Comments on: Building a Virtual Server for the House http://danielmiessler.com/blog/building-a-virtual-server-for-the-house grep understanding Tue, 15 May 2012 12:09:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Doc Rice http://danielmiessler.com/blog/building-a-virtual-server-for-the-house/comment-page-1#comment-129285 Doc Rice Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:28:56 +0000 http://dmiessler.com/blog/building-a-virtual-server-for-the-house#comment-129285 <p>I use an older dual-CPU AMD-based system for my VMs (I run a few Server 2003s and a couple of BSDs on VMware Server 1.0, which itself is running on top of 2003). In my experience, loads of processing power really isn't mandatory unless each of these machines are crunching numbers simultaneously (or booting all at once). Memory requirements - well, that one's obvious.</p> <p>Disk utilization is my common bottleneck. Windows has a lot of read / write operations going on all the time, especially when AV is installed.</p> <p>That said, if you're planning on deploying 2008, well, that's gonna up your hardware requirements a bit, even with the Server Core option. When I was testing Server 2008 (beta) on a Dell 2950 with two sets of RAID10 (dual Xeons, 8 GB of memory), those VMs ran pretty slow while XP and 2003 VMs were snappy (I ran about 10 VMs on this box). Then again, perhaps that version of ESX wasn't calibrated for it.</p> <p>Noise is definitely another consideration. I thought about getting a dedicated rack-mount machine as well for home, but I can't put it in the garage or closet (no cooling in my case) and it's just too much noise in my office.</p> <p>In the end, I'd consider what kind of average load these VMs will run and what your expected responsiveness is. I'm assuming this is just for you, not for public services.</p> I use an older dual-CPU AMD-based system for my VMs (I run a few Server 2003s and a couple of BSDs on VMware Server 1.0, which itself is running on top of 2003). In my experience, loads of processing power really isn’t mandatory unless each of these machines are crunching numbers simultaneously (or booting all at once). Memory requirements – well, that one’s obvious.

Disk utilization is my common bottleneck. Windows has a lot of read / write operations going on all the time, especially when AV is installed.

That said, if you’re planning on deploying 2008, well, that’s gonna up your hardware requirements a bit, even with the Server Core option. When I was testing Server 2008 (beta) on a Dell 2950 with two sets of RAID10 (dual Xeons, 8 GB of memory), those VMs ran pretty slow while XP and 2003 VMs were snappy (I ran about 10 VMs on this box). Then again, perhaps that version of ESX wasn’t calibrated for it.

Noise is definitely another consideration. I thought about getting a dedicated rack-mount machine as well for home, but I can’t put it in the garage or closet (no cooling in my case) and it’s just too much noise in my office.

In the end, I’d consider what kind of average load these VMs will run and what your expected responsiveness is. I’m assuming this is just for you, not for public services.

]]> By: Doc Rice http://danielmiessler.com/blog/building-a-virtual-server-for-the-house/comment-page-1#comment-251182 Doc Rice Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:28:00 +0000 http://dmiessler.com/blog/building-a-virtual-server-for-the-house#comment-251182 <p>I use an older dual-CPU AMD-based system for my VMs (I run a few Server 2003s and a couple of BSDs on VMware Server 1.0, which itself is running on top of 2003). In my experience, loads of processing power really isn't mandatory unless each of these machines are crunching numbers simultaneously (or booting all at once). Memory requirements - well, that one's obvious.</p> <p>Disk utilization is my common bottleneck. Windows has a lot of read / write operations going on all the time, especially when AV is installed.</p> <p>That said, if you're planning on deploying 2008, well, that's gonna up your hardware requirements a bit, even with the Server Core option. When I was testing Server 2008 (beta) on a Dell 2950 with two sets of RAID10 (dual Xeons, 8 GB of memory), those VMs ran pretty slow while XP and 2003 VMs were snappy (I ran about 10 VMs on this box). Then again, perhaps that version of ESX wasn't calibrated for it.</p> <p>Noise is definitely another consideration. I thought about getting a dedicated rack-mount machine as well for home, but I can't put it in the garage or closet (no cooling in my case) and it's just too much noise in my office.</p> <p>In the end, I'd consider what kind of average load these VMs will run and what your expected responsiveness is. I'm assuming this is just for you, not for public services.</p> I use an older dual-CPU AMD-based system for my VMs (I run a few Server 2003s and a couple of BSDs on VMware Server 1.0, which itself is running on top of 2003). In my experience, loads of processing power really isn’t mandatory unless each of these machines are crunching numbers simultaneously (or booting all at once). Memory requirements – well, that one’s obvious.

Disk utilization is my common bottleneck. Windows has a lot of read / write operations going on all the time, especially when AV is installed.

That said, if you’re planning on deploying 2008, well, that’s gonna up your hardware requirements a bit, even with the Server Core option. When I was testing Server 2008 (beta) on a Dell 2950 with two sets of RAID10 (dual Xeons, 8 GB of memory), those VMs ran pretty slow while XP and 2003 VMs were snappy (I ran about 10 VMs on this box). Then again, perhaps that version of ESX wasn’t calibrated for it.

Noise is definitely another consideration. I thought about getting a dedicated rack-mount machine as well for home, but I can’t put it in the garage or closet (no cooling in my case) and it’s just too much noise in my office.

In the end, I’d consider what kind of average load these VMs will run and what your expected responsiveness is. I’m assuming this is just for you, not for public services.

