Build’s Name: Constellation
Operating System/ Storage Platform: ESXi 6.0, Lubuntu (14.04 LTS), Mythbuntu, Pfsense (others to come)
CPU: Was i5-4570T, now is i7-4790 (running at -0.2v offset)
Motherboard: AsRock B85m Pro4
Chassis: Fractal Design Define Mini
Drives: 7x 2.0TB Seagate constellation drives, 1x Samsung 850 pro 256gig (ESXi and VM storage), 1x Kingston V300 60gig (non critical VM storage)
RAM: 32gb 1600mhz Kingston Value ram (4x8gb) running at 1.425v
Add-in Cards: LSi 9211-8T(vt-d passthrough to lubuntu), Chelsio T420-SO-CR
Power Supply: Coolermaster V450
Other Bits: Scythe Big Shuriken 2b/w Noctua NF-F12 industrial PWM fan, 2x Antec truequiet 140mm fans
Usage Profile: Home router and UTM, Home file serving (Raid 6- mdadm), Mythbackend (HDhomerun networked tuner), background downloading, ad hoc video compression , wordpress testing (tbd what OS to run this on), Misc other stuff.
Other information:
This is the latest iteration of my humble home server which is an update on what I had in the past, it is its 3rd incarnation and my first foray into heavy virtualisation. I had run Ubuntu (Kubuntu with mythtv and LXDE tacked on) on metal for the last 6-7 years and always had plans for it to virtualise but never got around to it until just recently.
Rising power costs (0.256 c/Kwh!) demanded that I do everything I could to reduce the power consumption of my existing setup, and my time commitments being a stay at home dad/small business owner meant that I needed a lower maintenance setup which allowed me to spin up VMs when I needed to, while maintaining some semblance of security.
Some history:
Iteration 1 was a Thecus N5200 Pro, with which I had 5x2 TB drives. I hosted most of my server duties off a cheap single core atom netbook, which served a purpose at the time, as I was low on cash. This was great for a few years till I needed more storage, and was sick of having two separate devices. Not to mention a kludge of networking hardware that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't.
Iteration 2 was a Sandybridge i5-2320 (quad core, 3ghz, VT-D) on an AsRock Z68m-USB3 with 8 gb of ram/same drives running EXT3 as the filesystem, I added and replaced drives and made it up to 7 on this machine over time. At the time, to add drives, I added a silicon image 2 drive controller to the mix which was a cost driven decision as I was short on cash. In hindsight this was a poor choice and it significantly limited the speed of the array.
This was my first real linux only setup, I started with Kubuntu as my plan was to use it as a desktop as well as a server, and virtualise what I needed. After fighting with Xen and KVM for a while, I decided it was too much work at the time, so succumbed to just running a linux server as it was. While it was reasonably quick, it turned into a kludgy mess over it's 8 year life as I kept adding to it, first with Lubuntu libraries to reduce memory consumption, and then with other random bits and pieces such as MythTV.
Iteration 2.5 was the same, except I added a second box for Pfsense with a cheap i5-4570T & 6 gig of ram which I purchased from ebay for next to nothing. This box had the i350-T4, and was the core of my network for just over a year.
Iteration 3 is my current setup as mentioned above. After installing ESXi on a fresh 850 pro, the first task was to do a P2V migration of my existing ubuntu server and migrate the filesystem to Ext4. This sounds much easier than it actually was, and I had to use Clonezilla and other various types of voodoo to make it even boot. I managed though, and over the course of a few weeks slowly migrated over to a clean install of Lubuntu which will save space, and power.
On this install I removed what I didn't need, and added a few things. I stuck with Lubuntu as I am now very familiar with it's quirks and comfortable with it. I now run NFS where I can, and smb where I need to.
I tried Openmediavault but couldn't reach the point where I liked it, so blitzed it off. Also considered other options but kept coming back to Lubuntu
I also installed Mythbuntu so I don't have that messing with the file server install.
Pfsense was a much easier migration. Download the config, install pfsense, upload config, tweak a few minor settings and it was up.
The whole process took about a month of spare time, on and off.
Key considerations and reflections:
The most important outcome of this whole build is that I reduced idle power from about 180-190W down to 41W at the wall, which is a significant accomplishment. The savings in terms of dollars will be in the $300-350 range per year, so after a year or so I should reach the breakeven point for the latest upgrade, if you take into account the sales of the previous parts.
The key things that enabled this are:
In hindsight, if I had the option of going ZFS, I don't think I would have. Anything critical is backed up regularly and the ability to grow the array has been invaluable over the years as I have grown it, changed drives, and upgraded from Raid 5 ->6.
I do a lot of heavy Microsoft Excel work, and have spun up a VM just for that. I also do other things with various VMs.
