Home/Small business server with virtualisation

W

Walter4515

n00b
Joined
Jun 20, 2020
Messages
2
Hi All,

I'm trying to setup a server for home/small business. Just setup my own pfsense box and had to learn about networks, firewall and package inspection. Next to getting a bit of functionlities I want/need. The main reason of this following project is learning.

But I really need help with what hardware would work for me. Since i'm no expert I would appreciate any help. I want to build this over time by adding components per phase to make the cost reasonable. I may be ok zith using some refurbished hardware (I'll leave that up to you):

Phase 1:
  1. NAS (start 2-4 data drives should be able to go up to 6 at least). Software raid.
  2. M2 drive for (Linux Debian 8.0 or higher // or Ubuntu 14.04 LTS) and other servers going forward
  3. AntivirusRecommended: 1.86 GHz or faster Intel Xeon multi-core CPU
    Memory: Recommended free RAM: 1 GB
    HDD space: 1.5 GB of free hard-disk space
  1. Central antivirus control centre
    Use: XenDesktop Or Citrix XenServer to run virtual appliance control centre:
    T CPU: 4 vCPU with 2 GHz each
    Minimum RAM memory: 6 GB recommended
    40 GB of free hard-disk space
  1. Setup authentication server

Phase 2:
  1. Virtualise 2 standard desktops
  2. ML. I`ve dabbeld in a few algoritms so far. But want to start using it on bigger datasets of 10.000’s-100.000’s of lines of data or 1000’s-10000s of pictures (difficult to scope out resourcing wise). Use one of the virtualised environments for this. If it goes beyond this, which is unlikely I’ll look at cloud processing options.

Phase 3:
  1. Virtualise gaming PC (ML and gaming does not need to run at same time)
  2. + few small virtal server intances
Other info:
Optional having the possibility for 2 M2 slots would be great.
Would like error correction hardware
Ideqlly Phase 1 cost wise looking at 1800-2500 NZD to start off with exl hard drives

My main questions here would be:
1. What motherboard/CPU should I buy? Should I consider the option to add in a second CPU later?
2. Should I consider GPU virtualisation in phase 2/3? What would you propose?

Cheers
Walter
 
It depends on your budget, and how much you care about performance (test labs dont typically need to be the fastest spec out there). You could pick up a Supermicro Dual LGA 1366 motharboard, one set of ECC DDR3, and a CPU like an X5650 or 70. Later on down teh line you could add a second CPU/set of RAM (PSU needs to have dual 8 pin EPS connectors). Rosewill makes a decently cheap rack mountable case (get the 4U version). I have used GPU virtualization on the supermicro 1366 boards and everything worked exactly as I expected, I was running proxmox as my hypervisor.

A more expensive option would be getting a dual socket 2011V3 motherboard, but those CPU's should have drastically higher performance
 
Smoblikat said:
It depends on your budget, and how much you care about performance (test labs dont typically need to be the fastest spec out there). You could pick up a Supermicro Dual LGA 1366 motharboard, one set of ECC DDR3, and a CPU like an X5650 or 70. Later on down teh line you could add a second CPU/set of RAM (PSU needs to have dual 8 pin EPS connectors). Rosewill makes a decently cheap rack mountable case (get the 4U version). I have used GPU virtualization on the supermicro 1366 boards and everything worked exactly as I expected, I was running proxmox as my hypervisor.

A more expensive option would be getting a dual socket 2011V3 motherboard, but those CPU's should have drastically higher performance
Click to expand...

Thanks Smoblikat!

would this work
Supermicro X10DRi-T Server Motherboard - Intel C612 Chipset - Socket R3 (LGA2011-3) - 1 x Bulk Pack MBD-X10DRI-T-B
Intel CM8064401831000 Xeon E5-2630 v3 Eight-Core Haswell Processor 2.4 GHz 8.0GT/s 20MB LGA 2011-v3 CPU, OEM OEM (refurbishedx2)
+ one set ECC DDR4

What would you use for GPU in phase 2/3?

Cheers
Walter
 
Walter4515 said:
Thanks Smoblikat!

would this work
Supermicro X10DRi-T Server Motherboard - Intel C612 Chipset - Socket R3 (LGA2011-3) - 1 x Bulk Pack MBD-X10DRI-T-B
Intel CM8064401831000 Xeon E5-2630 v3 Eight-Core Haswell Processor 2.4 GHz 8.0GT/s 20MB LGA 2011-v3 CPU, OEM OEM (refurbishedx2)
+ one set ECC DDR4

What would you use for GPU in phase 2/3?

Cheers
Walter
Click to expand...

That should work, though you can typically find really great deals for 1366/2011 stuff on ebay (like the post above me mentioned).

As far as GPUs go, if you havent ever done anything like this before, your best bet is to stick to AMD graphics cards. Nvidia graphics cards need a lot of tweaking (to the driver and BIOS) to work properly in a VM, so depending on your performance expectations and power requirments, you could pick up somthing like an RX 480/580 or an R9 290X. HD7970's should be cheap, and they are powerful enough for Fallout 4/GTA V at 1080P.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top