Recommendations for 1U lab setup - experimenting with containers, etc.

[turns2stone]

Hi all,

I'm brand new here, so please take it easy

So I'm looking for a low-cost way to learn more about hypervisors and running a few apps in containers, and I figure it might be more fun if I start with fresh hardware to play around on.

Currently, I have 3 apps that I run 24/7, including Plex, a music server and Blue Iris. The music server and Plex run on a headless Mac mini. I have Blue Iris running on a Frankenstein Dell T-30 (E3-1225 V5, 24GB RAM) stuffed inside a Norco 4U case. I also have a Middle Atlantic KVM with VGA, PS/2 that might be helpful.

Since video is/will be a priority, I've been researching Xeons with Quick Sync. Not many choices out there! I've been looking at some systems with an E-2144G/2146G, but even many of those are $800+ with mobo/RAM. Maybe I go with a non-iGPU Xeon and find an Nvidia card do handle hardware encoding/decoding?

I would prefer to keep things quiet and relatively low power, and hopefully fit in a 1U enclosure so it can go in my Sanus half-rack cabinet. It would be nice if I could keep the hardware budget to $500-800. There's an eBay seller that is close enough for local pickup, if there's something he's got that's appropriate for my project: Garland Computer | eBay Stores

Anybody want to point me in the right direction?

 

[PigLover]

Is your video coding need driven more by Plex or Blue Iris? BI works much better with Intel IGP than it does with Nvidia. I'd also wonder whether mixing Plex and BI on the same system is a really good idea given the "hungry" nature of BI (at least with more than a few streams running).

I've been running BI for quite a long time and have hosted it on various versions of my home labs, both virtualized and stand-alone. At this point I've come to the conclusion that BI overwhelms the requirements of most other things and is best left stand-alone. Doing that get me to much more manageable configurations for the more general virtualization server (which runs Home Assistant, FreePBX, NextCloud and a handful of other services - now 100% in docker, no more VMs). Leaving BI on its own will dramatically lower your requirements for the virtualization server.

Of course if you have heavy use from multiple clients requiring transcoding then Plex could become that one-off that drives your decision making. There are people in these forums who post very OTT Plex configurations too. YMMV.

 

[BlueFox]

Why not a desktop CPU? They too support Intel Quick Sync and are generally cheaper.

 

[turns2stone]

Is your video coding need driven more by Plex or Blue Iris? BI works much better with Intel IGP than it does with Nvidia. I'd also wonder whether mixing Plex and BI on the same system is a really good idea given the "hungry" nature of BI (at least with more than a few streams running).

I've been running BI for quite a long time and have hosted it on various versions of my home labs, both virtualized and stand-alone. At this point I've come to the conclusion that BI overwhelms the requirements of most other things and is best left stand-alone. Doing that get me to much more manageable configurations for the more general virtualization server (which runs Home Assistant, FreePBX, NextCloud and a handful of other services - now 100% in docker, no more VMs). Leaving BI on its own will dramatically lower your requirements for the virtualization server.

Of course if you have heavy use from multiple clients requiring transcoding then Plex could become that one-off that drives your decision making. There are people in these forums who post very OTT Plex configurations too. YMMV.

Thanks for the response - good questions!

Honestly, I’m a pretty light BI and Plex user. No more than 2 BI cameras and 2 Plex streams at any given time. I agree with your BI assessment, that’s why I have it on a standalone Dell T-30 box, where it seems to do just fine. Although I had to fool around for a few days to get Quick Sync working properly.

I do realize I’m probably wasting time and money, because everything is actually working just fine right now

 

[turns2stone]

Why not a desktop CPU? They too support Intel Quick Sync and are generally cheaper.

Valid question. Since I have some minor experience with Xeons, I thought those would be a better starting point assuming I want to fool around with Hyper-V or similar.

 

[BlueFox]

Consumer CPUs also support virtualization.

 

[turns2stone]

Consumer CPUs also support virtualization.

Good point. Is there a sweet spot in the Intel consumer line, Skylake based or newer, that would be good for Docker?

 

[nthu9280]

You are looking for quiet and in a 1U form factor. While there are exceptions, usually they both don't go together. If you want a quiet rack mount option, look for 2U or even 3U and then you are looking for fan replacements.

