So we've recently decommissioned a bunch of our customers servers at my work, and I'm interested in commandeering one of them for my own nefarious purposes. Namely, to put a bunch of VM's on running AD, Exchange, maybe a website or three along with some physical and virtual workstations to administrate so I can upgrade my knowledge from 'more knowledgable than usual/needed helpdesk monkey' to 'jr sysadmin'. I'm also interested in learning more about Linux systems administration, I do use Linux personally and believe that it will be invaluable for years to come.
My options are an HP Proliant ML350 Gen6, an IBM System x3500 7977, and a Dell Poweredge 2900 ecm01.
From my research it appears the newest one is the HP (2010 era, has ddr3), followed by the IBM (2008 era), followed by the Dell (2006 era).
All things being equal, my inclination is to go with the HP since it is newest. But, given that I don't really have much experience in choosing a server, I figured I would open the question up to the forums to see what you all think.
Let your biases shine! Enlighten me as to how you came to prefer one platform over another or insights you may have as to which options would be best for my circumstance.
Just run whatever OS you want to practice on in a VM, and maybe 2 other low power "clients" in other VM's and connect them to a virtual switch. But if you must, go with HP. It'll be better at energy consumption/performance. But if power isn't a concern, run those bitches in a cluster because why not? /s
I have experience with all three platforms, but the most with HP, and prefer HP. Really whatever has the best CPU for virtualization and/or hyperthreading go with that one. Also a point to consider is remote management, as if its available on any of the options, probably go with that one. Also think about growth. Some manufacturers have cheaper spares/replacement parts, and have larger availability. I know IBM and HP have TONS of second hand spares. HP generations run in twos starting on even so G6 and G7 will work for G6 or G7 chassis.
It also depends on the type of certs I guess. Just remember to diversify your linux OS (debian base vs bsd based vs Oracle).
found this on ebay looked cool untill i found the specs on it. Cobalt Networks RaQ3 Server Appliance w/ Rack Ears #6884 it only has 512 meg with a 386 processor love to find something like this in a 64 bit 4 to 16 gib version but looks cool though
Gen6 HP is doable. IBM... might be ok (check out this guy's channel https://www.youtube.com/user/SirNetrom1/videos) Dell 2900s, 1900s are so ancient, that you probably can't even run exchange on it bare metal, let alone in a VM.
My opinion is that pretty much any of those isn't worth the power expense of turning them on. I'd just recommend maxxing out memory on your existing computers, and run the VMs there. You'll end up saving money.