Build’s Name: Multipurpose 1U VM Host
Operating System/ Storage Platform: Windows 2008 R2
CPU: Not sure...
* Core-i5 2600 (no "K" because no overclocking with 1U cpu fan i'm guessing)
* Core-i7 9xx for the 6 cores worth it for my usage profile?)
* E3-1275 (is there an advantage over core-i5?)
* Xeon something, probably E5620. Would only do this if do dual quad core to get 8 cores if it's worth it for my usage profile. I also don't know differences between Bloomfiled, Nehalem, Nehalem-EP, and Westmere and what those differences would mean to me for my usage profile (I don't pay for electricity).
Motherboard:
* if choose Core-i5 would need one with video
* if choose E3, what are the differences b/w c202/204/206?
* if choose core-i7, would need one with video
* if choose xeon 1366, would need dual cpu and onboard video
* would like usb 3.0 if possible
* 2 x 1g LAN
* at least 24g memory capacity, more better
* onboard support of raid 0/1/5
* sata 6g would be nice to have
* something with IPMI? (not exactly sure what this does). Server would be in a remote datacenter so it would be nice if I had more control over it remotely
* anything else I should really want to have?
Chassis: 1U due to $/U colocation fees. Can only find 4x3.5" but would prefer something that can handle 2x3.5" and at least 3x2.5" 12.5mm SSDs. Hotswap drives not necessary. Redundant power not necessary.
Drives: 2x2T SATA RAID1, 2x240G SSD RAID1 (would prefer more SSD in RAID5 but see "Chassis")
RAM: Dependent on motherboard. Non ECC and 4 slots would max out at 16G, but I prefer at least 24G. I can do 32G in a 4 slot ECC.
Add-in Cards: Need advice...
* probably nothing, but is onboard 2x1G LAN enough? I may do iSCSI since the 1U chassis I prefer will probably be short on space for drives. I will start with two servers @ 1U each, so adding a 2U chassis just for iSCSI SAN won't make sense initially but I plan to add additional 1U servers in the future. Recall that rackspace = $ in my situation. I plan to have high performance (SSD) storage in the server itself and use iSCSI SAN for lower performance storage
* USB 3.0 card if motherboard does not have (intended for external HD backups)
Power Supply: Probably something on the order of 350w.
Other Bits: Should I get something that allows remote power cycling the hardware?
Usage Profile: (What you use the box for, please keep this clean)
Two servers, likely identically configured, with listed services divided between the servers. Everything running in Hyper-V VMs. If one server goes down I plan to move VMs to the remaining server and run each VM temporarily with less memory.
- Domain controller, DNS, terminal server gateway
- terminal server, with user file storage
- btrieve (pervasive sql) based accounting application
- sharepoint (IIS web, MS SQL)
- exchange mail server
Operating System/ Storage Platform: Windows 2008 R2
CPU: Not sure...
* Core-i5 2600 (no "K" because no overclocking with 1U cpu fan i'm guessing)
* Core-i7 9xx for the 6 cores worth it for my usage profile?)
* E3-1275 (is there an advantage over core-i5?)
* Xeon something, probably E5620. Would only do this if do dual quad core to get 8 cores if it's worth it for my usage profile. I also don't know differences between Bloomfiled, Nehalem, Nehalem-EP, and Westmere and what those differences would mean to me for my usage profile (I don't pay for electricity).
Motherboard:
* if choose Core-i5 would need one with video
* if choose E3, what are the differences b/w c202/204/206?
* if choose core-i7, would need one with video
* if choose xeon 1366, would need dual cpu and onboard video
* would like usb 3.0 if possible
* 2 x 1g LAN
* at least 24g memory capacity, more better
* onboard support of raid 0/1/5
* sata 6g would be nice to have
* something with IPMI? (not exactly sure what this does). Server would be in a remote datacenter so it would be nice if I had more control over it remotely
* anything else I should really want to have?
Chassis: 1U due to $/U colocation fees. Can only find 4x3.5" but would prefer something that can handle 2x3.5" and at least 3x2.5" 12.5mm SSDs. Hotswap drives not necessary. Redundant power not necessary.
Drives: 2x2T SATA RAID1, 2x240G SSD RAID1 (would prefer more SSD in RAID5 but see "Chassis")
RAM: Dependent on motherboard. Non ECC and 4 slots would max out at 16G, but I prefer at least 24G. I can do 32G in a 4 slot ECC.
Add-in Cards: Need advice...
* probably nothing, but is onboard 2x1G LAN enough? I may do iSCSI since the 1U chassis I prefer will probably be short on space for drives. I will start with two servers @ 1U each, so adding a 2U chassis just for iSCSI SAN won't make sense initially but I plan to add additional 1U servers in the future. Recall that rackspace = $ in my situation. I plan to have high performance (SSD) storage in the server itself and use iSCSI SAN for lower performance storage
* USB 3.0 card if motherboard does not have (intended for external HD backups)
Power Supply: Probably something on the order of 350w.
Other Bits: Should I get something that allows remote power cycling the hardware?
Usage Profile: (What you use the box for, please keep this clean)
Two servers, likely identically configured, with listed services divided between the servers. Everything running in Hyper-V VMs. If one server goes down I plan to move VMs to the remaining server and run each VM temporarily with less memory.
- Domain controller, DNS, terminal server gateway
- terminal server, with user file storage
- btrieve (pervasive sql) based accounting application
- sharepoint (IIS web, MS SQL)
- exchange mail server