Summary
In this post I'm going discuss a recent lab hardware build. I needed to upgrade my existing VMWare ESXi system. The goals I had for this upgrade:
- Relatively cheap hardware
- Decent performance; it's just going to be a lab box
- Smaller footprint than previous box
- Quieter and more energy efficient than previous box
- And more importantly - caveman-simple deployment. I had zero interest in troubleshooting an ESXi install on non-compatible or barely compatible hardware.
Implementation
I did the typical Google research project to find hardware combos that others had got working with ESXi. I focused on ESXi 5.5 Update 2 as that's the current release. After the research, I decided to go with a SuperMicro bare-bones server.
These type of systems are relatively complete. The motherboard w/CPU and power supply are already installed (and fit) the chassis. You provide the RAM and hard drive. That motherboard 'fit'ting part is a legitimate concern in these little 1U, half-depth rackmount systems. I'm all about building boxes from scratch, but I didn't want to deal with figuring out what motherboard would fit what chassis. In general, this server checked all my requirements boxes:
- Roughly $500 on the street, before RAM and hard drive.
- 8-core/2.4 GHz Intel Atom processor. The motherboard will accept up to 64 GB of RAM.
- Tiny little rackmount box. 1U and only 9.8" deep. Fits nicely in a small rack.
- Low noise. I can't hear it above the router that's in the same rack.
- Low power. That Intel C2758 Atom processor is quite efficient, only 20 watts.
- Caveman factor - others have had luck with getting ESXi up on this box.
Picture below of the actual server after I took it out of the packaging:
Below is what a "bare-bones" system looks like on the inside. As mentioned, everything but the RAM and hard drive is supplied.
For RAM, I decided on some fairly cheap Kingston SODIMM's that I'd seen others say work in this SuperMicro box. I went with 32 GB of RAM (4 x 8 GB). SODIMM picture below:
For a hard drive, I went the SSD route for performance. I bought a Samsung 120 GB model. 120 GB is way overkill for me as I keep all my VM images on a NAS, but that size seems to be still the sweet spot as far as price on these drives. One annoying thing with SuperMicro box - they don't include the mounting bracket for a drive. You have to go buy that separately. Only ~$7, but still an unnecessary pain in my book. Below is a picture of that Samsung SSD mounted in the bracket.
Picture below of the bracket w/drive mounted in the SuperMicro chassis.
ESXi Installation
I don't have any stories of technical heroics employed to get ESXi installed on this box. It just worked.
I pulled down ESXi 5.5 Update 2 from VMWare's site and made a bootable thumb drive with UNetbootin. There are multiple sites out there describing how to use that utility to make bootable ESXi images. Simple.
Bill of Materials
Here's a consolidated list of the parts I used to build this box:
