Home Data Center Project - 2016 | Installing / Configuring Dell R710 for ESXi 6.0 Hypervisor

[@Virtualbytes1]

This is a test installation - i used SSDs is all i had during the time. But anyone can use a FLASH DRIVE internally and works great! Recommended size is 8GB but need to note that you will need a location to store the ESXi logs (SAN or Local Storage) Works great! :)

[@RollsRoyceFanatics]

A tick to my bucket list thanks. Bought an old Dell R815 with installed ESXi 6.0 with its internal SD with no effort! Thanks for the instructions

[@CriPPle358]

SSD for the OS is a bit of a waste, ESXi runs entirely from RAM once loaded, always booted off internally mounted USB thumb drives to maximise storage for VMs

[@Jadrien1]

I was thinking the exact same thing.

[@TheClassicMiniHub]

i was going to comment that as well, i always install to internal USB, after all thats why you have the internal USB, and its also best practice

[@TheClassicMiniHub]

also best to use a SAN (on 10gbe) for storage, especially if you want to utilise HA and or DRS

[@Jadrien1]

Did you watch the video? He says in the video configure ESXi to be installed to and boot from the ssd...

[@CriPPle358]

Have you watched the video? He says he's using an SSD for boot.

[@balara4804]

Nice presentation and effort.

[@melynam155]

Thanks man, Amazon has some awesome R710's and similar models picked up two and been having a blast thanks to this video

[@UnkyjoesPlayhouse]

Inside of that Dell you can install both an SD card and or a USB key, as your facing the front of the machine to the left side is a USB and SD slot under the cover. Install ESXI onto that and your good to go.

[@b3ans4eva]

That server starting up sounds like a car from Top Gear.

[@Virtualbytes1]

Haha xD once it's started its decently quiet :)

[@dash8brj]

My HP server sounds like a jet taking off as well when it posts - once esxi is loading though its quieter than my desktop, all the while running 3 different VM's at once.

[@Max34557]

b3ans4eva my dl380 g6 is even louder lol

[@matfraeke8482]

I thought is was an air raid siren

[@someidiot4311]

you should hear an r710 starting up for the first time since plugged in lmao, or with the intrusion switch not pressed.

[@scottypuffjr9940]

Yoooo, the feels lol. That Compaq monitor brings so much memories (still gt mine). Also, how much power does the R710 consume? Do you leave it on 24/7?

[@Virtualbytes1]

+ScottyPuff JR haha I have my r810 on 24/7 it's uses 340 watts so half of a r710!

[@denniswier]

Weird... the R810 runs 1/2 1000watt the R710 runs 1/2 570watt Power supplies according to the spec sheets... or are u using another type of psu that fits/runs/supports the R810? òr u might want to have an energy meter between the wall socket and cable to be sure about that 340watt

[@Virtualbytes1]

My R810 with 15 VMs is 355 watts and is accurate and even in idrac shows the same

[@denniswier]

GNET Data Center hmmm okay... ill keep this in mind :) kinda looking for an full esxi server, but not that powerbill;)

[@navrgaming419]

Yes. I am also facing the sa issue. Did you find out wNice tutorialch instrunt to use instead?

[@frankwalder3608]

I was looking at an R740 with a pair of Xeon Gold 6144s, and two 64Gb LRDIMMs. I expect to boot from an NVMe PCIe volume. I have decided to wait till the specs on the new Mac Pro are released next before I purchase anything. I also want to research other VM offerings such as Microsoft’s Azure, and Oracle’s Vitual Box.

[@gaiaweylyn]

What did you use to create your bootable ESXi USB drive? Rufus?

[@Virtualbytes1]

Yep RUFUS or ISO-USB as well :)

[@Prime0pt]

What a point to configure single drive into RAID and to run ESXi from SSD?

[@jeffclark5206]

Apparently he is confusing not having a raid at all and a raid 0.

[@danimoosakhan]

Prime0pt exactly, because any raid needs to have at least 2 drives.

[@HackThePlanetNow]

Yeah it's more like RAID NULL haha

[@BradMottram]

Cool video! I'm looking at getting an R710 with at least 64GB Ram if not more. Currently i'm running 1 HP ML110 G7 and a HP ML350 G6 and would really like to consolidate them all in to one Host (Saves Power that way) It's not cheap here in NZ :( However moving on.. Are you going to do video with iscsi setup for ESXI?

[@BradMottram]

I have noticed on the dell website there is a ESXI image. is this the image you are using for the install?

[@Virtualbytes1]

Yep! Next long video will be to setup ESXi with iscsi to a SAN/NAS FreeNAS and later will be to windows :) and oh my both production R710s have 98GB ram each and i think its plenty for what i need, later i will get more R710s to build a second HA-2, i will be uploading a video walk through that goes deeper into my vcenter! :) and power here in us isn't too bad:/ its like 43.00 dollars a month for the whole rack! :)

[@BradMottram]

Excellent looking forward to the videos! We get ripped here for power it's between 22c per kwh and 30c per kwh. My setup is constantly using about 450w - 500w.

