affordable (little) proxmox home server

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Juspolo

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Sep 26, 2017
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Hi everyone!
I am looking for an affordable Proxmox home server; do you have any suggestions?

Currently, I am running mainly two VMs: a pfSense and a FreeNAS. PfSense acts as firewall between LAN and modem, while FreeNAS acts as home NAS by handling 2x6TB passed-through hard-disks in mirroring; FreeNAS activity may be classified as "light usage".

I read some threads (e.g. here, on Proxmox, and on FreeNAS forums) which oriented me to a second hand Xeon D1500 platform (e.g. D1520D4I) with 16/32GB of ECC RAM.
As far as I saw, I got these impressions: D1500 platform seems cheaper than Atom C2000/3000 and Xeon E3 platforms; I3 platforms cost as a Xeon D-ish platform; DDR4 ECC RAM looks really exclusive to my budget (i.e. 400/450€ MOBO + RAM + CPU).

Therefore, my question is: what platform do you suggest me for my usage?

Am I looking at platforms that are oversized to my use?
I had some experience at work with an HP Microserver Gen8 running FreeNAS and it seems to me that its performance are comparable to my N54L, while new GEN10 is not fully supported by Proxmox and/or FreeNAS.

P.S. I am quietly new here; I hope that I posted in the right section :)
P.P.S. I am living in EU.
 

Patrick

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For those two VMs you will be fine with the D-1520 performance wise.
 
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Juspolo

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Sep 26, 2017
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For those two VMs you will be fine with the D-1520 performance wise.
Thank you for your reply :)
Ya hoo, so I did not think wrong that a D1520 is too much, right?

P.S. I found only a QVL for 1540 which is quietly limited... do you believe that most of ddr4 ecc ram would work or the xeon d are a bit snob about ram?
 

ELit3

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Aug 10, 2017
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Hi everyone!
I am looking for an affordable Proxmox home server; do you have any suggestions?

Currently, I am running mainly two VMs: a pfSense and a FreeNAS. PfSense acts as firewall between LAN and modem, while FreeNAS acts as home NAS by handling 2x6TB passed-through hard-disks in mirroring; FreeNAS activity may be classified as "light usage".

I read some threads (e.g. here, on Proxmox, and on FreeNAS forums) which oriented me to a second hand Xeon D1500 platform (e.g. D1520D4I) with 16/32GB of ECC RAM.
As far as I saw, I got these impressions: D1500 platform seems cheaper than Atom C2000/3000 and Xeon E3 platforms; I3 platforms cost as a Xeon D-ish platform; DDR4 ECC RAM looks really exclusive to my budget (i.e. 400/450€ MOBO + RAM + CPU).

Therefore, my question is: what platform do you suggest me for my usage?

Am I looking at platforms that are oversized to my use?
I had some experience at work with an HP Microserver Gen8 running FreeNAS and it seems to me that its performance are comparable to my N54L, while new GEN10 is not fully supported by Proxmox and/or FreeNAS.

P.S. I am quietly new here; I hope that I posted in the right section :)
P.P.S. I am living in EU.
I am running a Dell R610 with Dual X5670 processors @ 2.93GHz 6x1TB drives running PfSense / proxmox HA for some home storage and firewall between my roomies and I works great the full build came out to about $300 bucks.
 

Juspolo

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Sep 26, 2017
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I am running a Dell R610 with Dual X5670 processors @ 2.93GHz 6x1TB drives running PfSense / proxmox HA for some home storage and firewall between my roomies and I works great the full build came out to about $300 bucks.
Wow! That's good to hear! Do you suggest to also take into account some more dated platform? Maybe that has a below 60-ish W of TDP ;)
 
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Ivan Dimitrov

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Jul 10, 2016
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If you need to run only two VMs have you thought to go with mainstream hardware? The Pentiums and i3 support ECC memory and VT-d. For those machines these are the most important features in my opinion. You can get a 35W CPU and decent mini/micro board and you have a nice home server :) I would suggest to get one with al least dual x16 slots so you can pass-through a 4 port NIC and SAS controller for future expansion.
 
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Juspolo

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Sep 26, 2017
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If you need to run only two VMs have you thought to go with mainstream hardware? The Pentiums and i3 support ECC memory and VT-d. For those machines these are the most important features in my opinion. You can get a 35W CPU and decent mini/micro board and you have a nice home server :) I would suggest to get one with al least dual x16 slots so you can pass-through a 4 port NIC and SAS controller for future expansion.
Thanks, that's a clever idea and I definitely thought about it. ;)
In fact, I looked for an I3 (e.g. I3 4th gen, from 70 to 100 €) with a 1150 server mobo (e.g. X10SLM-F, from 200 to 250 €), but I found that it is really close to, or even more than, a Xeon D1520 platform (e.g. D1520D4I, from 250 to 300 €). :(
The bright side would be to keep my current RAM (i.e. 2x8GB 1333Mhz ECC unbuffered) and buy an additional 16GB instead of buying 32 GB.
As far as I saw on second hand shops, the money saved would be from 50 to 100 €; which is good. ;)

Said that, what do you think: would it be better to buy an 1150 platform with an i3 or a Xeon D platform?

BTW, so far I am using 2 hdds for data and 1 for os, but I do not think that I would exceed 4 hdds for data in future.
 
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Juspolo

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Sep 26, 2017
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Thanks, that's a clever idea and I definitely thought about it. ;)
In fact, I looked for an I3 (e.g. I3 4th gen, from 70 to 100 €) with a 1150 server mobo (e.g. X10SLM-F, from 200 to 250 €), but I found that it is really close to, or even more than, a Xeon D1520 platform (e.g. D1520D4I, from 250 to 300 €). :(
The bright side would be to keep my current RAM (i.e. 2x8GB 1333Mhz ECC unbuffered) and buy an additional 16GB instead of buying 32 GB.
As far as I saw on second hand shops, the money saved would be from 50 to 100 €; which is good. ;)

Said that, what do you think: would it be better to buy an 1150 platform with an i3 or a Xeon D platform?

BTW, so far I am using 2 hdds for data and 1 for os, but I do not think that I would exceed 4 hdds for data in future.
I wrote down a small spreadsheet to compare a second hand e3 1220, i3 4130, e3 1220 v2, and d1520 platform; based on that, I went for the D1520D4I (i.e. Xeon D platform).
Thanks everyone ;)
 
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Jan 30, 2016
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I would recommend the Dell T20 love the ones I have, the base Xeon model just needs extra RAM added and its good to go.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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Juspolo

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Sep 26, 2017
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I would recommend the Dell T20 love the ones I have, the base Xeon model just needs extra RAM added and its good to go.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thanks for the advice!
However, I had already ordered the xeon d platform before your reply : \
 

Juspolo

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Sep 26, 2017
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Just an update, I have been running the new platform for some weeks: it is running smoothly so far ;) really satisfied :D