Smallest Proxmox server possible

[nemomaximus]

I want to build (or buy something pre-built that meet my specifications) but need advice where I can find this.

My requirements are:

- CPU should be low power but still powerful
- Minimum of 64 GB ECC memory
- 2 x NVMe
- 2 x 2.5" SSD
- 2 x NIC (preferable 2.5 gb or 10gb)

Not sure if this exists in a NUC form factor, but maybe some tiny/mini/micro?

Or is something slightly bigger required?

I will be using it in my home lab so there is no need to go full enterprise stuff here...

Please help

 

[webmaster]

Have a look at Odroid H3+. It has only one m.2, but is small, very low power and better quality than the stuff you usually get from Chinese vendors.

 

[NPS]

I think ECC is the crucial point here. It rules out all the cheap consumer stuff. There might be some "workstation" type tiny/mini/micros but I am not into that field so I don't know.

As you did not give a budget... The coolest system might be based on a X13SCL-iF. You can connect dual NVMe via cables and still there is a m.2 left. The x16 slot is ready for any dual port NIC you want...

Older mITX boards mostly don't have the slots to connect 2x NVMe plus a NIC. A relatively cheap platform would still be the X11SCL-F but being µATX it's certainly not the "smallest possible".

I had a homeserver based on a X11SCL-iF in a Jonsbo T8. I used an pico-style PSU to have room for an NH-U9S. A dual port NIC fits easily. You can also fit 4x SATA in there and use the remaining m.2 for a P4800X to speed up the (in my opinion crucial) sync writes to the pool. Proxmox supports using the boot pool for VMs aswell, so you can have just one fast pool for everything. In my opinion that is quite a powerful package in a relatively tiny case but still whisper quiet (using a 92mm CPU and 140mm case fan with really good air flow). I would still run this if I had not tried to build a all in one homeserver that can saturate 25GbE SMB/NFS. With the system I described, you can easily saturate 10GbE.

 

[nemomaximus]

X13SCL-iF looks interesting, will take a closer look to that!

And yes, ECC is important...