October 7, 201411 yr Server was upgraded on November 2013 and I didn't get chance to post it here, ooop! I had a HP MicroServer N36L for while running EXSi host and unRAID VM. I was not happy with the CPU performance. I have upgraded to a more powerful system. The specs: CASE: Lian Li PC-Q25B PSU: Silverstone SST-ST45SF 450W RAM: Crucial CT2KIT102472BD1339 16GB (2x 8GB) Memory Kit MOTHERBOARD: ASRock E3C226D2I CONTROLLER: IBM ServeRaid M1015 SAS/SATA PCIe RAID card CABLE: 3Ware CBL-SFF8087OCF-05M cable CPU: Intel Xeon CPU E3-1230 v3 Haswell SSD: Samsung SSD 840 EVO 250GB (Not included in the photo, was upgrade a week later) FAN: Noctua NF-S12B-FLX 120MM FAN: Noctua NH-L9i LP INTEL Cooler FAN: Noctua NF-A14 FLX Fan 140mm EXISTING HARD DISKS from N36L: 3x Samsung HD204UI 2TB (For Array) Note: - UnRAID Pro License - ESXi 5.5 - VMs: unRAID, Windows 7, Ubuntu Plex Server, Ubuntu for downloading - I've used Virtual Disks (SSD) for unRaID cache and the VM's. I am very happy with the performance and it is very silence. Much thanks to garycase for suggesting on hardware specs.
October 7, 201411 yr really nice and clean setup. I really like the Noctua fans. They are on the pricey side of things but very nice non the less! Although I would say with you running ESXI if you could put more ram.(max out the mobo) if you can. I notice on my server I am ESXI server that the VMs take more ram then Cpu power. ESXI server Dell poweredge 1900 CPU: 2 - Xeon 2.33 Quad Core Ram: 16 Gigs HDs: 3 - 150gb hard drives, 1 1TB WD Black, 1 1TB hot swap
October 8, 201411 yr Very nice build -- the Noctua fans are a nice addition and I'm sure are quieter than the stock units Lian-Li provided. Aside from the UnRAID VM, what other VM's are you running on this?
October 8, 201411 yr Author really nice and clean setup. I really like the Noctua fans. They are on the pricey side of things but very nice non the less! Although I would say with you running ESXI if you could put more ram.(max out the mobo) if you can. I notice on my server I am ESXI server that the VMs take more ram then Cpu power. ESXI server Dell poweredge 1900 CPU: 2 - Xeon 2.33 Quad Core Ram: 16 Gigs HDs: 3 - 150gb hard drives, 1 1TB WD Black, 1 1TB hot swap Thanks Motherboard only allow 16GB RAM Maximum.
October 8, 201411 yr Author Very nice build -- the Noctua fans are a nice addition and I'm sure are quieter than the stock units Lian-Li provided. Aside from the UnRAID VM, what other VM's are you running on this? Thank you Other VM's I use: Windows 7 Pro VM - Video encoding, ConvertXtoDVD software Ubuntu Media VM - nzbget, sickbeard Ubuntu Plex VM - Plex Media Server
October 9, 201411 yr I was looking at this again and had a thought r.e. your disk setup. I assume your array disks are connected to the IBM card, and that it's passed through to the UnRAID VM ... is that correct? Can all other disks (on motherboard controller) be used directly by ESXi to create virtual disks for the other virtual machines, UnRAID cache, etc.? I was thinking about making a very similar setup with 5 6TB drives for UnRAID (24TB of protected storage), a 512GB SSD for VM's, and perhaps a 2TB drive for data from the VM's (outside of UnRAID). I assume you can NOT pass through the motherboard ports to a VM -- or at least not unless you passed through the entire controller, which wouldn't leave any drives for ESXi storage.
October 9, 201411 yr I was looking at this again and had a thought r.e. your disk setup. I assume your array disks are connected to the IBM card, and that it's passed through to the UnRAID VM ... is that correct? Can all other disks (on motherboard controller) be used directly by ESXi to create virtual disks for the other virtual machines, UnRAID cache, etc.? I was thinking about making a very similar setup with 5 6TB drives for UnRAID (24TB of protected storage), a 512GB SSD for VM's, and perhaps a 2TB drive for data from the VM's (outside of UnRAID). I assume you can NOT pass through the motherboard ports to a VM -- or at least not unless you passed through the entire controller, which wouldn't leave any drives for ESXi storage. depends on the controller and setup. If set to JBOD you can pass and ports to a selected VM. Same with Motherboard ports/USBs/NICs etc. ESXI lets you do pretty much anything!
