Home ESXi All-in-One

[rubylaser]

Build’s Name: Totoro
Operating System/ Storage Platform: ESXi
CPU: Core i5-4590
Motherboard: ASRock B85M Pro4
Chassis: Coolermaster HAF 912 + 5-in-3 bay.
Drives: 4x Hitachi 4TB drives, 4x Seagate 4TB drives, 2x HGST 4TB drives, and 1x Toshiba 4TB, 4x Intel 730 240GB, 2x Kingston Digital 60GB SSDNow V300, and SanDisk Ultra Fit CZ43 16GB (ESXi boot).
RAM: 32GB of Crucial DDR3-1600
Add-in Cards: 2x IBM m1015 passed through, Intel RES2SV240 (connected to one of the m1015's), 2x
Power Supply: Coolermaster 600W Silent Pro
Other Stuff: 2x StarTech.com USB 3.0 to Gigabit Ethernet NIC Network Adapter

Usage Profile: Firewall, OpenVPN, OmniOS host, Ubuntu fileserver, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Crashplan, Gitlab.

Other information…
I used to maintain a whole stable of machines around the house, but I have tried to consolidate everything down into one, always on box, and I can always turn on another machine if I need to.

1. The OmniOS box as an NFS share for the vm storage. It boots off a mirror of the two 60GB Kingston SSDs. It has one of the m1015's passed through to it and has the (4) Intel 730's in ZFS RAID10.
2. This box uses IPFire for the firewall (pass through the two Startech gigabit nics for the network interfaces). It provides OpenVPN Access, Snort, Squid Proxy (and URL filtering), DHCP, and DNS for my home LAN.
3. The bulk of the storage comes from the Ubuntu fileserver VM. It has the other m1015 and the Intel SAS exapander passed through to it. It has the (11) 4TB disks in a SnapRAID double parity volume (leaves 36TB usable) pooled with AUFS with the notify option and NFS export enabled. This box also has the APC Back UPS 1500 RS hooked up to manage shutdown of the vms via apcupsd, certificate based SSH with the ESXi host, and a simple ESXi shutdown script that gets nohup'd to the ESXi when apcupsd timer triggers. This box also runs my Plex Media Server, and hosts AFP, SMB, and NFS shares for bulk storage. (All important data is backed up locally to encrypted external USB disks, also to my colocated backup server, and via Crashplan to both Crashplan Central and my friend's Crashplan box).
4. The other hosts are some Windows boxes, and a Unifi controller for the APs in the house.

This is my first foray into ESXi at home, I would love some suggestions on backing up these VMs (I'm primarily a Linux / OS X home so Windows based backup solutions aren't ideal unless they are the best. I've looked at GhettoVCB and it works okay, I'd just need to setup a separate NFS host to backup to locally.) and would welcome any questions or comments.

 

[CreoleLakerFan]

What does your APC tell you about power consumption?

 

[rubylaser]

I have more than just this server on the APC. I also have a power hungry Nortel 5510-48t (about 70-80 watts), my cable modem, and a Unifi AC AP. When my 11x data disks are spun down, the total draw is about 135-145 Watts on the APC. So, I think a ballpark estimate for this setup is 40-50 watts at idle.

 

[CreoleLakerFan]

Interesting ... I've been pondering an AIO ESX, was wondering what Haswell power figures might look like.

I don't know how accurate the readout on that model of UPS is. I have the same model, and I just compared the UPS readout (227W) with my Kill-A-Watt at the wall, which read 301W. Could just be that my unit is old ... I think it's coming up on 5-6 years. I've already had one battery replacement. It may be time to retire it ...

 

[rubylaser]

I've just replaced the batteries in mine and checked it against a Kill-a-watt in the past and been without 10W, so it may have a small margin of error

 

[Patrick]

Chassis: Coolermaster HAF 912 + 5-in-3 bay.

Very cool how you mounted the Intel SAS Expander!

 

[rubylaser]

Very cool how you mounted the Intel SAS Expander!

Thanks. That's a nice benefit of this inexpensive case. It has a PCI mounting bracket in that spot.

 

[CreoleLakerFan]

That is quite creative ... I have a Fractal Define XL which has a similarly-placed PCI mounting bracket ... I believe the intent was for it to house an analog fan controller, but I never used the thing. Something to keep in mind, as I intend to use that chassis when I roll my LabNAS and HomeNAS into a single ESXi host.

 

[NeverDie]

Wait. I see how it's held by the bracket, but how is that card connected?

 

[rubylaser]

Wait. I see how it's held by the bracket, but how is that card connected?

By magic Seriously, that's an Intel SAS Expander, so it is powered off the 4 pin Molex in the top of the expander. "Underneath" it is an IBM m1015 that is in the PCIe slot. The m1015 is connected to the expander by 2x 8087 -> 8087 cables, and out of the expander by 8087 -> SATA breakout cables to my data disks. The need to not have to occupy a PCIe slot for power is a big benefit of the Intel Expander.

 

[Kufnayr]

Interesting ... I've been pondering an AIO ESX, was wondering what Haswell power figures might look like.

I don't know how accurate the readout on that model of UPS is. I have the same model, and I just compared the UPS readout (227W) with my Kill-A-Watt at the wall, which read 301W. Could just be that my unit is old ... I think it's coming up on 5-6 years. I've already had one battery replacement. It may be time to retire it ...

@idle on a 430W Thermatake TR2