Dell PowerEdge R610 Review - Virtualization On The Cheap

One of the things I always find myself telling anyone wanting to build out a home lab, is that it does not have to be expensive. The Dell PowerEdge R610 is a prime example of this and in this case I was able to pick up a matching pair of decently spec’d R610s that are feature packed and perfect for virtualization for around $500 US for the pair. With each server having 12 physical cores and 48Gb RAM, these servers should have no problem running a quite a few VMs.
Specs:
Dell PowerEdge R610
CPU: 2x Xeon X5650 (12 Cores)
RAM: 48GB
NICs: 4x 1Gb
RAID: PERC 6/i
Bays: 6x 2.5″
PSU: 2x 717w
Management: iDrac6 Enterprise
You can find more info on my blog post here:
robwillis.info/...

[@TheoParis]

i just ordered my own poweredge r710 with 32 GB ram, 2x 600GB hdd's preinstalled out of 8, 2x 6 core Xeons... from ebay. seems like a great deal

[@succuvamp_anna]

All very true information. I was able to get a HP DL370 G6 for my home server, I love it lol. I just need to pick up some 5600 series CPUs sometime to replace the 5500 series ones. (Upgrade the quad cores to hex cores) I only spent about 330 USD on it and I run unRAID on it.

[@randylust7566]

How is unraid doing on this? That is my goal to upgrade my unraid machine

[@KayJay01]

@@randylust7566 Proliants have quirks in unRAID,; if they're older require a special image (which Annabella here actually maintains!) if you want to do hardware passthrough (or you can run a pre 2012 BIOS, but the lack of security features makes this a less-than-ideal solution). Otherwise used enterprise hardware, especially Proliants, are exceptionally good value for how much stuff you get, and are great to get into unRAID and other virtualization OS'.

[@DozIT]

I was able to get 2 for $300. Looking to upgrade one to X5690 CPU's but I need to purchase 2x 710 PSU's as it currently only has the 500W ones + the bigger heatsinks. Definitely an amazing deal, and RAM is super cheap compared to DDR4... granted much slower.

[@MauiRedMan]

Just ordered one of those Can't wait for it to get here

[@boemlauw]

Don't drop it on your feet, don't ask.

[@jolly1039]

Can you show what you do with this type of hardware? Please show your software setup! Thanks mate

[@woodant1981]

Got mine for about €40 recently with 16gb ram and couple of 2.66 quad core xeons!! Great value, not as quiet as my DL 360s tho

[@sukhpalgill]

Ordered yesterday $289 Dell Poweredge R610 2 x Quad Core 2.66GHz X5550 Processors 48Gb Memory Installed 2 X 500GB 2.5in SATA Hard Drives Installed DVDRom Dell PowerEdge PERC 6i SAS/SATA RAID Controller W/ Battery Backup Dell iDRAC6 DRAC 6i Remote Access Board K869T Installed Dual (Redundent) 717W Power Supplies

[@robwillisinfo]

Yeah buddy! You should be very happy with that setup!

[@sukhpalgill]

Rob Willis question ! can you install os remotely with idrac 6 if main os failed ?like i am going to put my server in data center colocation?also is there any way to reduce amps as i will have to pay more because they said it uses 2-3 amps. thanks

[@robwillisinfo]

Yes, you can use the virtual media function of the iDrac to remotely mount the ISO image: www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/sln296648/using-the-virtual-media-function-on-idrac-6-7-8-and-9?lang=en I'm not sure on the reducing amps, there are smaller PSU's for this chassis but I would check for restrictions around that.

[@sukhpalgill]

Rob Willis Shane Singleton i have idrac 6, i am going to remove perc 6i and install H700 ($100) which will allow me to install more than 2TB but finding correct sas cables are pain.

[@simopr09]

what are you going to do with it?

[@codeyash]

Few pointers to add in future Start utility by hitting ctrl+ R Look may be different on other bios Go little slow Overall it was great..thank you

[@beedslolkuntus2070]

Beautiful serveur

[@beedslolkuntus2070]

Thanks! Do you still have this server around?

