Old server hardware to experiment with unraid package development and virtual servers

[9jack9]

Hello STH Forum!

A while ago I got some feedback here regarding a home server I initially wanted to use Windows Storage Spaces for. I took a bit of a detour and went with unRAID, but the feedback/help I received here was phenomenal so I'm reaching out to you guys again for help regarding a new project, and that is the development of an server platform that runs on some slow/cheap/old hardware, but I can use for testing/development.

In short, I would like to construct a server platform that I can run unRAID on as a development/test server (while keeping my main unRAID server untouched), as well as testing the development of virtualized servers with the use of KVM (perhaps Xen). I don't need this platform to be future-proof in any way shape or form, I don't need it to be fast, and hell, I don't even need it to be particularly reliable, these are all the things I am willing to sacrifice in order to save on cost.

Some features that I would like to have:

Vt-d (for virtualization) as well as IOMMU so I can passthrough PCI devices
IPMI would be nice so I can run the unit headless
room for a PCI card (for that PCI passthrough) (likely for a controller)
hardware is friendly to KVM

I really am new to the virutalization world, and I'm not sure what kind of older hardware works well with with it. I don't have much in the way of older hardware laying around I can use, so I guess this is the opportunity to build something from scratch. It also may work out best to buy a whole server unit already assembled (that is older), but I really don't know at this point.

Anyway, any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mike]

The cheapest hardware for a IOMMU box with decent Linux support with onboard graphics, if you need any, is the Intel Q35 or Q45 platform. Vt-d doesn't depend on the CPU with that generation so you can get any cheap s775 cpu to work. Power consumption is not bad since it doesn't use the ancient FB-dimms and boards like the dq45cb are pretty cheap. They don't have IPMI but V-pro, which is pretty much the same thing as earlier IPMI implementations where the NIC is shared on a low level (sideband).

 

[9jack9]

The cheapest hardware for a IOMMU box with decent Linux support with onboard graphics, if you need any, is the Intel Q35 or Q45 platform. Vt-d doesn't depend on the CPU with that generation so you can get any cheap s775 cpu to work. Power consumption is not bad since it doesn't use the ancient FB-dimms and boards like the dq45cb are pretty cheap. They don't have IPMI but V-pro, which is pretty much the same thing as earlier IPMI implementations where the NIC is shared on a low level (sideband).

That's the second time I've seen that board recommended... someone was using it in a similar fashion that I was trying to, however they had trouble passing PCI hardware through to various virtual machines... I'll have to follow up with them, regardless, I should probably take the hint.

Also you weren't kidding when you said the S775 chips were cheap...

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[Mike]

That's the second time I've seen that board recommended... someone was using it in a similar fashion that I was trying to, however they had trouble passing PCI hardware through to various virtual machines... I'll have to follow up with them, regardless, I should probably take the hint.

Also you weren't kidding when you said the S775 chips were cheap...

Thanks for the suggestions!

With what were they having issues with passthrough? I have one, although it's not running virtual stuff at the moment.

 

[9jack9]

With what were they having issues with passthrough? I have one, although it's not running virtual stuff at the moment.

Here is a link to the post, but basically with KVM, he could passthrough PCIe devices, but not PCI devices.

Oldest/Cheapest Hardware to run as Dev Server

Ogi