Hi Guys,
I want to build my first home virtualization server, based on free ESXi 6.0. It main tasks will be:
1 x Home File Server (photos, family media, etc) <-- this it the most critical data
1 x OwnCloud
1 x Windows 7 PRO for testing .NET web applications
1 x Linux Server for testing PHP web applications
Possibly other - mainly for lab/learning/testing
The hardware is not bought yet, but I will use some spare parts, it will be something like:
Core i5 4570, H77 Asrock board mATX, 32GB RAM, mATX Case, 2x3TB WD RED + some SSDs - for higher performance datastore, Seasonic G360, usb stick for ESXi boot
The main requirements for me are:
- the build must be in single mATX case - cool, green and quiet. I do not wan't additional boxes or NAS.
- disks in RAID1 (mirror), so I would not have to worry for single disk failure (off site backup will be done anyway)
- I would like to keep my build architecture clean and simple from software and hardware perspective
Everything but the storage seems clear. Keeping in mind that it has to be single box with disks in mirror, I am considering:
Is the high price of good hardware RAID1 with cache worth it? Maybe any other propositions?
I want to build my first home virtualization server, based on free ESXi 6.0. It main tasks will be:
1 x Home File Server (photos, family media, etc) <-- this it the most critical data
1 x OwnCloud
1 x Windows 7 PRO for testing .NET web applications
1 x Linux Server for testing PHP web applications
Possibly other - mainly for lab/learning/testing
The hardware is not bought yet, but I will use some spare parts, it will be something like:
Core i5 4570, H77 Asrock board mATX, 32GB RAM, mATX Case, 2x3TB WD RED + some SSDs - for higher performance datastore, Seasonic G360, usb stick for ESXi boot
The main requirements for me are:
- the build must be in single mATX case - cool, green and quiet. I do not wan't additional boxes or NAS.
- disks in RAID1 (mirror), so I would not have to worry for single disk failure (off site backup will be done anyway)
- I would like to keep my build architecture clean and simple from software and hardware perspective
Everything but the storage seems clear. Keeping in mind that it has to be single box with disks in mirror, I am considering:
- Additional VM (OpenFiler? FreeNAS?) with disks passed through with RDM and data store mapped back in ESXi with iSCSI
- Additional VM (OpenFiler? FreeNAS?) with disks passed through additional cheap controller and data store mapped back in ESXi with iSCSI
- Buying some LSI (e.x. 9211-4i) controller from HCL with RAID1 and configuring it directly as a datastore (no cache = slow hdd performance)
- Buying more expensive controller (e.x. 9260-8i) with 512MB cache and configure it directly as datastore
Is the high price of good hardware RAID1 with cache worth it? Maybe any other propositions?