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Seeking Advice on Homelab Upgrade - Hardware and Configuration Dilemma (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

5 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hello fellow homelab enthusiasts!

I'm currently facing a crucial upgrade decision for my homelab and would greatly appreciate your insights and advice. Here's the scenario:

Current Setup:

Dell PowerEdge T320 with E5-2430L v2 @ 2.40GHz, 160GB RAM, and 3.5-inch disks.

Running approximately 50 VMs on ESXi with vCenter, NSX, and more.

Power consumption idling around 80W without disks.

Upgrade Goals:

Need more computing power, aiming for more cores and RAM (ideally 512GB-1TB).

Considering a switch to v4 Xeons, possibly x2 2698v4.

Planning to run ESXi 8 and implement nested ESA vSAN with all VMs on-top.

Option 1:

Supermicro CSE-847-X10DRI-T4+, x2 Xeon v3 2640, 64GB DDR4 RAM, RAID Controller, iPMI OOB

Room for 36 3.5-inch drives, priced at 640 Euro.

Concerns about power consumption, as seller reports 500W idle with 20 3.5-inch drives.

And upgrading CPU's to v4 but should be supported

Option 2:

Exploring small form factor PCs with 64GB DDR4 RAM and NVMe disks.

Intending to run VMware vSAN on these, potentially scaling to 5-8 nodes with 25G networking.

Worries about running unsupported configurations and potential hardware obsolescence.

Dilemma:

Uncertain whether the higher upfront power consumption of Option 1 is justified for potential long-term hardware support.

Apprehensive about investing in Option 2 due to potential lack of support and concerns about power efficiency.

Request for Advice:

What are your thoughts on the two options considering long-term viability, hardware support, and power efficiency?

Any alternative suggestions based on your experiences?

I value your expertise and look forward to hearing your recommendations. Thank you in advance!

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You may get additional server and run 2 node cluster with Starwinds vsan. It is hardware agnostic, so, basically, hardware won't be an issue, also it doesn't require witness node which might save you from getting 3rd computer. I believe it is the most decent option for 2-3 node setups.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Thanks for you replay, i did know they had a thing like that, that said i would much prefer it to be a sole VMware tech, because it is what i love and i work with VMware Products daily.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Well, than, you should bge fine with VMUG subscription to get licenses. The options you have mentioned, should be able to run it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

NFR Licenses is no problem for me, because i am so lucky that i can get all the licenses i need for pretty much all VMware to in my LAB trough them if needed so that would fortunately not be the limiting factor, but the price for the equipment might be:)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I see, than good luck with finding good deals on the hardware!