[@Virtualbytes1]

Yeah man!! and mines using around 800-1000watts here, my SAN is power hungry :P and yeah lots of new additions will be coming shortly! :D

[@BradMottram]

Yeah lots of fast spinning disks.

[@JetspotNetworks]

What are you using the server for ?

[@ATHORNFAM2]

Home much energy do you consume in your rack and per unit? Where and how much did you the systems cost? Where do you purchase your hard drives?

[@Virtualbytes1]

each server is around 180-200watts per load, and whole rack costs, 43.00 dollars to run monthly, and i purchased each server individually and built them up from bottom up and i got them from ebay! :) and i get my drives from newegg, or ebay depending the condition :) and ill PM you my skype! :)

[@ATHORNFAM2]

Thanks! Appreciate that information. I have a few servers running on my wan and wanted to make a data center in my home again. Trying to expand my WAN to more people as well so it may be nice to collaborate.

[@Virtualbytes1]

Not a problem! and yeah i am thinking about getting second ISP to come in to my rack same speeds but we will see how everything goes! and whats your current speed now?

[@ATHORNFAM2]

100/100 Comcast Metro Ethernet, 180/13, 180/13 Comcast Cable

[@ATHORNFAM2]

Tom I sent that skype request to you.

I'm new to actual servers, if I get a PowerEdge 1950 II, with the caddies, can I just get some 1 or 2TB HDD's and put them in there?

[@Virtualbytes1]

Yup sure can but I would update the server with latest firmware

Cool, but what server would you recommend to get for 200bucks? Going to be hosting some game servers and teamspeak.

[@Virtualbytes1]

You can get a Dell PowerEdge R710 2U Rackmount or a Dell PowerEdge R610 1U Rack mount! They go on ebay for like 200-300 bucks with decent amount of ram :)

[@mtab2008]

Did you install same Esix 6 to all of these servers?2 Dell PowerEdge R710s 1 Dell PowerEdge R610 1 Dell PowerEdge R510 8 - Bay 1 Dell PowerEdge R510 12- Bay Why do you need so many servers for your video?

[@Virtualbytes1]

That is old video, check out latest video. You will see why. Thank you!

[@MyPlaceOnYT]

Great video mate. Really informative.

[@Virtualbytes1]

You are welcome! There will be more coming this week! It will be installing and upgrading all Firmware drivers /bios on a Dell PowerEdge R810 :)

[@MyPlaceOnYT]

GNET Data Center AWESOME! I look forward to it.

[@AndrewErhardt]

Nice Video! I have a Dell PowerEdge 1950 Gen II Server I run Proxmox on. Thinking about investing in the newer R series since they are so much quieter! Subscribed!

[@Virtualbytes1]

Thanks man! Yeah well worth it, the 11gen- R710s,R610,R510s are much quieter than the 10gen servers and much less power hungry!:)

[@michrech]

The R710 is *considerably* more quiet than the 1950/2950, *and* it uses less power while being more powerful...

[@Virtualbytes1]

+Michael Rechtien that is correct sir! And once bios upgrades are done it's even quieter! I have the 2 810 and are still not bad

[@TheAmazingJon]

My mouth is drooling.

[@gabaktech]

is this SATA 3?

[@Virtualbytes1]

it is 6Gb/s SAS Backplane.

[@gabaktech]

GNET Data Center thanks what does backplane mean?

[@Virtualbytes1]

All the information you need is in the link to dell support... www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/r710-spec-sheet.pdf

[@fmslickful]

^- its fmslick: lolz

[@GroovyDrifter]

Can this server be used as a high-specs, 24/7 on, Windows 10 Pro workstation? Is it too noisy once booted?

[@Neroslinger]

This is not a workstation by any means.

[@apl175]

Any issues with PERC 6i and the 2TB drive size limit?

[@ccgaming5535]

What do you use these servers for?

[@Virtualbytes1]

Home Lab and Experiments with different software.

[@elanx]

Way too many ads.

[@ThinkDragonX41T]

Thx Lord that i use a adblocker in cases like this.

[@ruser8893]

brave.com/ use this mate it blocks all ads on youtube. what i use just purely for youtube.

[@ThinkDragonX41T]

Pi-Hole helps a lot in my case. Every AD blocked on lowest network level.

[@ruser8893]

just book marked that for later reading looks interesting

[@bradleystannard3492]

ThinkDragonX41T I use it aswell. Running on xcp-ng vm

[@Starlite123]

This gets confusing yes i know some can be used like a pc. But i thoght the hole porpose behind a sever is to host your web info (like Google) and set it up (like Google) for people can access peoples websites and content from the internet? Can this provide that?