[@nhatminhechip]

It looks like brandnew machine !

[@davidkahn2258]

I might suggest getting a pop filter for your microphone.

[@fatal1ty3910]

Yeah or just move a couple of inches back. Other than that, another great video as always! Keep them coming, please!

[@robwillisinfo]

Lots of P's and a very stuffed up nose don't really help out either :P

[@deeje3688]

i came down into the comments to suggest that and saw this

[@joshjoens1980]

At the risk of asking a 'noob' question here, I wanted to know - must I use SAS drives, or could I put in any (SATA, SSD) 2.5" drive? I thought I saw in your raid controller configuration that you had an interesting mix. Also, thanks for the awesome video; and I love your blog.

[@robwillisinfo]

Thanks man! Good question! Generally if it supports SAS, you should be able to get away with running SATA drives. It doesn't always work the other way though, SATA support does not mean it supports SAS. In my R610's I run a mixed setup. But you should check with the owners manual of the particular chassis and controller you will be using to be 100% sure.

[@jwm353s]

perc6 controller requires sas drives in the first two slots according to documentation.

[@cedricvillani8502]

If you buy a sas controller make sure you use hdd's of the same size for RAID's, a NAS HD is just rated to run 24/7 and has built in cache

[@KayJay01]

SAS ports support SAS and SATA, but SATA ports ONLY support SATA. These are SAS ports, meaning you can plug in any SAS or SATA drive.

[@biffy7]

Very clear. Nicely done video.

[@Vishal_.]

Rob you sound like Mc Lovin from SuperBad

[@balazsmeszaros3040]

I think HP DL360/380 G7 series are much quiter that any Dells, if noise matters

[@robwillisinfo]

Im not sure if that is true or not, but I will say that quieter usually means more heat build up and a higher likelihood of failures. I'm also not really a fan of HP anything anymore, all of their newer stuff seems to be very issue prone from firmware's down to the hardware itself.

[@masonreimert]

I own a Dell PowerEdge 2950 and an HP Proliant DL380 and I can tell you the Dell produces at least twice as much noise.

[@peterporker3785]

Also, while the dells are usually cheaper and easier to find locally, I would still go with the HPs because they aren't actually that much more expensive than the dells, and come with a lot more features. There are even settings in the BIOS to control fan speed! Another thing to consider is I have had a very long history of dell servers having dead motherboards, DRACs, and RAID cards, the HPs are just more reliable at an older age than the dells in my experience.

[@andreasscholdan8087]

LoL try popping in a pci-e card in a HP server you can't control the fans at all, but with Dells, on the other hand, you can even turn off the fans with IPMI or set it to a %

[@markarca6360]

Servers take a long time to boot because the option ROMs for the expansion cards (such as NICs and RAID controllers) need an Int16h signal from the system BIOS/UEFI.

[@beedslolkuntus2070]

And it takes forever to post from Bios. I had a remote cloud hosted supermicro server

[@1tokeover]

Dang, I just bought a Dell PowerEdge T30 for $380.00. While it is smaller I would rather have had one of these. Owell.

[@nettyvoyager6336]

you can boot from the card with ESXI

[@josearroyo6883]

Great video! Is this still what you would recommend today? Still the best option? Thinking about building a home lab for ESXI.

[@robwillisinfo]

I do still recommend these servers. While they are no longer officially supported by VMWare on the newest version of ESXi, I have not had any issues running it and currently have 4 in this configuration. The R620's are getting cheaper and cheaper now, and would also be a great solution.

[@BlackHawkGamingLP]

@@robwillisinfo Like your videos, using budget/older servers for home application, and just wondered if/when there will be any updates/anything new you are working on. Greetings from Germany

[@charng]

great vid. i presume your Samsung SSDs are not Dell certified. if that is the case, does your OMSA give you any warings or exclamation marks?

[@robwillisinfo]

Thanks! Correct, 100% non-certified disks. All of the SSD's I have been using are Desktop grade. OMSA gives a Warning of "Not Certified" with a Status of OK.

