My local junk store (WeirdStuff Warehouse) has a stack of used Rackable servers - they're they 1U x 1/2 depth systems, so they can fit back to back in a 4-port rack.

Dual Xeons, think they were 2.3 GHZ quad core, 4 GHZ of RAM, and 2 SATA drive bays for $79.99. Pair that with a lack rack (http://wiki.eth0.nl/index.php/LackRack) and a pair of 1 TB SATA drives I already have lying around and I'd have a nice little VM host to move all of my systems onto.

I'm not sure if I'd want to go to the effort of getting/running ESX, was thinking of a bare-bones linux install as a host to separate Virtualbox or VMWare VMs. Can someone running ESX sway me that way? :)

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Re: Tempting
By: Poindexter Fortran to All on Tue Dec 31 2013 04:39 pm

I'm not sure if I'd want to go to the effort of getting/running ESX, was thinking of a bare-bones linux install as a host to separate Virtualbox or VMWare VMs. Can someone running ESX sway me that way? :)

I'm running ESX with my web hosting company on a few of my shared hosting servers and i absolutely love it.. When it comes to hosting, i swear i think ESX is where it's at... The compressed memory features, the shared memory features, and the really good CPU utilization makes ESX a very good choice..

Now, most hosting companies i know really overcommit the resources in their ESX
installations, but i don't do that.. I've never really had any performance issues with ESX either...

The nice thing about ESX is how easy it is to transfer to your datastore, open a console, install a new OS... well i'm sure you know..

If I were you, i would definitely take a good look at it... couldn't hurt :)

Also, i am running one of my vps hosts thru vmware, and i have the bbs running under that... I could have just spun up another VM, but i really was wanting to
test it to see if it would work well under a vps...

Jason

ps: also note, i pay for vmware, so i get support from them directly when i need it... also there is a lot of support out there for vmware that you can bing search for.

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Dual Xeons, think they were 2.3 GHZ quad core, 4 GHZ of RAM, and 2 SATA drive bays for $79.99. Pair that with a lack rack (http://wiki.eth0.nl/index.php/LackRack) and a pair of 1 TB SATA drives I already have lying around and I'd have a nice little VM host to move all
of my systems onto.

I'm not sure if I'd want to go to the effort of getting/running ESX, was thinking of a bare-bones linux install as a host to separate Virtualbox
or VMWare VMs. Can someone running ESX sway me that way? :)

I'm running ESX over here. I actually have an ESX 5.5 cluster, but leave the one server powered off for right now.

Running on HP DL380 G5s with 32GB ram, dual Xeon 2.66Ghz quad-cores. I have a local datastore, but using iSCSI to another system for all my virtual disks.

The BBS VMs run fantastic on this hardware. I back them up with Veeam, which takes no more than 3 minutes since it uses change block technology on the snapshots.

I'm really happy with this setup!

- Mark

--- WWIVToss v.1.50
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (33:1/3.0)
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Re: Tempting
By: Poindexter Fortran to All on Tue Dec 31 2013 16:39:22

Dual Xeons, think they were 2.3 GHZ quad core, 4 GHZ of RAM, and 2 SATA

Pretty sure that's the first time I've seen RAM faster than the processor. ;)

--Damo dice, "Perhaps today IS a good day to die!"

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Re: Tempting
By: Khelair to Poindexter Fortran on Wed Jan 01 2014 10:22 am

Dual Xeons, think they were 2.3 GHZ quad core, 4 GHZ of RAM, and 2
SATA

Pretty sure that's the first time I've seen RAM faster than the processor. ;)

It's the server that did the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs.

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Re: Tempting
By: Poindexter Fortran to Khelair on Wed Jan 01 2014 12:47:19

It's the server that did the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs.

*cackle* That's terrible. :'D

--Damo dice, "Perhaps today IS a good day to die!"

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Re: Tempting
By: Poindexter Fortran to All on Tue Dec 31 2013 04:39 pm

My local junk store (WeirdStuff Warehouse) has a stack of used Rackable serv - they're they 1U x 1/2 depth systems, so they can fit back to back in a 4-p rack.

Dual Xeons, think they were 2.3 GHZ quad core, 4 GHZ of RAM, and 2 SATA driv bays for $79.99. Pair that with a lack rack (http://wiki.eth0.nl/index.php/LackRack) and a pair of 1 TB SATA drives I already have lying around and I'd have a nice little VM host to move all of systems onto.

I'm not sure if I'd want to go to the effort of getting/running ESX, was thinking of a bare-bones linux install as a host to separate Virtualbox or VMWare VMs. Can someone running ESX sway me that way? :)

WOW MAN I wish we had Weirdstuff warehouse out here on the east coast- That place is so freakin' incredible. It's wild what you find in the dumpster when silicon valley is just over the hill (the recycling bin, anyway). If I lived out there my entire garage would be filled with old routers and switches. :)

Jethro

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