]]> By: Daniel Miessler http://danielmiessler.com/blog/building-a-virtual-server-for-the-house/comment-page-1#comment-129279 Daniel Miessler Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:28:56 +0000 http://dmiessler.com/blog/building-a-virtual-server-for-the-house#comment-129279 <p>I was going to put this one in my closet, with a fan pointed in there. But now I'm reconsidering the whole thing. I may just go the super-cheap route instead and put it on a regular "desktop" server that I built a long time ago -- using VMware Server.</p> <p>I'm thinking that once the systems are up and running I'm not going to see a real difference anyway. I'm not sure...still trying to decide...</p> I was going to put this one in my closet, with a fan pointed in there. But now I’m reconsidering the whole thing. I may just go the super-cheap route instead and put it on a regular “desktop” server that I built a long time ago — using VMware Server.

I’m thinking that once the systems are up and running I’m not going to see a real difference anyway. I’m not sure…still trying to decide…

]]> By: Daniel Miessler http://danielmiessler.com/blog/building-a-virtual-server-for-the-house/comment-page-1#comment-251181 Daniel Miessler Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:28:00 +0000 http://dmiessler.com/blog/building-a-virtual-server-for-the-house#comment-251181 <p>I was going to put this one in my closet, with a fan pointed in there. But now I'm reconsidering the whole thing. I may just go the super-cheap route instead and put it on a regular "desktop" server that I built a long time ago -- using VMware Server.</p> <p>I'm thinking that once the systems are up and running I'm not going to see a real difference anyway. I'm not sure...still trying to decide...</p> I was going to put this one in my closet, with a fan pointed in there. But now I’m reconsidering the whole thing. I may just go the super-cheap route instead and put it on a regular “desktop” server that I built a long time ago — using VMware Server.

I’m thinking that once the systems are up and running I’m not going to see a real difference anyway. I’m not sure…still trying to decide…

]]> By: Eamon http://danielmiessler.com/blog/building-a-virtual-server-for-the-house/comment-page-1#comment-129273 Eamon Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:24:12 +0000 http://dmiessler.com/blog/building-a-virtual-server-for-the-house#comment-129273 <p>What about noise? I had a Dell 1650 in my home office for a while and it sounded like a Cessna taking off. I couldn't keep it on even with the door to my home office closed, it was so irritating.</p> <p>I was thinking about a powerful Desktop as a VM server. </p> <p>Where do you keep your servers to avoid the sound issues?</p> What about noise? I had a Dell 1650 in my home office for a while and it sounded like a Cessna taking off. I couldn’t keep it on even with the door to my home office closed, it was so irritating.

I was thinking about a powerful Desktop as a VM server.

Where do you keep your servers to avoid the sound issues?

]]> By: Eamon http://danielmiessler.com/blog/building-a-virtual-server-for-the-house/comment-page-1#comment-251180 Eamon Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:24:00 +0000 http://dmiessler.com/blog/building-a-virtual-server-for-the-house#comment-251180 <p>What about noise? I had a Dell 1650 in my home office for a while and it sounded like a Cessna taking off. I couldn't keep it on even with the door to my home office closed, it was so irritating.</p> <p>I was thinking about a powerful Desktop as a VM server. </p> <p>Where do you keep your servers to avoid the sound issues?</p> What about noise? I had a Dell 1650 in my home office for a while and it sounded like a Cessna taking off. I couldn’t keep it on even with the door to my home office closed, it was so irritating.

I was thinking about a powerful Desktop as a VM server.

Where do you keep your servers to avoid the sound issues?

]]> By: Adam http://danielmiessler.com/blog/building-a-virtual-server-for-the-house/comment-page-1#comment-129255 Adam Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:31:51 +0000 http://dmiessler.com/blog/building-a-virtual-server-for-the-house#comment-129255 <p>Raid in general will increase your failure rate, just provide a way to recover from it. I would recommend straight duplication only, or even skip raid altogether and just have a decent backup strategy.</p> <p>Also, since you are runing this at home, look at power consumption. Electricity ain't cheap, especially in the Bay Area. A burly server will mean a burly electricity bill.</p> <p>The real question is, what is the expected load of the servers? Once you have that figured out, the rest is arithmatic.</p> Raid in general will increase your failure rate, just provide a way to recover from it. I would recommend straight duplication only, or even skip raid altogether and just have a decent backup strategy.

Also, since you are runing this at home, look at power consumption. Electricity ain’t cheap, especially in the Bay Area. A burly server will mean a burly electricity bill.

The real question is, what is the expected load of the servers? Once you have that figured out, the rest is arithmatic.

]]> By: Adam http://danielmiessler.com/blog/building-a-virtual-server-for-the-house/comment-page-1#comment-251179 Adam Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:31:00 +0000 http://dmiessler.com/blog/building-a-virtual-server-for-the-house#comment-251179 <p>Raid in general will increase your failure rate, just provide a way to recover from it. I would recommend straight duplication only, or even skip raid altogether and just have a decent backup strategy.</p> <p>Also, since you are runing this at home, look at power consumption. Electricity ain't cheap, especially in the Bay Area. A burly server will mean a burly electricity bill.</p> <p>The real question is, what is the expected load of the servers? Once you have that figured out, the rest is arithmatic.</p> Raid in general will increase your failure rate, just provide a way to recover from it. I would recommend straight duplication only, or even skip raid altogether and just have a decent backup strategy.

Also, since you are runing this at home, look at power consumption. Electricity ain’t cheap, especially in the Bay Area. A burly server will mean a burly electricity bill.

The real question is, what is the expected load of the servers? Once you have that figured out, the rest is arithmatic.

]]>