[@satnamsatt]

Hey Great stuff man, Did you have to buy the iDRAC license ? it came with it ?

[@robwillisinfo]

Thanks! As far as I know there is no license associated with the iDRAC. There are different levels of the hardware itself available with additional features.

[@HomeGrownNews]

Is the r610 or r710 still a viable starter homelab VM host in 2019 ? Example: Dual Quad Core L5520 64gb RAM 6TB Storage

[@robwillisinfo]

Yep, I have 4 of the R610's running with ESXi 6.7 with no issue right now. The R620's are also getting cheaper and cheaper now. One thing though is that I would recommend sticking to the E or X series processors over the L's, if you are chasing performance.

[@HomeGrownNews]

@@robwillisinfo great thanks for the reply I think I am going to go with the R710 and take your advice on the cpu spec. Cheers

[@The_Waraba]

Is the R610 loud ?

[@blucobalt8688]

@@The_Waraba it's loud when it turns on and at 100% usage at both CPUs, but at idle with a few virtual machines and websites on it, it's pretty quiet

[@DavidAmmerlaan]

? Where is the virtualization as mentioned in title ?

[@ashikmohammad7050]

Got one issue with this. Once you access the services after that can't boot normally always directing to the services and showing notification like change utility configuration from IDRAC 6. But not sure how. Any idea?

[@tomaskulikauskas1333]

Hello Rob, Where is this blue SATA cable plugged in, what you use it for?

[@rosssharp5705]

The blue SATA cable is generally for the slimline optical drive positioned on the lower left on the face of the server

[@robwillisinfo]

^^^ What he said :)

[@fishburn26]

Great buy, Where did you get it from..?

[@robwillisinfo]

serverplus365 on Ebay :)

[@davechristoffersen6633]

Hey rob sweet server can i ask where did you get that windows 10 background picture?

[@robwillisinfo]

I just searched google images "Windows 10 1920x1080". :)

[@thebeatconnect1]

They are cheap yes but they are very loud and consume a lot of power. I'm looking to build a server unit for 2K which will be used for virtualization, Web hosting, and machine learning. And looking to get the E5 v4 cpus, and add a gtx 1080 when prices drop.

[@KekseTheFox]

Right now I only have two sever racks the top is the sever networking equipment the rest is a stack of old PC and a bunch of severs and this all runs over 400 cat6e Cables into my home networking equipment and I have these Ethernet wall plates on those is a USB interface cable whitch makes it possible to have a great connection because it's configured as raid also this sever is used as media sever that's why I have a softmoed apple TV in living room for this sever so in my living room I have the power of a Max spe pc

[@thebeatconnect1]

Danger, Will Robinson the newer ones ain't at all slower. The increase in performance ain't that big but there's an increase. And the thermals are better. These old servers are just too loud and power draw is too much. The new ones will roughly cost me £20-£30 per month depending on load

[@damejelyas]

Gtx prices have droped they are no longer used for mining

[@tomascaetano5011]

nice server.. at work we have some new lenovo servers.. but the remote manage interface is a license based software i think.. too bad we cant access like that

[@robwillisinfo]

I haven't really messed around with Lenovo's but I thought there are some basic features that should be available and then additional ones that can be added via license, either way I would look into it a bit more as it can make your and anyone who maintains those servers lives a whole lot easier!

[@jankockv]

I love home labs, i start my busness with a HP dl380 g8, now i got 3 lenovo x3650 m5 100tb HD 20tb ssd cache, 40 gb lacp l3 comunication and my Wonder 1tb growing ram, my server HP its working get, i love server too mucha, Ha, bavkup, and vmware over SD card are porn

[@julionavas5626]

Hi. We are working with a virtualization software provider for a solution for a Alpha server DS20, Number of CPUs: 1 Type: EV68AL (21264B) Speed: 833 Mhz Cache: 8.0 MB ( 0 MB) Memory size: 1024 MB (data taken from sys_check unix command), on Digital UNIX V4.0F OS Platform. After analisys of the server configuration (sys_chek html file generated by the sys_check command) they recommended a server that must has, between other resources, 32 Gb RAM minimun, 64 Gb recommended. Is our first experience with server virtualization so it took us by surprise therequired quantity of RAM to hosts a 1 GB RAM server. Would you hava a explanation for this, please? Thanks in advance.

