This Page contains two sections:
1) HOME LABS: A DEFINITIVE GUIDE and 2) CURRNT HOME LAB Build Information (further below)
Section 1: HOME LABS: A DEFINITIVE GUIDE
For the 2020 HOME LABS: A DEFINITIVE GUIDE I was invited to present my updates to various groups. Below are links to my slides and videos. During these sessions I go into detail around Home lab design considerations, which is something we usually don’t think of when building a home lab. I do hope you find this information very useful. Please feel free to ask any questions or post comments… Thanks — Enjoy!
AUG-2020 VMUG Advantage Session
MAY-2020 Cedar Park VMUG Session
MAR-2020 TAM Lab Recorded Session
Section 2: CURRNT HOME LAB Build Information
Overview:
My Gen 7 Home Lab is based on vSphere 7 (VCSA, ESXi, and vSAN) and it contains 3 x ESXi Hosts, 1 x Windows 10 Workstation, 4 x Cisco Switches, 1 x MikroTik 10gbe Switch, 2 x APC UPS. Read further below for an itemized list.
ESXi Hosts: Unless noted, the items this area are per host
- Case:
- Rosewill RISE Glow EATX (Newegg $54)
- Motherboard:
- Supermicro X9DRD-7LN4F-JBOD (Ebay $159)
- Mobo Stands: 4mm Nylon Plastic Pillar (Amazon $8)
- CPU:
- CPU: 2 x Xeon E5-2640 v2 8 Cores / 16 HT (Ebay $30 each)
- CPU Cooler: 2 x DEEPCOOL GAMMAXX 400 (Amazon $19)
- RAM:
- 256GB DDR3 ECC RAM (Mostly from Ebay)
- 16 x Host1: ELPIDA 16GB 2Rx4 PC3L-10600R-09-11-E2 Registered ECC Memory DDR3
- 16 x Host 2: SAMSUNG M393B2K70CM0-YF8 16gb (1x16gb) Pc3-8500r 1066mhz 1.35v Quad Rank X4 Ecc Registered Cl7 Ddr3 Sdram 240-pin Rdimm Memory Module For Server
- 16 x Host 3: HYNIX HMT42GR7BMR4C-G7 16gb (1x16gb) Pc3-8500r 1066mhz Cl7 Quad Rank X4 Registered Ecc Ddr3 Sdram 240-pin Rdimm Memory Module For Server
- 256GB DDR3 ECC RAM (Mostly from Ebay)
- Disks:
- 1 x 64GB USB Thumb Drive (Boot)
- 2 x 200 SAS SSD (vSAN Cache)
- 2 x 2TB SAS HDD (vSAN Capacity)
- 1 x 2TB SATA (Extra Space)
- SAS Controller:
- 1 x IBM 5210 JBOD (Ebay)
- CableCreation Internal Mini SAS SFF-8643 to (4) 29pin SFF-8482 (Amazon $18)
- Network:
- Motherboard Integrated i350 1gbe 4 Port
- 1 x MellanoxConnectX3 Dual Port (HP INFINIBAND 4X DDR PCI-E HCA CARD 452372-001)
- Power Supply:
- Antec Earthwatts 500-700 Watts (Adapters needed to support case and motherboard connections)
- Adapter: Dual 8(4+4) Pin Male for Motherboard Power Adapter Cable (Amazon $11)
- Adapter: LP4 Molex Male to ATX 4 pin Male Auxiliary (Amazon $11)
- Power Supply Extension Cable: StarTech.com 8in 24 Pin ATX 2.01 Power Extension Cable (Amazon $9)
- Antec Earthwatts 500-700 Watts (Adapters needed to support case and motherboard connections)
Network:
- Core VM Switches:
- 2 x Cisco 3650 (WS-C3560CG-8TC-S 8 Gigabit Ports, 2 Uplink)
- 2 x Cisco 2960 (WS-C2960G-8TC-L)
- 10gbe Network:
- 1 x MikoTik 10gbe CN309 (Used for vSAN and Replication Network)
- 2 per host: HP 684517-001 Twinax SFP 10gbe 0.5m DAC Cable (Ebay)
- 2 per host: MELLANOX QSFP/SFP ADAPTER 655874-B21 MAM1Q00A-QSA (Ebay)
Battery Backup UPS:
- 2 x APC NS1250
Window 10 Workstation:
- Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro series PH-ES614PC_BK Black Steel
- Motherboard: MSI PRO Z390-A PRO
- CPU: Intel Core i7-8700
- RAM: 64GB DDR4 RAM
- 1TB NVMe
April 12, 2016 at 11:47 pm
Hello, I’m curious, what sort of VM performance do you get with iSCSI and your FreeNAS server with ESXi
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April 15, 2016 at 10:31 am
I am no longer using FreeNAS as its over all performance was weak, I found the communities support unpleasant, and finally the over all product at the time I used it was quite buggy. I spent more time getting it to run vs. using it. Granted my choice of FreeNAS hardware wasn’t perfect but I used what I had. In the end I migrated my FreeNAS box to VMWare VSAN and I could not have been happier — https://vmexplorer.com/2014/08/18/vsan-the-migration-from-freenas-2/
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February 26, 2021 at 10:23 pm
looking to build a remote gaming machine and passthrough your GPU to a virtual machine. Can this be done in a HomeLab with VMWare or am I in-over-my-head? Great presentation. I also watch all your build vids on YouTube.
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February 27, 2021 at 5:29 pm
Hey Darrell, thanks for the comment and support. I have not tried nor have I looked into something like that. It’s been on my mind a bit but right now I’ve been doing a lot with NSX and vRNI. If I were to do something like this, I guess would start by reading the ESXi documentation and looking for blogs where folks have done this. Check out this blogger, he’s been doing home labs and GPUs too — https://tinkertry.com/vmware-vsphere-esxi-7-gpu-passthrough-ui-bug-workaround Hope this helps! Reach out anytime!
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