Here’s the situation. I currently have a Asrockrack x470 with a ryzen 2700 matx server board, and 64gb ecc ram.
I’m looking at either building/purchasing a second server to test so I don’t lose functionality of my first. My choices are as follows:
1.) Have all the parts I need for a near identical system that may work as a node or bu for the first server and would create a near exact system replica making implementation of changes and possible challenges or issues will be solved while working with test server if hardware needs modification or differences in codes or install. The only thing I need would be a new motherboard.
2.) I would build/buy a xeon system to play with (2011-v3 generation I’m thinking) 8 or more cores and hyper threading. Would I get more experience or run into less compatability issues going this route to allow me to expand using diffrent hypervisors and possibly the grid k2 I have gathering dust.
I assume the virtual environment wouldn’t really be effected just the hypervisors function.
Thoughts? Ideas? Saldy the b550 mortar from msi has proved difficult for esxi and citrix. So I can steal the processor and rest of system and just change out the motherboard… just want to get a feel for what people think.
Use this test server for just that, testing. Don’t use it as your backup, build a different machine for that. Watch the Craft Computing channel for further ideas how to get that w/o spending a fortune: https://www.youtube.com/c/CraftComputing
Yes, Ive seen his stuff. I may go Chinese route. Im gravitating more towards z620 z440 or dell t320. I think I want to try something specifically meant for enterprise enviournment. Do you have to pay to use stuff like dells iDrac IPMI feature?
I’m not clear what it is you are testing? If you are a developer testing a specific application then I’d usually recommend fev and test environments are generally aligned to production, perhaps with less ram or slower CPU cores.
However the rest of your post implies this is homelab, and you want a “safe” environment for spinning up vms without risking your data. If so then that is a great idea. I’m particularly cautious when it comes to hardware passthrough, as one error can brick the entire build.
A couple of suggestions for the second option:
what @Dutch_Master said, but a used enterprise server for cheap and install proxmox
look at a used prebuilt. I recently got an old Lenovo thinkstation for a great price. Similar options from hp and dell exist. They are basically server grade (with some limitations like no ipmi) but can give you a complete rig with modernish hardware without a lot of hassle. I may do a post on how I turned it into my new proxmox host.
consider a cloud option (Linode is recommended by l1t) to make it someone else’s problem if you accidentally run the command for halt and catch fire.
Thank you. It will be for testing things I do to the server and proxmox itself. Like messing with ports, firewalls, gpu pass-through testing too (have LXC working but couldnt get KVM to work with a second different gpu), mail systems and new programs and vm services.
The diffrences would be ryzen 2700 vs ryzen 3700x, same mother board (vs b550 thats in the second system I have now that dosent like proxmox), ECC Kingston ram vs 3600 Ripjaws ram, and 1650 Super vs 1660Ti I have in the second system. I would not have the exact dive setup (as I have five 6TB Ironwolfs is raid 10 with a hot spare in the 24/7 system already), but I wouldn’t need that for testing.
The advantages I see to having the same hardware is that I can migrate ISO’s from one system to the other AND/OR follow the exact same procedures when I find what works on the second system in the first system and not run into any hardware issues. That was my thinking but I dont know if that would make much diffrence.
I have decided, and ordered the new server to be my true homelab, vs my Asrockrack x470du Ryzen 2700 home server. I settled on this beast of a machine… I can now break things without getting in trouble for losing internet or plex going down lol.
I picked it up with the Xeon 8 core E5-2450 2.1Ghz and 64GB of ECC ram. I picked up the 750w dual PSU’s refurbished for cheap (needed them to add a GPU-will probably be trying the Nvidia GRID K2). I got the 8 3.5" hotswap bay to play with file systems, rsync, and maybe a database. Looking into the iDRAC controller I’m hoping I still have good access to monitor the system via IPMI. I’ll also have to flach the stock H310 SAS card with the IT mode for the LSI 9211-8i firmware. I had flashed a LSI 9211 in the past and I have notes and files I need.
I’m hoping it will be a fun system and allow me to try ESXi and Citrix.
I’m assuming dual booting with these two hypervisors isnt possible, so I may use a few diffrent drives with diffrent OS’s to play with. Then I will venture into playing with the network and the cisco managed switch I picked up (I’m now wishing I went with the 24 port with 10gb to play with ).
I was going to go for a cheap Xeon combo from china, but couldnt bring myself to do it.
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