[@boilami]

Can i know what vendor make this good price please ? Thanks !

[@Runepriest442]

NICE rack lol Pun intended. Seriously very cool and cost effective

[@abbesatty9498]

since we're not interested in your win10 desktop screen. Would it hurt if you maximize the PowerEdge window?

[@robwillisinfo]

What, you don't like my sweet wallpaper? Actually what had happened is the DRAC window automatically resizes itself to match the resolution output as the server goes through the various phases of the boot process. It was maximized initially and then I quit fighting it. It doesn't scale when you maximize the window anyway. :)

[@abbesatty9498]

@@robwillisinfo I also thought so after posting my comment. Your wallpaper is lovely and BTW nice video!

[@Cyber_Gas]

Should i buy 5 dell poweredge servers for 200$ r610 x2 r410 r710 and i think r 510

[@DanangAlta]

if you can find the 20 series, get those. it's like a 50 watt difference at idle between the 610 and the 620, much quieter too.

[@Cyber_Gas]

@@DanangAlta ok but i i dont care about sound i keep them in basement

[@Banshee07Man]

Are these loud, i only plan to purchase one of them and a 24 port switch.

[@robwillisinfo]

I wouldn't say they are loud, but in a 1u chassis the fans are going to be smaller and have higher pitch which can travel further.

[@RANDOMNATION907]

I have one of these R610's w/1x Xeon E5530 2x PSU, 4x2GB Ram, 6x 136Gb 10K rpm HDD, Windows Server 2016R2 (trial) Question: Can I simply load Windows 10 on this and use it as a basic daily home computer?

[@robwillisinfo]

For the most part, yes you should be able to load Wndows 10 on to that hardware. Obviously this is not going to be a supported configuration. The biggest issue that usually comes up is hardware support. Like for example you will likely need to load a driver for the RAID controller.

[@RANDOMNATION907]

Okay, nice. Would it be better to use a server version of windows, or would I have problems with daily internet, video compression duties? I found a pair of x5650's in a thrashed chassis along with some more ram. I should point out that I work at my local recycling center and I 'found' all of this stuff for free. I don't know much about it.

[@yianliu8533]

Hi I just want to ask how can you upgrade to win10 on your R610?

[@DanangAlta]

install it normally, config the disk first.

[@CoolIHandIMatt]

Guys Educate me please, Is this a viable option for a home media server? I'd like to find one of these on CL, slap a few TB of HDD into it, plug it into my network, install plex etc....and be off and running, maybe put my wood workign skills to use and build and enclosure for it. But I really dont know much about server hardware so someone tell me why this is a terrible idea or wont work etc.

[@robwillisinfo]

I actually do this as well, I have a Dell C2100 with a few 4TB drives, that I run a plex server on. It works great. I also back up that server to a separate physical server. A server will almost always be louder than a Desktop machine with the fans, so keep that in mind too. Other than that, its just comes down to being comfortable with working with hardware, if you can build a pc, I'd say you could get a server up and running. Also watch out for the drive sizing - if you want to run TBs, then a server with 3.5" drive bays will give you plenty of options for drives.

[@cedricvillani8502]

Could always try your hands at getting a VPS and seeing what it's like

[@victordobin5918]

Rob, I'm looking for a two servers for vSphere 6.5 labs. After owning these two servers for some time now, would you change or add anything else? Any upgrades, different cpus or more ram? Also how much power they drawing in idle and during heavy processing? (do they need special power outlets?). If you could provide some more insights and details on your experience with these two units, as I'm trying to spec out the hardware for myself - Thank you in advance. Vic

[@robwillisinfo]

I have been very happy with these units. The power consumption is really not that bad even with the dual 6 cores. Idle is around 100w-150w and under load Ive seen them pull closer to 300w each. They run off regular 3 prong 120v outlets. As far as RAM and CPU that's up to you and how much you want to spend plus how much you plan on running on them. Id never say no to faster cpu's but the X5650's have been great, and I sized mine out with 48Gb of ram which is perfect for me but 72Gb or 96Gb is a good number too, beyond that you likely won't use it in a lab.

