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Homelab

VMware Homeserver - ESXi on Gigabyte BRIX

Beside NUCs and Mac minis there is another great barebone in the homelab market. Basic requirements for home server are a decent price, good performance and low power consumption. Gigabytes BRIX offers great performance and is small in size and power consumption and thus makes it a great candidate for running ESXi at home. To get started, first a look at the different models available at the moment.

BRIX: Basic Barebone, candidate for ESXi.brix-s

  • GB-BXi3-4010: Intel Core i3-4010U (2x 1.7GHz)
  • GB-BXi5-4200: Intel Core i5-4200U (2x 2.6GHz)
  • GB-BXi7-4500: Intel Core i7-4500U (2x 3.0GHz)

BRIX s: Identical to BRIX barebones but with 2.5" HDD/SDD support. Slightly larger case and a good candidate for ESXi.

  • GB-BXi3H-4010: Intel Core i3-4010U (2x 1.7GHz)
  • GB-BXi5H-4200: Intel Core i5-4200U (2x 2.6GHz)
  • GB-BXi7H-4500: Intel Core i7-4500U (2x 3.0GHz)

brix-proBRIX Pro: High performance BRIX with 2.5" HDD/SDD support and quad-core CPU. These are the only systems with VT-d support and thus the best candidate for ESXi.

  • GB-BXi5-4570R: Intel Core i5-4570R (4x 3.20 GHz)
  • GB-BXi7-4770R: Intel Core i7-4770R (4x 3.90 GHz)

There is also a Brix Gaming series with GPU support and a BRIX Projector with an integrated projector. BRIX with AMD and Celeron CPUs are also available but these are not the best candidates for ESXi. I'm listing them here for completeness.

  • BRIX Projector GB-BXPi3-4010
  • BRIX Gaming GB-BXi5G3-760
  • BRIX Gaming GB-BXi5G-760
  • BRIX Gaming GB-BXi7G3-760
  • BRIX Gaming (AMD) GB-BXA8G-8890
  • BRIC (AMD) GB-BXA8-5545
  • BRIX (Celeron) GB-BXBT-2807

Read More »VMware Homeserver - ESXi on Gigabyte BRIX

Preview on 5th Gen Intel NUC for VMware ESXi

Intel NUCs are small, silent, transportable and have a very low power consumption, making it a great server for your homelab. On CES 2015 Intel officially presented their new Broadwell NUCs which will be available in a few weeks.

Intel NUCs are not officially supported by VMware but they have a great community support. They are proven in many homlabs or even for demonstrating Virtual SAN deployments.

  • Broadwell CPU
  • i7 NUC announced (Q2/2015)
  • No changes in memory support (max. 16GB)
  • Available with and withouth 2.5" HDD slot

5th-gen-nucRead More »Preview on 5th Gen Intel NUC for VMware ESXi

FreeNAS on HP Microserver N54L - Shared Storage for your ESXi

The HP Microserver N54L and its predecessors N40L and N36L are widely spread home servers. I've written about using it as ESXi host in my Homelab about 2 years ago. Today it is still a great system to be used with ESXi but there are better alternatives, especially due to its limited memory and CPU power. That was the reason why I rededicated my N40L to be a central storage and file server with FreeNAS. This post describes what you need to use the N40L as resilient storage and how to configure it properly for ESXi usage. I will talk about NFS sync writes or performance issues with NFS vs. iSCSI and how to work around them.

freenas-on-hp-microserver-n36l-n40l-n54l

Read More »FreeNAS on HP Microserver N54L - Shared Storage for your ESXi

Customized ESXi Image for 4th Gen Intel NUC

Intel NUCs are small, silent, transportable and have a very low power consumption, making it a great server for your homelab. Unfortunately ESXi does not work out of the box on these small nice systems. This post describes how you can create a customized ESXi Image for a 4th Intel NUC in about 5 minutes.

4th Generation Intel NUC Models:

  • D54250WYK
  • D54250WYKH
  • D54250WYB
  • D34010WYK
  • D34010WYKH
  • D34010WYB

vsphere-esxi-on-intel-nuc-BOXD54250WYKH

Read More »Customized ESXi Image for 4th Gen Intel NUC

VMware Homeserver – ESXi on Mac mini

Running ESXi on a Mac mini made by Apple is nothing new. There are many opportunities to consider when you want to build a VMware vSphere Lab or a Homeserver. In this post, I am going to cover capabilities, accessories, and issues you might encounter in the newest release: Mac mini MD387, Mac mini MD388, and the slightly enhanced Mac mini Server MD389 from 2012/2013. Mac mini offers great performance and is small in size and power consumption thus making it a great candidate for running ESXi at home.

esx-on-mac-mini

The latest version offers 3 models which are different in CPU performance and HDD capacity. The Server version has two 2,5" hard drives:

  • Apple Mac Mini MD387LL/A - Intel Core i5 (Up to 2x 3.1 GHz)
  • Apple Mac Mini MD388LL/A - Intel Core i7 (Up to 4x 3.3 GHz)
  • Apple Mac Mini MD389LL/A Server - Intel Core i7 (Up to 4x 3.3 GHz)

Read More »VMware Homeserver – ESXi on Mac mini

VMware Homeserver - ESXi on 4th Gen Intel NUC

Whether you want to build a vSphere Home Lab for testing or a Home Server, basic requirements are the same: decent price, good performance and low power consumption. The Intel NUC (Next Unit of Computing) family has grown to the 4th generation, including some great enhancements for ESXi Hosts. Definitely the best enhancement is that Intel has added a SATA port to the board, that allows to use more than a single mSATA SSD.

intel-nuc-4th-gen

Intel NUC Systems are available as system board only and with a chassis. The 4th Generation NUC is available with 3 type of CPUs: Celeron, i3 and a i5. You can choose between a chassis with, or without 2.5" drive support.

Available Models (Kit / Kit with 2,5" Slot / Board only):

  • D54250WYK / D54250WYKH / D54250WYB: Intel Core i5-4250U (up to 2x 2.60 GHz)
  • D34010WYK / D34010WYKH / D34010WYB: Intel Core i3-4010U (2x 1.7 GHz)

Read More »VMware Homeserver - ESXi on 4th Gen Intel NUC

HP Microserver with 2.5" SSD

vSphere Flash Read Cache (vFRC / vFlash) and VMware Virtual SAN (vSAN) - These are the two groundbreaking features in vSphere 5.5. To use one of the features your hardware has to to fulfill a mandatory requirement - A Solid State Drive. To use an SSD with your HP Microserver you need an adapter. Most adapters or "Mounting Brackets" do not work because they are only good to fit the SSD into a 3.5" slot. They do not have the SATA Connectors at the required position. You need a special adapter for the SSD to fit into the backplane.

hp-microserver-2.5-ssd

  • HP Microserver N36L
  • HP Microserver N40L
  • HP Microserver N54L
  • HP Microserver Gen8 G1610T
  • HP Microserver Gen8 G2020T

Read More »HP Microserver with 2.5" SSD