Hi all. You may have seen my last two home lab posts. The first iteration was basic Supmicro 1u Rackmount servers running on a 10Gb Network in a Hybrid SSD/HDD HCI solution based on Nutanix Community Edition here:
Since then, I wanted to move into a smaller, less noise/power platform based on Xeon-D, again ,Hybrid running both SSD/HDD still on Nutanix Community Edition and introduced a dedicated 10Gb Fabric for Hyperconverged Home Lab 2.0. Honestly, these were overkill for my needs and as you know, it was a good investment.
While cutting down on noise and power consumption, it was overkill for my needs. The compute and storage within these systems were not getting the usage I thought they would so I made the decision to remove the rack completely (planned) and to get another desk piece, build a smaller "rack" and get a little smarter about how i'm using my lab. The new lab also needs to be mobile...we will talk more about that in later posts. After selling HCI Lab 2.0 to a worthy cause, I started planning for HCI Lab 3.0. On top of that, I also needed to rebuild FreeNAS and have it fit into the rack as well as moving NVR for my home security system to a Small Form Factor physical device. I also wanted to remove VMware completely from my Lab and standardize on AHV.
Let's start with the plan and show you where I am today.
First and foremost the company I work (Nutanix) in cooperation with Intel have provided all SE's the new Intel Skull Canyon NUC. This got me thinking so I bought two more and loaded them up with max memory of 32GB and a couple of Crucial 512GB M.2 SSDs. (this will be changing and moving to NVMe M.2 after the next Nutanix CE release which will support NVMe).
Secondly, I removed my Blue Iris VM and replaced it with a SFF Hikvision DVR. I have Hikvision cameras that go great with this solution and I will also be replacing my cameras (some) with PTZ Hikvision as well.
I then backed up my files to the Spare NAS that I have (this will essentially be the new Backup NAS) from my FreeNAS server and will be the temporary "Acting NAS' in the Lab until a new SFF FreeNAS server is built. Nothing special, just a spare PX4-300d I had.
I also ordered a single Supermicro SYS-5028D-TN4T Xeon-D 1541 platform with 128GB RAM. I'll be loading this up with some S3710 800GB Enterprise SSD's I have from previous builds. This will run a single instance of Nutanix Community Edition, and I will run several Nested Instances for Demo purposes. The Intel NUC Cluster will be for testing RC versions and contining to create videos on my blog @ msvirtualguy.com .
IT HAS ARRIVED!!
Updated PIC of lab still in staging area:
The Supermicro SYS-5028D-TN4T is a beast!
Outfited with:
1. 128GB DDR4-2400 Supermicro ECC Reg
2. Supermicro 3.5" to 2.5" drive sleds
3. 4 x Intel s3710 800GB SSDs
4. Intel X520-DA2 (only have SFP+ on my current switch)
All running latest stable release of Nutanix Community Edition and nested instances of the RC5 build of CE based on our soon to be released 5.0 code containing a ton of features and enhancements!
This is part one of this project. Here's the list of to do's that will happen over the course of the next month:
1. Build new FreeNAS box to replace older NAS
2. Remove current Supermicro Rack to bring offsite and re-purpose for offsite Replication and backup (still have my first 1u rackmounts hybrid storage heavy Nutanix CE)
3. Setup new Tunnel to offsite local via site to site VPN using Edgemax Routers between locales
4. Purchase new Ubiquiti Cloud Controller and another matching desk piece to place rack
5. Purchase new Ubiquiti Mpower software controlled Power Strip
That's it for now. Videos will be posted on my Blog and Youtube channel soon with updates!
Since then, I wanted to move into a smaller, less noise/power platform based on Xeon-D, again ,Hybrid running both SSD/HDD still on Nutanix Community Edition and introduced a dedicated 10Gb Fabric for Hyperconverged Home Lab 2.0. Honestly, these were overkill for my needs and as you know, it was a good investment.
While cutting down on noise and power consumption, it was overkill for my needs. The compute and storage within these systems were not getting the usage I thought they would so I made the decision to remove the rack completely (planned) and to get another desk piece, build a smaller "rack" and get a little smarter about how i'm using my lab. The new lab also needs to be mobile...we will talk more about that in later posts. After selling HCI Lab 2.0 to a worthy cause, I started planning for HCI Lab 3.0. On top of that, I also needed to rebuild FreeNAS and have it fit into the rack as well as moving NVR for my home security system to a Small Form Factor physical device. I also wanted to remove VMware completely from my Lab and standardize on AHV.
Let's start with the plan and show you where I am today.
First and foremost the company I work (Nutanix) in cooperation with Intel have provided all SE's the new Intel Skull Canyon NUC. This got me thinking so I bought two more and loaded them up with max memory of 32GB and a couple of Crucial 512GB M.2 SSDs. (this will be changing and moving to NVMe M.2 after the next Nutanix CE release which will support NVMe).
Secondly, I removed my Blue Iris VM and replaced it with a SFF Hikvision DVR. I have Hikvision cameras that go great with this solution and I will also be replacing my cameras (some) with PTZ Hikvision as well.
I then backed up my files to the Spare NAS that I have (this will essentially be the new Backup NAS) from my FreeNAS server and will be the temporary "Acting NAS' in the Lab until a new SFF FreeNAS server is built. Nothing special, just a spare PX4-300d I had.
I also ordered a single Supermicro SYS-5028D-TN4T Xeon-D 1541 platform with 128GB RAM. I'll be loading this up with some S3710 800GB Enterprise SSD's I have from previous builds. This will run a single instance of Nutanix Community Edition, and I will run several Nested Instances for Demo purposes. The Intel NUC Cluster will be for testing RC versions and contining to create videos on my blog @ msvirtualguy.com .
IT HAS ARRIVED!!Updated PIC of lab still in staging area:
The Supermicro SYS-5028D-TN4T is a beast!
Outfited with:
1. 128GB DDR4-2400 Supermicro ECC Reg
2. Supermicro 3.5" to 2.5" drive sleds
3. 4 x Intel s3710 800GB SSDs
4. Intel X520-DA2 (only have SFP+ on my current switch)
All running latest stable release of Nutanix Community Edition and nested instances of the RC5 build of CE based on our soon to be released 5.0 code containing a ton of features and enhancements!
This is part one of this project. Here's the list of to do's that will happen over the course of the next month:
1. Build new FreeNAS box to replace older NAS
2. Remove current Supermicro Rack to bring offsite and re-purpose for offsite Replication and backup (still have my first 1u rackmounts hybrid storage heavy Nutanix CE)
3. Setup new Tunnel to offsite local via site to site VPN using Edgemax Routers between locales
4. Purchase new Ubiquiti Cloud Controller and another matching desk piece to place rack
5. Purchase new Ubiquiti Mpower software controlled Power Strip
That's it for now. Videos will be posted on my Blog and Youtube channel soon with updates!
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