[@victordobin5918]

How about the Hard Drives, What would be the best combination of SSDs and regular or enterprise hard drives. How many drives and what capacity should I get. Again these servers would be used for WMware VCP certification-preparation. (Right now I"m just using nested with workstation pro). Thank you!!

[@robwillisinfo]

For just a lab there is really not a need to get into enterprise grade drives, I like to run Samsung EVO SSD's or even HP's M Series SSD's which are super cheap. If you are going for cheaper traditional drives, check out ebay for "lots" of drives pulled from working servers, you can typically get 4x+ of the same drive for cheap. In the R610 you will need all 2.5" drives. For labs I generally prefer to not run RAID configurations, opting for pure I/O performance, and just cloning important VMs for backup/redundancy purposes. As far as capacity, its up to what you are running. I like more smaller drives for the most part, 250Gbs are a great all around size but you will want to check what the minimum requirements are for the OS's and software that you are going to run.

[@victordobin5918]

Rob, Thanks for all of great info! What do you think about these on Ebay www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-PowerEdge-R610-GEN-II-Server-2-x-E5630-6-x-300GB-SAS-48GB-PERC-H700/113000430316?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2763.l2649

[@robwillisinfo]

That looks like a pretty good deal, especially with the drives!

[@Jimmylee314]

May I know what is the weight for each server?

[@robwillisinfo]

I want to say somewhere between 40 and 60 lbs.

[@HtS643KyS6555GxQ3edA]

These things are too noisy to run inside my house

[@kingcrimson234]

The R610 isn't bad at all. It's only loud when it starts up, or if it starts running a very heavy load. What you DON'T want to run in your house is an older Poweredge 2950. The noise is insane from those.

[@msven]

hah ya....mine is in my garage (below the 1st floor) and luckily I can't hear it except when it's booting up.

[@towermoss]

This is the primary reason I am not getting a rack server instead of going white box.

[@LorcanWall]

I have a server I built but I locked it in my server rack and closed the door. If you watch my youtube video it is next to my bed.

[@RollsRoyceFanatics]

@@kingcrimson234 I agree with you, I have 3 X R815's , C6100 (4 nodes), R510 (12 bay NAS) and a R610, and the R610 is by far the quietest

[@danielmullen9610]

Server on the carpet? what about static?

[@robwillisinfo]

Haha this is how I keep it gangster, YOLO! Nah, generally static isn't much of an issue in my environment and I always try to ground myself to the case before touching internal components. So far, so good :)

[@yokailover]

How are you getting Virtual Console to work.....are you using an older version of Java?

[@robwillisinfo]

I generally use Java 7 for when accessing DRACs, but Java 8 does work with the R610's you just have to add the DRAC IP to the exceptions list for Java.

[@yokailover]

Well, after much tinkering I managed to get iDRAC6 Virtual Console working in IE 11 on an R410, in ActiveX. Go figure lol.

[@Anne14881]

What is the internal phone jack on the motherboard used for

[@robwillisinfo]

It's for the iSCSI hardware key, it enables some iSCSI specific NIC features. I've never actually used this before and I'm not sure its a feature that's even worth it.

[@TheoParis]

what is that vnc-like software called? the one that has a "D" icon

[@Paradaz2990]

that's the embedded iDRAC (integrated Dell Remote Access Controller)..you need the 'Enterprise' module to have these management features. When connecting it's java based.

[@ehro]

Hello, What drives do you recommend to use with the R610? Thank you!

