[ale] Looking for 2 solutions. ???

[Robert Harris]

I'm saying server as it's a home server to mimic some things we are doing
at work which is vmware esxi/vcenter based including the HA ( luckily no
vsan ).   I've already got the rack and being 15U vs 40U I don't want
desktop sized chassis's in there and am using the rack to minimize noise
and heat in the guest bedroom.


On Wed, Oct 13, 2021 at 12:27 PM DJ-Pfulio via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:

> On 10/13/21 12:22 PM, Robert Harris via Ale wrote:
> >
> > I'm looking to replace some machines that are way past their prime.
> > Just moved and got a 15U, 32" deep rack to house them.  So I'm
> > looking for 2 solutions.
> >
> > 1) A standalone baremetal box to run linux.  Only real qualification
> > is it has to take a full-sized video card.  Ideally a 1 or 2U rack
> > mount.
> >
> > 2) I currently have an old 4 node C100 Dell system. a)  It's running
> > my media solution ( Plex and some additional dockerized tools),
> > letsencrypt, and some other house-hold systems for the family. b)
> > Using unsupported CPUs I can get to esxi 6.7 at the best. c) I would
> > like to get this on modern CPUs and RAM and if possible stay with a 4
> > node system but if not, I can go with some 1U or 2U solutions for my
> > vsphere cluster. d)  So I want something I can keep in my HA cluster
> > but it's not super performance. e)  And very importantly, it's going
> > in the rack in the guest bedroom, I'll be venting the top vents out
> > the window but noise and heat are pretty important.
> >
> > Looking for any suggestions including where to get it, model, etc.
>
> For a home setup, avoid "server" stuff.  It just isn't needed anymore.
> If you aren't tied to VMware ESXi, there are plenty of better options (for
> certain values of "better").
> If you are stuck with ESXi, then you'll want to check out the "white box"
> lists.  I gotta say, dumping ESXi in 2011 was the best decision I've make
> regarding hypervisor choice. It is nice to have excellent, free, backup
> tools too. Perhaps that has changed, but in 2011, the only real backup
> tools cost $1000 for VMware.
>
> A typical desktop CPU today can provide 22K passmarks of CPU power and
> 64G-128G of RAM, if you need to run bloated RAM processes like Windows.
> For containers with a few VMs (not all things run in containers), 16G of
> RAM should meet most home needs easily.  Setup 2 systems with nearly
> identical CPUs+RAM and you can have automatic failover with block-level
> replication.
>
> With a little care, you can stick with 6-core, 65W CPUs easily - last week
> I picked up a 6-core Ryzen-G + MB for just under $350.  It is only 20K
> passmarks - there is a price to avoid having to buy a GPU (which was my
> goal).
>
> Racks might look cool, but they are loud, power-sucking, with expensive
> parts that just aren't needed in a home environment.
>
> IHMO.
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-- 
:wq!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert L. Harris

DISCLAIMER:
      These are MY OPINIONS             With Dreams To Be A King,
       ALONE.  I speak for                      First One Should Be A Man
       no-one else.                                     - Manowar
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