Home Lab V2 upgrade

[Marsh]

i run about 15vms right now for different exams and testings which are an Exchange 2016, some Windows 2016 Servers, an SQL DB Server, a Web Server, a File Server, a Web Proxy, some DC Clients for testing out GPO objects, etc.)

My 2 cents.

For your homelab and studying for cert exams, you do not need high IOPS. I ran the same lab in a dual E5-2450 with 96GB memory and few SATA 2 Intel 320 600GB SSD.

Since it is a lab to study for exams, tearing down and building the lab is part of the learning process.

I spent time to work on auto-deployment scripts for the entire virtual-lab , I was able to deploy the lab between 45min to 1 hours.
Once I have the auto-deploy working, evaluating hardware requirement and performance is really easy.

First, I tested on multiple hosts with many Intel S3700 SSD and NMEv SSD, then started reducing the hardware requirement. next, I tried on a dual E5-2670v1 with Intel S3700 SSD.
At the end , a dual E5-2450 with Intel 320 600GB SSD.

 

[K D]

For your homelab and studying for cert exams, you do not need high IOPS. I ran the same lab in a dual E5-2450 with 96GB memory and few SATA 2 Intel 320 600GB SSD.

This is very sensible advice. It is very easy to get carried away when planning a build.

 

[Yves]

@Marsh: I could not agree more. This is excatly why I opend up this thread. To not invest into stuff I dont need or worse cant need (because of incompatibility). I already have a two Cisco Nexus 5596 lying around... which I cant use. Since they are really really loud and power hungry like hell...

And @K D this happends to me soooo fast, since its not only for fun, its also my passion... and I love my toys... you should have seen my eyes when I bought the C7000. It was like christmas and birthday all togehter.

 

[Yves]

Sorry... me again... quick question @i386 mentioned that the HGST HUSMM are very cheap right now and very good drives. I found that one on ebay which seams like a bargin... or at least like a very good deal

HGST Hitachi 800Gb 2.5" SAS 12Gb eMLC SSD HUSMM1680ASS201 SSD1600MM

Now my TS-1279U idea will not work with SAS... But I am currenlty in contact with a seller of a HP StorageWorks D2200sb Storage Blade with would accept the SAS disk and would have space for 12 2.5" but runns on a P410i which has only SAS 6Gb not 12Gb as far as I know. Also I am not sure if the P410i is powerfull enough for that amount of fast SSDs? Any advice? Before I lose myself again in one of theses "It is very easy to get carried away when planning a build." situations....