This is a build log for our project where we are building our own server room. We who are doing this are me, Legen, and my friend registered here on STH as Krazos.
We are 25 and 20 years old respectively and are based in the mid of Sweden. We have both been running home servers etc. for a long time in our closets. We met by accident and now we have finally decided to really do this. Why you might ask? Well since its darn challenging and a lot of fun!
I decided to create this thread to share what we learn, show our progress, results and get feedback from you guys to avoid the worst traps.
The server room
The room we have access to is an old storage/bombshelter. We got air-cooling and ventilation but will need a better cooling solution in the future. We have a dedicated 1 Gbit/s internet connection with possibility for up to 10 Gbit/s (but that's nasty expensive).
Goals
We want to expand our hobby project and try to build something that feels like the real deal. Our goal is to build a good IT-infrastructure on which we can deploy almost whatever we want. Our idea is to begin with hosting some small game servers, web pages etc. nothing major. We see this as a great opportunity to learn more and educate ourselves. We try to keep costs low by using as much open source and free software as possible.
We will carry out this project in small iterative steps. In each step we will focus on one key part of the IT-infrastructure and improve it. After we have improved it we will move on to the next. By doing this we will slowly, month by month, see the server room becoming more complete.
Step 1
We started out with two C6100 machines (we each owned one when we started this). A couple of older Dell- 1850, a 1950 and a 2950 with 6 TB of older hard drives. For networking we use two gigabit switches, Netgear GS724t. We installed an UPS and better ventilation.
We began with running trial Esxi hypervisors on each C6100 node. In each node we had 1 SSD drive and 1 HDD drive based on dba's great tip.
We use the 2950 for backups. The 1850's are used for pfsense firewalls. We plan to set up CARP between them.
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Check the end of this thread for updates. Will no longer keep the main post with updated information
We are 25 and 20 years old respectively and are based in the mid of Sweden. We have both been running home servers etc. for a long time in our closets. We met by accident and now we have finally decided to really do this. Why you might ask? Well since its darn challenging and a lot of fun!
I decided to create this thread to share what we learn, show our progress, results and get feedback from you guys to avoid the worst traps.
The server room
The room we have access to is an old storage/bombshelter. We got air-cooling and ventilation but will need a better cooling solution in the future. We have a dedicated 1 Gbit/s internet connection with possibility for up to 10 Gbit/s (but that's nasty expensive).
Goals
We want to expand our hobby project and try to build something that feels like the real deal. Our goal is to build a good IT-infrastructure on which we can deploy almost whatever we want. Our idea is to begin with hosting some small game servers, web pages etc. nothing major. We see this as a great opportunity to learn more and educate ourselves. We try to keep costs low by using as much open source and free software as possible.
We will carry out this project in small iterative steps. In each step we will focus on one key part of the IT-infrastructure and improve it. After we have improved it we will move on to the next. By doing this we will slowly, month by month, see the server room becoming more complete.
Step 1
We started out with two C6100 machines (we each owned one when we started this). A couple of older Dell- 1850, a 1950 and a 2950 with 6 TB of older hard drives. For networking we use two gigabit switches, Netgear GS724t. We installed an UPS and better ventilation.
We began with running trial Esxi hypervisors on each C6100 node. In each node we had 1 SSD drive and 1 HDD drive based on dba's great tip.
We use the 2950 for backups. The 1850's are used for pfsense firewalls. We plan to set up CARP between them.
Step 2
- Migrate to either proxmox or citrix xenserver as a hypervisor. VMware is just too expensive.
- Build a SAN for shared storage used by all C6100 machines. Probably one SSD pool to begin with.
- Make a 10 Gbit/s connection between the SAN and the switch. Use LACP in each C6100 machine to the switch.
Step 3
- Increase the SAN with secondary slow storage pool based on WD RED drives. Possibly adding one more SSD pool.
- Buy 2 more C6100 machines.
Step 4
- Build a high speed network, > 10 Gbit/s.
- Build another SAN mirroring the existing for HA.
Check the end of this thread for updates. Will no longer keep the main post with updated information
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