[@robwillisinfo]

Im a big fan Samsung SSD's (even the EVO's are great!) and for traditional drives I really like HGST as they seem to fail the least but my R610s seem to almost always flash the HGST drives as bad for no reason. It doesn't hurt anything but it is annoying seeing the light :P.

[@nuvill]

Great, Thanks for the reply! One more question if you don’t mind. Are you using windows server 16 on your R610? If so, what firmware are you on? I’m having trouble booting from a usb drive and installing windows server 16 Thank you again!

[@Aaron-hg8jo]

i was the 1000th like! it feels good

[@simnkojewelryiced527]

You can use it for web hosting?

[@robwillisinfo]

Yes

[@ManofCulture]

Can I use it as a NAS?

[@robwillisinfo]

Sure, you could run FreeNas, Windows Storage Spaces or whatever else you want either bare metal or virtualized. The down side to doing that on this chassis is it only supports 6x 2.5" drives. For a NAS setup I typically would go with something more like a C2100, which has 12 bays and fits both 2.5" and 3.5" drives.

[@ManofCulture]

Wow thanks :D

[@UdaySingh-im4hd]

price??

[@robwillisinfo]

For a decent R610 with Dual 6-core cpus, 48+gb ram, and some drives you are going to pay around $200-300 US.

[@matfraeke8482]

Subbed

[@d4n3sh]

What's the avg sound level?

[@robwillisinfo]

Its on the loudish side, but not to loud to have a conversation in the room. I have a post demoing the stack next to an air cool pc setup here: robwillis.info/2017/02/home-server-rack-how-loud-is-it/

[@gustavochiham8443]

Does SSD improves the R610 performance ? Is it noticeable ?

[@robwillisinfo]

SSD is the way to go for sure if you can, they just have so much I/O available compared to traditional drives. Things like boot time, large file transfers, OS installs - Are all noticeably faster.

[@macrotecHN]

Rob Willis excelent. Btw what UPS do you recommend for this server ? Regards.

[@macrotecHN]

Rob Willis the R610

[@robwillisinfo]

I am a big fan of CyberPower UPS's. They are relatively cheap and have been reliable as can be for me. I had the 1000va units, but after adding in the R610s I upgraded to 2 x 1500va units. Both are good choices depending how much you plan on running.

[@BabyBlue.23]

Where can I get that background at 4:20

[@robwillisinfo]

I usually just google something like Windows 10 1920x1080 and find good stuff like that, but this should be the one: wallpaperswide.com/windows_79-wallpapers.html

[@qufn6748]

Do u know how many vps’s I can run?

[@boemlauw]

190 if you give them 1GB each :-) I have 2 LSI 6208 Nytro WarpDrive NWD-RLP4-1860 1.86TB PCI-E cards (Around $80,- on ebay each) that will do 2.1Gb/s throughput with ease. Makes my r610 a true sleeper :) Just makes sure it has a gen2 (Generation II) motherboard so it will support the 133Watt Xeons. Saves you a lot of headache. (Motherboard part # F0XJ6 and/or TTXFN.) Fastest CPU's it will support are 2 Xeon X5680 3.33Ghz 6 Core cpu's.

[@qufn6748]

Bas Keur yo bro thank you so much do you have Instagram

[@boemlauw]

@@qufn6748 Not active I'm afraid ;) Glad I could help out, if you consider getting one, hit me up so I can safe you some time =]

[@qufn6748]

Bas Keur where can I reach you

[@boemlauw]

@@qufn6748 bas.keur @ gmail.com

[@PashaDefragzor]

Cool.. The only one thing its huge ^^

[@nettyvoyager6336]

most people do not have 500 quid they are not cheap

[@boemlauw]

I have 3, one was free, another 40 Euro's, and one was 80 Euro's. Came with a bonus Perc H800 2 of them had 32GB ram. 2 came with dual PSU's Ebay or even facebook marketplace

[@jamalmazhar102]

Can we us it like normal pc

[@robwillisinfo]

Technically, yes.

[@randomgamer6716]

I have dell r720

[@athosuk]

Please stop saying "go ahead" Had to stop watching..