If this is for self-study/learning purposes you might want to look at workstation setup like Dell T5810 / HP Z440 / HP Z640 lines. If you are patient, they can be had for around $150 including a low end E5-16xx / E5-26xx V3. The ECC Reg RAM typically is cheaper than UDIMMs. That will be your limiting more than CPU once you have multiple VMs / Containers. The only downside is the chassis, Mobo, Power supply are proprietary and not upgradable. This suggestion is assuming you leave your current setup as is and keep a separate box for lab use.



If you are in the DFW area, pdneiman/The Server Store/IT_mart (related) and Garland are reputable ebay sellers.

 

[nthu9280]

Just as an example I recently picked this up for <$100 shipped.

 

[turns2stone]

You are looking for quiet and in a 1U form factor. While there are exceptions, usually they both don't go together. If you want a quiet rack mount option, look for 2U or even 3U and then you are looking for fan replacements.

If this is for self-study/learning purposes you might want to look at workstation setup like Dell T5810 / HP Z440 / HP Z640 lines. If you are patient, they can be had for around $150 including a low end E5-16xx / E5-26xx V3. The ECC Reg RAM typically is cheaper than UDIMMs. That will be your limiting more than CPU once you have multiple VMs / Containers. The only downside is the chassis, Mobo, Power supply are proprietary and not upgradable. This suggestion is assuming you leave your current setup as is and keep a separate box for lab use.



If you are in the DFW area, pdneiman/The Server Store/IT_mart (related) and Garland are reputable ebay sellers.

That makes a lot of sense. Maybe I’ll stick with a workstation setup for now. Funny enough, I almost pulled the trigger on a T5810 that Dell had on clearance for $449 earlier today. It had a 6-core E5-1650 V4, 32GB RAM and a Quadra M2000 4GB. Only lasted for a few minutes on the Dell site. I suppose I’ll keep my eyes open for something similar.

Yes, I’m in DFW, so it would be great to save on shipping if I can score a deal like your T5810 with E5-1603. It probably goes without saying that I have several spare SATA III SSD boot drives, and enough W10 licenses. RAM is just something I can be patient for, or I have a few sticks laying around.

 

[turns2stone]

Consumer CPUs also support virtualization.

You really got me thinking/looking at consumer CPUs

Anyone have thoughts about either one of these two units (price ~$590-$610 each) for my use case? Keeping in mind, it would be strictly for fooling around, probably will put Hyper-V on it, containers, and fooling around with Plex and Blue Iris, so I can really use the Intel Quick Sync.

Option #1 Lenovo ThinkCentre M920q Tiny i7-8700T 8GB 256GB PCIe SSD
^^^ I would get more RAM, but I think it will max out at 32GB (I don’t think I’m too worried about that tho) This is 6 cores w/Hyper Threading and Quick Sync. This is super small and could actually fit inside a 1U tray

Option #2 Lenovo ThinkStation P330 SFF XEON E-2144G 3.6GHz 8Gb RAM
^^^ I would also add more RAM. This is 4 cores w/Hyper Threading and Quick Sync.

 

[BlueFox]

If you don't need a beefy CPU and want small, could just get an Intel NUC.

 

[turns2stone]

If you don't need a beefy CPU and want small, could just get an Intel NUC.

Ya, like this would be awesome! https://www.servethehome.com/intel-nuc9vxqnx-nuc-review-xeon-quartz-canyon/
^^ But whew, the price!

So I made a decision/purchase, trying to stay close to a $600 budget.

I ended up with a Lenovo ThinkStation SFF P330 w/Xeon E-2144G. I have a 500GB Samsung EVO SSD and 24GB of DDR4 2133MHz ECC RAM I can pull out of something else, so no incremental cost to me for those components. The Lenovo was $535.

For $35, I picked up a Gigabyte Thunderbolt 3 Alpine Ridge PCIe card. It should work with this Lenovo, and give me some extra options for connecting peripherals. I can't tell if using the TB3 card will disable the iGPU, any ideas?

I moved some things around in my rack, and found a spot for this thing to sit. Now, I just have to have patience for it all to arrive

 

[madLyfe]

If you are patient, they can be had for around $150 including a low end E5-16xx / E5-26xx V3. The ECC Reg RAM typically is cheaper than UDIMMs.

straying outside what HP lists/recommends for the z440, do you happen to know where its out of spec limits are?

 

[nthu9280]

straying outside what HP lists/recommends for the z440, do you happen to know where its out of spec limits are?

Sorry, I don’t.