Operating System/ Storage Platform: ESXi 6.0, Lubuntu (14.04 LTS), Mythbuntu, Pfsense (others to come)
CPU: Was i5-4570T, now is i7-4790 (running at -0.2v offset)
Motherboard: AsRock B85m Pro4
Chassis: Fractal Design Define Mini
Drives: 7x 2.0TB Seagate constellation drives, 1x Samsung 850 pro 256gig (ESXi and VM storage), 1x Kingston V300 60gig (non critical VM storage)
RAM: 32gb 1600mhz Kingston Value ram (4x8gb) running at 1.425v
Add-in Cards: LSi 9211-8T(vt-d passthrough to lubuntu), Chelsio T420-SO-CR
Power Supply: Coolermaster V450
Other Bits: Scythe Big Shuriken 2b/w Noctua NF-F12 industrial PWM fan, 2x Antec truequiet 140mm fans
Usage Profile: Home router and UTM, Home file serving (Raid 6- mdadm), Mythbackend (HDhomerun networked tuner), background downloading, ad hoc video compression , wordpress testing (tbd what OS to run this on), Misc other stuff.
Other information:
This is the latest iteration of my humble home server which is an update on what I had in the past, it is its 3rd incarnation and my first foray into heavy virtualisation. I had run Ubuntu (Kubuntu with mythtv and LXDE tacked on) on metal for the last 6-7 years and always had plans for it to virtualise but never got around to it until just recently.
Rising power costs (0.256 c/Kwh!) demanded that I do everything I could to reduce the power consumption of my existing setup, and my time commitments being a stay at home dad/small business owner meant that I needed a lower maintenance setup which allowed me to spin up VMs when I needed to, while maintaining some semblance of security.
Some history:
Iteration 1 was a Thecus N5200 Pro, with which I had 5x2 TB drives. I hosted most of my server duties off a cheap single core atom netbook, which served a purpose at the time, as I was low on cash. This was great for a few years till I needed more storage, and was sick of having two separate devices. Not to mention a kludge of networking hardware that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't.
Iteration 2 was a Sandybridge i5-2320 (quad core, 3ghz, VT-D) on an AsRock Z68m-USB3 with 8 gb of ram/same drives running EXT3 as the filesystem, I added and replaced drives and made it up to 7 on this machine over time. At the time, to add drives, I added a silicon image 2 drive controller to the mix which was a cost driven decision as I was short on cash. In hindsight this was a poor choice and it significantly limited the speed of the array.
This was my first real linux only setup, I started with Kubuntu as my plan was to use it as a desktop as well as a server, and virtualise what I needed. After fighting with Xen and KVM for a while, I decided it was too much work at the time, so succumbed to just running a linux server as it was. While it was reasonably quick, it turned into a kludgy mess over it's 8 year life as I kept adding to it, first with Lubuntu libraries to reduce memory consumption, and then with other random bits and pieces such as MythTV.
Iteration 2.5 was the same, except I added a second box for Pfsense with a cheap i5-4570T & 6 gig of ram which I purchased from ebay for next to nothing. This box had the i350-T4, and was the core of my network for just over a year.
Iteration 3 is my current setup as mentioned above. After installing ESXi on a fresh 850 pro, the first task was to do a P2V migration of my existing ubuntu server and migrate the filesystem to Ext4. This sounds much easier than it actually was, and I had to use Clonezilla and other various types of voodoo to make it even boot. I managed though, and over the course of a few weeks slowly migrated over to a clean install of Lubuntu which will save space, and power.
On this install I removed what I didn't need, and added a few things. I stuck with Lubuntu as I am now very familiar with it's quirks and comfortable with it. I now run NFS where I can, and smb where I need to.
I tried Openmediavault but couldn't reach the point where I liked it, so blitzed it off. Also considered other options but kept coming back to Lubuntu
I also installed Mythbuntu so I don't have that messing with the file server install.
Pfsense was a much easier migration. Download the config, install pfsense, upload config, tweak a few minor settings and it was up.
The whole process took about a month of spare time, on and off.
Key considerations and reflections:
The most important outcome of this whole build is that I reduced idle power from about 180-190W down to 41W at the wall, which is a significant accomplishment. The savings in terms of dollars will be in the $300-350 range per year, so after a year or so I should reach the breakeven point for the latest upgrade, if you take into account the sales of the previous parts.
The key things that enabled this are:
- First of all the power savings of Haswell and consolidation of the two machines
- A more efficient power supply (20% power savings at low wattage - by my calculations the new supply is 92% efficient at this power level)
- Running memory and processor at a low voltage
- Running an SSD as the boot drive
In hindsight, if I had the option of going ZFS, I don't think I would have. Anything critical is backed up regularly and the ability to grow the array has been invaluable over the years as I have grown it, changed drives, and upgraded from Raid 5 ->6.
I do a lot of heavy Microsoft Excel work, and have spun up a VM just for that. I also do other things with various VMs.
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