Are there any specific hardware requirements for virtualization in v6? Like specific CPU, motherbord, etc.? So far, I understand there should be support for vt-d but as far as I can see that's supported by almost all Intel CPUs, including the Celerons (which I originally wanted to use in my build).

 

Regarding horsepower, what CPU and RAM do I need for virualizing Plex, Sickbeard/etc., webserver+mySQL?

I was virtualizing quite fine with an older 2.9 Ghz dual core AMD Athlon II X2 but RAM was too low at 4GB and buying extra became an expensive endevour so I built a new server.    Plex states a 2.4 Ghz dual core I bleieve as a minimum for transcoding.  If you plan on transcoding everything in advance with something like Handbrake you may get away with lower specs.

 

Kryspy

Assuming you are looking at Intel CPUs (which is definitely recommended) there are three options you want to look at for virtualization.

 

VT-X: This indicates the CPU/Motherboard support hardware-assisted virtualization

VT-D: This allows hardware components to be directly passed through to VMs (i.e. dedicate a video card, or USB/SATA ports)

HyperThreading (HT): Basically HT allows the processer to queue up the next process for the CPU so it's more efficient. Typically a CPU runs it's command and then waits for the next one. With HT the next task is already lined up so the CPU can just keep processing command after command. This is especially helpful in situations like virtualization to keep optimize the VMs use of the CPU

 

You don't require any of the above to create/use VMs, however each of the above items help improve the virtualization experience, and provide additional feature options.

 

Any CPU you are looking at should be checked at http://ark.intel.com which will tell you which of the above technologies are supported by that particular cpu.

 

In order to take advantage of any of the above technologies you need the CPU, motherboard & BIOS to support it. VT-X and HT are pretty commonly supported by most motherboards so if your CPU supports it you should be okay. VT-D is claimed to be supported by many manufacturers, but reality shows that very few manufacturers support it correctly. ASUS claims to, but often does not, whereas ASRock seems to consistently support VT-D as can SuperMicro and others.

 

If you are looking at VT-D then I would suggest you look through the forums and google to see people's experience with VT-D on that specific motherboard as it's far more reliable than vendor specifics.

 

SAB/SB will run on anything. MySQL and Plex are more system intensive (Plex more than MySQL), but most new CPUs will support it without issue. For Plex it's going to come down to how many streams you want transcoded simultaneously. I would likely invest in at least an i3 for Plex just to give yourself a bit of headroom.

 

Lastly, if you are looking between multiple processors and want to figure out the best bang for your buck, then go to http://cpubenchmark.net which will give a performance rating for every CPU. It can help you compare different CPUs and help you decide if it's worth spending a few extra bucks for a big performance boost. Definitely a valuable tool (it's also good for video cards and hard drives).

 

Thanks for your answers.

 

How important is VT-D? It seems the i3 doesn't support it at all (and from the i5 which also support ECC memory only the i5-4570TE seems to support it but seems to be a pretty rare model which isn't widely availbale in shops here - I've never heard of a "TE" suffix). So I'd likely be looking on another cost increase (I was actually going to go with the Haswell Celeron but am now considering an i3 instead).

 

And do I need additional GPUs, NICs, etc.? I read some other guys builds in the corresponding thread and all seem to add separate GPUs and NICs which I don't understand.

 

From what I've read, virtualization seems to be a good alternative to running all those addons, but would it justify such increase in hardware requirements and cost (i5 rather than Celeron, separate GPUs and NICs rather than the onboard stuff)?

 

 

Thanks for your answers.

 

How important is VT-D? It seems the i3 doesn't support it at all (and from the i5 which also support ECC memory only the i5-4570TE seems to support it but seems to be a pretty rare model which isn't widely availbale in shops here - I've never heard of a "TE" suffix). So I'd likely be looking on another cost increase (I was actually going to go with the Haswell Celeron but am now considering an i3 instead).

 

And do I need additional GPUs, NICs, etc.? I read some other guys builds in the corresponding thread and all seem to add separate GPUs and NICs which I don't understand.

 

From what I've read, virtualization seems to be a good alternative to running all those addons, but would it justify such increase in hardware requirements and cost (i5 rather than Celeron, separate GPUs and NICs rather than the onboard stuff)?

 

If you want to do pass-through of hardware VT-D is a requirement. If you don't care about that then you don't need it at all. As for extra hardware, no you don't need it - again unless you want to dedicate specific hardware (like a video card) to a VM.

 

If you just want to build a VM to offload your plug-ins then theoretically you could do it with a Celeron, however for the minimal cost increase moving to an i3 is a better idea as it will give you extra performance (again, review each CPU at cpubenchmark.net to confirm it's a worthwhile upgrade for the cost).

 

The point of virtualization is that you are now essentially running multiple computers on a single set of hardware with shared resources, so you want to bump up your CPU and RAM capacity over what you would need for just a single computer (i.e. UnRAID) as you are really consolidating multiple computers here. With that said, CPU/memory is really the only required upgrade, and you don't need to go nuts. An i3 with 8GB of ram is sufficient to run UnRAID plus the single VM (assume 4GB ram for UnRAID, and 4GB for the VM). You can likely go a bit thinner than that (i.e. 2GB for each), but it's better to give yourself some headroom.

 

Lastly, since your requirements may change down the road (i.e. you want extra VMs) I would suggest you buy the largest memory modules you can now so you have room for growth (i.e. if you motherboard supports 32GB total, then buy 2x4GB at a minimum, or 2x8GB, so you can just add 2 more 8GB or 4GB modules down the road).

 

It's easy to go nuts and buy overkill for what you really need - but you don't need to do this. The i3 with 8GB is a good start point and you can always add ram down the road if you need, but if you want to keep a reasonable budget then I'd stick with this - though I'd still go for the highest i3 you can afford (again... better to give yourself extra headroom). If an extra $20 will get you a better CPU and you can afford it then go for it, but I wouldn't stress it too much.