Build’s Name: vSphere ESXi – AIO vLAB in a 2 Nodes Cluster (Nested ESXi, Shared Storage: ZFS, CacheCade 2.0 Pro or other)
Operating System/ Storage Platform: ESXi 5.0U1 and NAS/SAN (using some sort of VSA)
CPU: 2 x Intel Xeon E5 2620 6 Core 2.0GHZ
Motherboard: Supermicro X9DRH-7TF [SAS2 from LSI 2208 (1GB cache) and Intel® X540 Dual port 10GBase-T]
Chassis: Supermicro 836BE26-R920B
Drives: 8x Hitachi 7K2000 2TB, 2x SanDisk Extreme 240GB 2.5IN SSD (for SSD Cache ZIL/L2ARC or CacheCade)
RAM: 64GB - 4 x Kingston 16GB 1333MHz DDR3L ECC Reg CL9 DIMM DR x4 1.35V KVR13LR9D4/16I
Add-in Cards: Intel i350 Quad
Power Supply: Redundant 920w from the Supermicro chassis
Other Bits:
Usage Profile: Personal Virtual LAB - vLAB, running nested Hypervisor ESXi / Hyper-V / Xen and native VMs
I work in IT consulting, VMware virtualization and Microsoft Infrastructure (AD, Exchange, SCCM and more) and I since I work from home when I’m not at a client, I want more horse power for my lab than my 2 year old workstation (i7 920, 12GB Ram, W7 and VMware Workstation).
I would also run basic network services for my home, media sharing and personal backup
Basic Idea:
Run 2 identical vLAB nodes each with a VSA (Virtual Storage Appliance) VM attached to the onboard SAS LSI 2208 chip using VMDirectPath.
Each VSA with replicate to the other VSA on the other Node, using block replication or software replication (ex: Veeam)
I have 2 x 10Gb-T ports RJ45 onboard each node:
• Might be connected directly as a Backend Network for storage, vMotion and FT
• Add NIC with 2 x 10Gb ports (CX4 or SFP+) connected to a switch (ex: Dell PowerConnect 6224 + 2 modules with 2 x CX4 each)
Another options for storage interconnect Direct or Switched
• FC using Qlogic 2562
• FCoE Intel X520-DA2
Nice to have features
1. VMware VAAI support
2. Block base replication and VMware SRM compatibility
Option 1 - VSA VM with LSI 2208 and LSI CacheCade 2.0 Pro with 2 SSD as read/write cache.
Option 2 - VSA VM with LSI 2208 in IT mode (if supported) and ZFS (ZIL/L2ARC Cache on SSDs)
Recommendations and advices I’m looking for:
1. How is this build looking anyone a build similar setup?
2. I heard Supermicro chassis are nice but they are made for datacenters, so in a home environment how noisy are they, can they be quieted down?
3. To save money, any recommendation on good Tower Case with 12 to 16 HDs, Case + 5in3 HS HD cages + Expanders + PSU?
Operating System/ Storage Platform: ESXi 5.0U1 and NAS/SAN (using some sort of VSA)
CPU: 2 x Intel Xeon E5 2620 6 Core 2.0GHZ
Motherboard: Supermicro X9DRH-7TF [SAS2 from LSI 2208 (1GB cache) and Intel® X540 Dual port 10GBase-T]
Chassis: Supermicro 836BE26-R920B
Drives: 8x Hitachi 7K2000 2TB, 2x SanDisk Extreme 240GB 2.5IN SSD (for SSD Cache ZIL/L2ARC or CacheCade)
RAM: 64GB - 4 x Kingston 16GB 1333MHz DDR3L ECC Reg CL9 DIMM DR x4 1.35V KVR13LR9D4/16I
Add-in Cards: Intel i350 Quad
Power Supply: Redundant 920w from the Supermicro chassis
Other Bits:
- Tripplite 25U 4-Post SmartRack Open Frame Rack or other
- UPS (to be determined)
- 1Gb Switch with 10GbE (CX4 or SFP+)
Usage Profile: Personal Virtual LAB - vLAB, running nested Hypervisor ESXi / Hyper-V / Xen and native VMs
I work in IT consulting, VMware virtualization and Microsoft Infrastructure (AD, Exchange, SCCM and more) and I since I work from home when I’m not at a client, I want more horse power for my lab than my 2 year old workstation (i7 920, 12GB Ram, W7 and VMware Workstation).
I would also run basic network services for my home, media sharing and personal backup
Basic Idea:
Run 2 identical vLAB nodes each with a VSA (Virtual Storage Appliance) VM attached to the onboard SAS LSI 2208 chip using VMDirectPath.
Each VSA with replicate to the other VSA on the other Node, using block replication or software replication (ex: Veeam)
I have 2 x 10Gb-T ports RJ45 onboard each node:
• Might be connected directly as a Backend Network for storage, vMotion and FT
• Add NIC with 2 x 10Gb ports (CX4 or SFP+) connected to a switch (ex: Dell PowerConnect 6224 + 2 modules with 2 x CX4 each)
Another options for storage interconnect Direct or Switched
• FC using Qlogic 2562
• FCoE Intel X520-DA2
Nice to have features
1. VMware VAAI support
2. Block base replication and VMware SRM compatibility
Option 1 - VSA VM with LSI 2208 and LSI CacheCade 2.0 Pro with 2 SSD as read/write cache.
Potential VSA OS:
• VMware VSA (NFS)
• HP Lefthand P4000 VSA
• NetApp OnTapp Simulator (waiting on public access…)
• DataCore SanMelody
• Windows Server + StarWind
• EMC VNX Simulator (support only NFS)
• SvSAN
• Other?
• VMware VSA (NFS)
• HP Lefthand P4000 VSA
• NetApp OnTapp Simulator (waiting on public access…)
• DataCore SanMelody
• Windows Server + StarWind
• EMC VNX Simulator (support only NFS)
• SvSAN
• Other?
Option 2 - VSA VM with LSI 2208 in IT mode (if supported) and ZFS (ZIL/L2ARC Cache on SSDs)
Potential VSA OS
• Nexenta CE
• Illumian + nappit
• OpenIdianna + nappit
• FreeNAS
• Others?
• Nexenta CE
• Illumian + nappit
• OpenIdianna + nappit
• FreeNAS
• Others?
Recommendations and advices I’m looking for:
1. How is this build looking anyone a build similar setup?
2. I heard Supermicro chassis are nice but they are made for datacenters, so in a home environment how noisy are they, can they be quieted down?
3. To save money, any recommendation on good Tower Case with 12 to 16 HDs, Case + 5in3 HS HD cages + Expanders + PSU?