October 9, 201411 yr Author how is your ram/cpu usage running the 3 VMs? My Ram and CPU is excellent. unRAID VM - 2GB Windows 7 Pro VM - 3GB Ubuntu Media VM - 2GB Ubuntu Plex VM - 2GB on the vSphere Client, it say Memory usage: 10689.00 MB (16320.55 MB) If you having problem that ESXi is using too much RAM more than total of RAMS in the VMs, try restarting ESXi host.. I have seen that problem before at work.
October 9, 201411 yr Author I was looking at this again and had a thought r.e. your disk setup. I assume your array disks are connected to the IBM card, and that it's passed through to the UnRAID VM ... is that correct? Can all other disks (on motherboard controller) be used directly by ESXi to create virtual disks for the other virtual machines, UnRAID cache, etc.? I was thinking about making a very similar setup with 5 6TB drives for UnRAID (24TB of protected storage), a 512GB SSD for VM's, and perhaps a 2TB drive for data from the VM's (outside of UnRAID). I assume you can NOT pass through the motherboard ports to a VM -- or at least not unless you passed through the entire controller, which wouldn't leave any drives for ESXi storage. Yes that is correct, my array disks are connected to IBM card and its passed through to the UnRAID VM. I've just checked ESXi setting for onboard SATA pass through, it is not possible. You might be able to pass through in a dirty way using Raw Device Mappings (RDM) but it has to be done via command line. I don't recommend doing this. You can see example tutorial here http://forza-it.co.uk/esxi-5-1-using-raw-device-mappings-rdm-on-an-hp-microserver/ Apart from unRAID vm, I don't pass through other VM's. I created Virtual Disks for other VM's which use onboard SATA via SSD. Here is a screenshot, UnRAID cache was created via Virtual Disk 60GB.. This is not pass through IBM card.
October 9, 201411 yr Thanks. That's what I assumed you had to do, as I've read other ESXi articles that indicated you could not pass through the on-board ports. Virtual hard drives should perform very well, however, so except for a controller to handle the UnRAID storage drives, it seems there's plenty of flexibility. I was thinking of building a fairly large system for ESXi, but based on your experience I'm reconsidering -- I really like the Q25B (I've built several systems with this case) ... and one of those with 5 6TB drives, a 512GB SSD, and perhaps one extra 4-6TB storage drive (for outside-of-UnRAID storage via VHD's) would easily work nicely in that case. I suspect that's the route I'll take in a couple months when I'm ready to do the build.
October 10, 201411 yr I was looking at my setup and RDM is in the settings. It is grayed out on mine because the server is running. However you can also create a full datastore for that drive and assign it directly to the VM of your choosing.
October 13, 201411 yr Author Thanks. That's what I assumed you had to do, as I've read other ESXi articles that indicated you could not pass through the on-board ports. Virtual hard drives should perform very well, however, so except for a controller to handle the UnRAID storage drives, it seems there's plenty of flexibility. I was thinking of building a fairly large system for ESXi, but based on your experience I'm reconsidering -- I really like the Q25B (I've built several systems with this case) ... and one of those with 5 6TB drives, a 512GB SSD, and perhaps one extra 4-6TB storage drive (for outside-of-UnRAID storage via VHD's) would easily work nicely in that case. I suspect that's the route I'll take in a couple months when I'm ready to do the build. Cool. Maybe next year I might upgrade to a new motherboard E3C224D4I-14S (or even newer model might come later). It support MAX 32GB and also it has 8 x SAS2 from 2 x mini SAS 8087 connector by LSI 2308 http://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=E3C224D4I-14S
October 13, 201411 yr That's a nice looking board. I'll have to pop open my Q25B and see if it will fit [it's not a mini-ITX board, it's an "extended mini-ITX" board ... it's 1.7" wider than a standard mini-ITX. I THINK there's space for it; but would certainly check that before buying the board. Looking at the board, there are no standoff mounts in the "extra" space, so it will clearly mount okay; but I just need to double-check the clearance in the case itself.
March 28, 201511 yr Hi Gary. Did you ever get a chance to measure the q25b to see if it could fit an extended mini itx motherboard? I'd love to use this case for a new esxi build but my only hangup with the mini itx form factor is the lack of 4 dimm slot motherboards. To go to matx just for that seems like a waste considering how much larger the case sizes tend to be. Thanks!
March 28, 201511 yr Yes ... there's plenty of room for the extended ITX form factor board you're looking at.
October 10, 201510 yr Author I accidentally drop my server on the floor and my motherboard died Is there any ASRock E3C226D2I alternative? I might just get same motherboard model or upgrade to E3C224D4I-14S which is more expensive. Or any good mini-ITX Server motherboard? Any suggestion?
October 10, 201510 yr ... I accidentally drop my server on the floor ... Ouch !! Hopefully the CPU is still fine (it almost certainly is) The E3C224D4I-14S is indeed a very nice upgrade ... although unless you need the extra SATA ports it provides there's no real reason to move to that.
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