OT: Virtualization/Homelab

[Paullys50]

So I was browsing craigslist earlier this week and came across a cheap Dell R710 server. Dual 2.93 GHz quad core Xeon processors (X5570), 36GB Ram Perc H700 raid controller, dual power supplies (no drives) all for $200. Tossed in a spare SSD I had, loaded ESXi onto it and now I've got a pretty powerful virtualization platform without spending much at all.

Love my laptop for VMs, but can be a hassle when dealing with storage space. It's nice to off-load VMs I don't use as often but could be a nice project reference in the future onto a server. Should allow me to create large test environments, and variety.

Seems the r710s are pretty popular for homelabs due to the power/price ratio. Really happy I stumbled on that! Ebay seems to have plenty of these things in different configurations so go get one for yourself!

 

[dmargineau]

Love my laptop for VMs, but can be a hassle when dealing with storage space.

I have personally chosen an alternative method.

I create the VMware machines on my laptop's local HD, I literally Copy them onto an external 2TB USB-3 HDD($79.99 on Amazon) and then run them from there; the first external HDD VM run will prompt you with a couple of answer choices of which you will choose the truthful one "I have copied it.."......Once it VM is functional on the external drive I promptly delete the original thus freeing the valuable 'local' storage.

 

[Paullys50]

I've done that too, but if you try running multiple at once on portable HD, performance takes a big it. My portable HD is mostly a backup "just in case" something craps out while I'm traveling.