything beefy as I use Server Manager locally to managed. Got 4 Windows Servers and a couple of Win 10 machine running with some POC Linux boxes also.

HP are are alway doing rebates on these so keep an eye out for cash back!

[SimonMac]

Just wondering why you want to run it on something else?

I have the 2012 i7 quad core macmini server with a couple of vm's + my plex server. It has 16GB ram 1TB SSD + 2TB HDD. I decided not to upgrade to something else when I used smart energy monitor to check its power consumption. It has to be one of the most efficient small form PC's around pulling around 15w under average load. Total consumption for Last 30 days is 11.2kwh compared 22.1kwh on my (slow marvel processor) Synology NAS which is hardly accessed.

The VM's are on the MacMini, the storage on a NAS that is connected by iSCSI which seems flakey at best, also the CPU for hte MacMini is not upto scratch (I don't have the i7 quad core) so can struggle on some CPU tasks as it's shares the resource with so much already

[css_jay99]

I have a few VM's running on my Mac Mini, but want to hive them off onto a dedicated machine so looking for recommendations for a cheapish (it's being paid for out of my pocket rather than MyCo) setup, the storage component will be handled by my existing NAS, ideally I'd like something I can start cheapish with and add more CPU/RAM as and when I consume it

Would this be overkill?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Powe...4AAOSwyi9aJmWP

Just wondering why you want to run it on something else?

I have the 2012 i7 quad core macmini server with a couple of vm's + my plex server. It has 16GB ram 1TB SSD + 2TB HDD. I decided not to upgrade to something else when I used smart energy monitor to check its power consumption. It has to be one of the most efficient small form PC's around pulling around 15w under average load. Total consumption for Last 30 days is 11.2kwh compared 22.1kwh on my (slow marvel processor) Synology NAS which is hardly accessed.

[sal]

And three times the price!

As I said if it's going to be anything, it's going to be a cheap POC rather than throwing any real money at it

It's your money, if you want to burn them on an old shed and leecy bill it's your decision to make.

[SimonMac]

https://www.ebuyer.com/775196-dell-p...-tower-30-0265
+
null CT11003225 | PowerEdge T30 | Crucial UK

=£569 same specs but + 1TB HDD extra, silent, modern, easily upgradable and with NBD warranty

With the garage you are likely to have bigger problems with humidity than temperature.

And three times the price!

As I said if it's going to be anything, it's going to be a cheap POC rather than throwing any real money at it

[sal]

See the second point about keeping it in the garage

I know I will need caddies, quick google fu says they can be picked up for ~£10, I have some WD RED 2TB drives that I was planning on sticking in there, a small cabinet and I have something better than the MacMini I have at the moment, I will be running very small linux VM's (1 cpu 2-4gb RAM) maybe 4 at most, don't need anything to set the world on fire (although not setting the garage on fire would be a bonus)

https://www.ebuyer.com/775196-dell-p...-tower-30-0265
+
null CT11003225 | PowerEdge T30 | Crucial UK

=£569 same specs but + 1TB HDD extra, silent, modern, easily upgradable and with NBD warranty

With the garage you are likely to have bigger problems with humidity than temperature.

[b0redom]

Something like:

https://www.serversdirect.co.uk/p/11...l-300w-1yr-nbd

?

I use a couple of LeNovo TS140s, sometimes Dell/LeNovo/HP do massive cashbacks on entry level servers. If you're running VMs, you're bound to be way more constrained by RAM than CPU.

[SimonMac]

The first part is false, most server PSUs are gold/platinum rated with 90%+ efficiency. Low/mid range consumer PSUs are lees than that. The higher consumption is caused by cooling profiles running fans on max and CPUs being old generations and power hungry.

Agree with the second part.

The server in the OP link is garbage, CPUs are circa 2009, performance wise they are slightly better than a modern Celeron. No HDD caddies mean you will have to pay extra to fit in HDDs

Rack mounted servers are not suitable for keeping at home, unless you have a basement/garage to keep the noise away.

Either built your own desktop, look for more modern 2nd hand Workstation or new value tower server like HPE ML10 / Dell T10/T20

See the second point about keeping it in the garage

I know I will need caddies, quick google fu says they can be picked up for ~£10, I have some WD RED 2TB drives that I was planning on sticking in there, a small cabinet and I have something better than the MacMini I have at the moment, I will be running very small linux VM's (1 cpu 2-4gb RAM) maybe 4 at most, don't need anything to set the world on fire (although not setting the garage on fire would be a bonus)

[sal]

Power consumption on that thing is going to be pretty high. Server PSU's are far more wasteful than consumer PSU's.

You could probably build a pretty cheap host in a regular ATX case with a normal PSU - find a mobo with SD boot and stick ESXi on an extreme SD card. You then also don't have to worry about acoustics and can shove it under your desk / in a cupboard / keep it in the house. You get the gist.

The first part is false, most server PSUs are gold/platinum rated with 90%+ efficiency. Low/mid range consumer PSUs are lees than that. The higher consumption is caused by cooling profiles running fans on max and CPUs being old generations and power hungry.

Agree with the second part.

The server in the OP link is garbage, CPUs are circa 2009, performance wise they are slightly better than a modern Celeron. No HDD caddies mean you will have to pay extra to fit in HDDs

Rack mounted servers are not suitable for keeping at home, unless you have a basement/garage to keep the noise away.

Either built your own desktop, look for more modern 2nd hand Workstation or new value tower server like HPE ML10 / Dell T10/T20

[mattfx]

Power consumption on that thing is going to be pretty high. Server PSU's are far more wasteful than consumer PSU's.

You could probably build a pretty cheap host in a regular ATX case with a normal PSU - find a mobo with SD boot and stick ESXi on an extreme SD card. You then also don't have to worry about acoustics and can shove it under your desk / in a cupboard / keep it in the house. You get the gist.

[SimonMac]

Also, those who have a "SOHO server farm" where do you put your kit? Will it be too cold in the garage, by the same ilk does it get too warm in the summer?