What do you guys think about this potential ESXi build?

[gigatexal]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t1uaib3g6bovmmo/Screen Shot 2012-11-27 at 8.31.12 PM.png

planning a virtualised NAS, a pfsense firewall, a HTPC (still need pointers on how to get the gpu passthrough thing figured out, what do I need to get a HTPC working?), and a handbrake blu-ray to mp4 encoder.

 

[RimBlock]

ESXi is really not designed for desktop machines (as in a HTPC VM). Separate it if you can. The rest as VMs on an ESXi server should be fine.

Post the setails in this forum do a more detailed reply as I cannot get to dropbox fromt he office .

RB

 

[cactus]

I would recommend ECC ram if doing a NAS. Also, look on ebay for the NIC. PTs go for <$50 US and ETs in the $70s.

From what I have read, which is little since the initial release of ESXi 5.0, GPU passthrough is still more of a project/thing to tinker with.

 

[gigatexal]

hmm bad deal on the htpc thing

asus m599x evo
amd 8350
32gb ddr3
dual port intel ethernet

 

[cactus]

Here is some more on GPU passthrough from Oct. In short, Nvidia Quadro and lots of time fiddling.

This seems to be good news from the page I read. HD6670 + the board you mentioned working with GPU passthrough.

If you do get GPU passthrough working, keep us updated. I started looking into it with ESXi 4 and moved on after a lot of trying.

 

[gigatexal]

Here is some more on GPU passthrough from Oct. In short, Nvidia Quadro and lots of time fiddling.

This seems to be good news from the page I read. HD6670 + the board you mentioned working with GPU passthrough.

If you do get GPU passthrough working, keep us updated. I started looking into it with ESXi 4 and moved on after a lot of trying.

i'll buy a 6670 and let you guys know.

i read that if i do gpu passthrough i won't be able to acess the hypervisor somehow and would need something called vsphere?

 

[RimBlock]

ESXi is managed remotely via the vSphere client.

The only time most people would go to the server and use the console is to sort out any networking issues with the management nic which allows the vSphere client connectivity.

The client can be downloaded from VMware or from the vSphere (ESXi) server once the Hypervisor is installed.

RB

 

[Mike]

And with a GPU that is passed to a VM that same hypervisor will no longer be managable from the console. No biggy, on a server board you would redirect it to a com port that in turn would be accessible with ipmi.

 

[gigatexal]

And with a GPU that is passed to a VM that same hypervisor will no longer be managable from the console. No biggy, on a server board you would redirect it to a com port that in turn would be accessible with ipmi.

So I'll just have to use Remote Desktop for windows or vnc or X over ssh on Linux/bsd