Who's got a home lab? Hp Microserver?

[jamin100]

Im at the point where I want to move all my "testing" machines off my imac and onto a dedicated server.

Do any of you have a home lab for testing / studying with?

 

Im toying with the idea of getting a Microserver, installing 8GB RAM and ESXI to get some client server testing going.

 

I also need a file server to act as a backup for my imac so thinking of the following

 

ESXI

VM WHS for backing up my imac

2 VM Server 2008R2

2 VM Client OS's (probably W7)

 

Would this work on the microserver? The bottle neck im guessing will be the CPU. The only server with any substantial load on it would be the WHS as its backing up the imac. But backups wouldnt be run at the same time as im working on the other virtual machines...

 

any thoughts?

[sted]

ive had mine (older version) running 08r2 host and win7 vm with 3gb of ram (and one in a school same) and its usable

[chazzy2501]

I use an old laptop with a bust screen as my home server. They use very little power and have battery backup. Mine is plugged into 7 1tb usb drives. The laptop uses 11Watts of power + each USB at 1W in standby. At nearly 20p / KWh now it's something to look at.

[Davit2005]

I bought a MicroServer (the first generation). Ideally wanted another ML115 G5 Quad Core but HP stopped making them. It's soooo quite it's in my bedroom. Haven't had much problem. Had the Microserver for over a year now.

 

RAM is cheap, stick the ESXi on an internal USB stick, put some HDD's in and it's ok for a cheap LAB environment or home server. If you backup during the weekdays while your'e not at home don't think the backup would be a problem.

[cpjitservices]

I have a home Data Center with a HP DL580 in with 8 GB RAM which is hosting my web domain, looking for a new switch to stick in there for gigabit! It's served me well my DC has Cisco & Juniper routers in there for education purposes!

[pete]

ML115 running ESXi for VMs, Microserver for NFS mounts and general file storage.

[Davit2005]

I have a home Data Center with a HP DL580 in with 8 GB RAM which is hosting my web domain, looking for a new switch to stick in there for gigabit! It's served me well my DC has Cisco & Juniper routers in there for education purposes!

 

And I thought I had an interesting home network :-D .

[crutchfieldj]

I've turned my microserver into a HTPC. 5GB RAM, 2008R2 Standard, ATI 5450 w/HDMI out. Serves up media but also acts as a home lab server just to play with things. Useful for RDP as well.

 

Davit2005, how quiet is yours? Mine is in my bedroom and loud enough to notice it at night.

[gibbo_ap]

i have mine (n36l) with whs 2011 on connected via lan to my tv to serve videos. the cpu seems to get blitz, am thinking of putting a linux distro on to test with, and may look at esxi on the pen drive for some fun.

 

my experience is, get as much cpu power as u can for your £

[Davit2005]

Davit2005, how quiet is yours? Mine is in my bedroom and loud enough to notice it at night.

 

Can hear it vaguely, It isn't sleep disturbing (but maybe that's jus me after a few beers) :-D

[dhicks]

Do any of you have a home lab for testing / studying with?

 

We live in a one-bedroom flat with an open-plan living room / kitchen, so I had to get something small and quiet. I ended up getting a Tranquil PC machine - completly passivly cooled, Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM. Storage is via two external eSATA drives configured as a RAID-1 array. It runs half a dozen or so virtual machines with no problem, including a Windows Server 2003 domain controller, a Windows XP workstation for remote access and assorted Linux VMs. It also acts as a router for the ADSL connection. For running virtual machines, disk I/O speed and available RAM are more likely to be limiting factors than raw processing power.

[sted]

Can hear it vaguely, It isn't sleep disturbing (but maybe that's jus me after a few beers) :-D

 

Id be more worried about the over bright front light. Ive managed to shove it out the way but is way bright

[computer_expert]

Id be more worried about the over bright front light. Ive managed to shove it out the way but is way bright

 

you could always use the 2p 'mod' as found here: tmp :: c3fada17.jpg picture by darryn_pmr - Photobucket (not my picture)

 

Not the best solution, but it does the job.

Edited March 23, 2012 by computer_expert

[ChrisH]

I have 2 HP Microservers 8 gig ram extra NIC running a hyper-v failover cluster. I use a QNAP box for backup and for ISCSI targets. Not a cheap setup but a lot easier to work with than a virtual setup within a virtual setup.

[sted]

you could always use the 2p 'mod' as found here: tmp :: c3fada17.jpg picture by darryn_pmr - Photobucket (not my picture)

 

Not the best solution, but it does the job.

I solved it removed the led from its holder nd shoved it down side of case but it is bright enough to light a room lol why firms think you need a pwr light that bright is beyond me

[IanT]

I brought a HP ProLiant ML110 G7 end of last year with 16Gb of RAM, Quad Xeon 3Ghz, 2x 2Tb Disks, Quad GIG NIC and built it as my Hyper-V Server - running about 4 VM's off it.

[jamin100]

cost AND size are a factor . . .

 

Ideally id buy a ML110 G6 with 16GB Ram but I dont think id have anywhere to put it! We live in a 3 bed semi and have 3 young children so things have to be hidden away lol. The microserver's size is ideal as I can put it in a sideboard and close the door away from prying little fingers.

[Davit2005]

Hid mine in the attic for 3 years, along with my switch and Routers. Could faintly hear the drone but not sleep disturbing.

[tb2571989]

Currently awaiting on a delivery of two N40L-series Microservers to add to my home network. They join a ESXi-hosting DL360 G5 and a custom-built file/backup server. I'm toying with having them as ESXi hosts but there's the option of setting up a DC properly and using the other one as a WDS server.

[macboy81]

Ive just bought a HP N54L which was £99 after cashback so well worth it. I bumped another 8GB ram in it so i have a nice 10gb to start with. Only downside ive found is its AMD and im having to fudge it to get my Mountain Lion Server running so I can replicate my work environment.

 

So I will have Windows Server 2008r2 and Mountain lion server. i might possibly add a server 2012

 

This server is silent i cant even here it on in my spareroom when working in there

[fromtheinternet]

I have the newly released N54L, and purchased another 8GB chip (1333MHz, £35 in PC World :-) ).

 

Currently it's running OmniOS with Napp-IT. I did play about with the BSD implementations of ZFS, as well as ZFS on Linux, but speed and stability are enough to justify running a mutant child of Solaris.

 

The next step is running a Debian variant on there (probably Ubuntu server) and running OmniOS in KVM. Assuming whether or not I can find out if PCIe passthrough is supported on this version...

[HaleStorm]

I have the N54L, got it for £189.99 with £100 cash-back so in effect it cost £89.99

I use it as a media storage server with WHS2011 running so, and Plex Media server streaming to my devices (xbox/tablet/roku)

 

Cannot fault it, even with just 2GB RAM its great