Before I continue I couldn't find a better section on the forum for this type of question. I've also spent many hours Googling many different builds, OS's, and how something will work.

 

I've used ESXI in the past and can't decide if it'd be better/simpler to have an all-in-one server or keep some things separate. My goal is to use a Norco-4224 to create a main storage server and then use a few fast SSDs for the VM storage on ESXI. I'd then use 4 flash drives as another backup for critical files such as pictures with the program Allways Sync on a windows VM. The alternative method would be to separate the NAS and use a Norco-4224 with very low powered parts, a very fast headless ESXI server, and a low powered 3-4 SSD storage for the ESXI server (may combine the ESXI server and SSD). Note I want to preferably use actual server-grade parts with ECC RAM. I've used consumer parts in the past and it worked alright, though now that I am making more money I can look into getting quality parts for once.

 

Between these two ideas what does everyone on here think would be the better, more simple option in a home environment? All of this is going on a rack so I want it all to be in rack mountable chassis.

My head started to spin as I tried to wrap my head around what you want.

 

While it's cool to have an all in one server ESX or unRAID6 with KVM/XEN and/or Dockers, I happen to have a few servers.

A larger server with 8-10 drives running unRAID 6 until I can get it to run under ESX.

I have smaller HP Micro servers running ESX with unRAID 5. These are used for some of my critical files.

They will rsync over to the larger server so that I have backups.

 

So in effect, I would suggest the larger server be designed to house and backup everything you need to do.

Size it so you can virtualize.

I would also suggest a smaller external server of the critical files.

This way they can exist in two places one serving as primary the other as backup.

 

As I mentioned the HP micro servers make good candidates. The GEN 7 servers were selling for $200 around black friday. You may be able to get an N54L used for that price also. The GEN8's are nicer, but not as expandable with the top bracket. However you can get models that have a low powered XEON and they can accept 16 GB of ram.  HP has a special ESX ISO for this model with all the drivers already embedded.  Sometimes saving time is saving money.  Using specific mounting hardware you can install the SSD's internally and/or use a scoondoggy bracket for a few extras. FWIW, the controllers and drivers support port multipliers. So in effect you could have 8 SSD's.

 

Notable threads:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=36048.msg335796#msg335796

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=11585.msg110262#msg110262

 

Also Garycase usually suggest a nice build with the smaller Lian Li Q25B case(I believe) and a mini-itx board.

You can seek him out for suggestions.

Thanks for the reply, I'll go with everything being separate in that case and also check out those two threads.

 

Though I am confused on one thing. What do you mean by sizing the main server so I can virtualize? I figured all unRAID server were slow by design and mainly only used as storage. I was going to dedicate some other method for those few SSDs for the ESXI server.