[@Virtualbytes1]

A Server can host anything you want it to host, also depends on what you want to host is dependent on the hardware. If you want a SQL Server then a good multi core with good cpu speed is great, a web server can be anything but i prefer a virtual web server so if some little newbie/script kiddie comes through and tries to hack it i can restore it and he wasted his time lol :)

[@Starlite123]

GNET Data Center I thank for your vids and clearing up my question. Thank you again :)

[@KiraSlith]

Other than some extra parts servers tend to get that desktops don't and vise versa, the two are completely interchangeable. They aren't NEARLY as specialized as Intel wants people to believe. Servers like PCs aren't as purpose dedicated as you may believe. The same server box that hosts a website can host emulations of smaller PCs (via ESXi in this case), host videogames, simulate protein folding, and as you mentioned, operate as a bog standard desktop PC.

[@deanomeara3677]

Can you tell me what watt this is pulling please?

[@Virtualbytes1]

wattage? around 150-210 watts tops

[@deanomeara3677]

Thanks, I am looking for either a 1u or 2u server that isnt that loud and uses not many watts. Any ideas? =)

[@Virtualbytes1]

R610 :)

[@23Aike6]

Hi how are you i wanna know If i can upgrade the drives to 4 tb and which perc should i get

[@Virtualbytes1]

+23Aike6 hello, what server are you wanting to put the new Perc card in? And what OS are you wanting to run?

[@23Aike6]

Dell poweredge R710 or R630 and this may seems silly but i wonder if i can turn it into a nass currently looking around for used ones

[@Virtualbytes1]

Yep you sure can if you go the R710 route make sure to get the 3.5" drives so you can get larger driver, the 2.5" drives get really expensive for their size and quantity!

[@23Aike6]

The R710 i have found had dual cpu and two psu redudndant power supply how much wattage will it pull out?

[@Virtualbytes1]

My R710s i had when i was running ESXi with 15vms on it top wattage ive seen was 225watts! :)

[@SgtSayWhat]

can I ask what you use this for?

[@Virtualbytes1]

a home lab..

[@SgtSayWhat]

GNET Data Center Yeah but what sort of workloads need these kind of power at home

[@Virtualbytes1]

why not lol? when you have a Ferrari or any other sports car... do you drive it to its full potential?? thats the same thing with my home lab environment, and no not waste of money lol cause didnt cost that much whole setup is right around 6k ;)

[@SgtSayWhat]

Oh fair enough, never thought about looking at it from that angle!

[@Virtualbytes1]

Haha its all good :) much cheaper than an cloud provider to compare to what i have :)

[@douganddavibowen2022]

why would you install esxi6 on an SSD and not usb thumb drive, seems a little overkill for esxi and takes up room in the case!

[@Virtualbytes1]

why not? Its a instructional video not a production server. and for my real servers i used vFLASH sd cards in the iDRACs

[@michrech]

I just scrolled through to see if anyone had asked the same question that DougAndDavi Bowen did -- The reason not to install ESXi to a HDD / SDD is that it uses up said drive, which you *could* be using for your datastores. The R710 has an internal USB port (and, depending on if yours has the optional module, an internal SD slot), which you *should* install ESXi to instead...

[@Virtualbytes1]

+Michael Rechtien yeah I did the regular drive as an example there are multiple other ways to install ESXi. I just did the drive, I did not have a large enough flash drive around me at that time.

[@AshleyFawcettJones]

+GNET Data Center the internal flash card doesn't need to be large for the hypervisor. Considering the cost of the server as a whole us professionals max out the drives bays with fast SAS drives and load far more memory sticks than the 12GB you have.

[@Virtualbytes1]

This is just an example how to installation so what ever the specs i had were just for demonstration and i have 2 R810s with 128GB of ram so i know 12GB is nothing, and i have all SSDs in them not SAS.

[@pfiltz]

I created a boot USB using Rufus for EXSi, and it told me when booting that my box couldn't support VM's... It has an Intel i7 930, and is around 13 years old. I guess I need to pick up a dell box somewhere off fleabay, but I'm concerned it won't support VM as well. How can one make sure that if your looking to buy a rack style box, it will support VM's.

[@ItsQuintFX]

you could try and find the option in the bios that says svm or virtualization support, turn that on and u should be good

[@didou59630]

How do you to have as many prices for server does it cost?

[@Virtualbytes1]

Varies from 250-1000.00 look on eBay

[@didou59630]

A yes it is cheap on Ebay but how do you rentabaliser for all this?

[@Virtualbytes1]

Whats rentabaliser?

[@didou59630]

GNET Data Center Bah make money with you're server to buy more

[@Virtualbytes1]

+Dylan Pacques I don't need anymore 2 R810 is plenty

[@ufopulse]

thumbs up for the compaq crt lulz

[@raviacharg]

Hi, Possible to install Proxmox on Dell R510? If possible pls advice

[@alexmaicu5523]

Ravi Achar yes proxmox work very well

[@raviacharg]

Alex Maicu, I installed on Dell R510, But issue in after creat VZ not start, I will share screenshot

[@raviacharg]

Thank you for Replying

[@MrJ0SH81]

I think you want to change the block size of your array to 1MB for a datastore partition.

[@chrissmith1732]

GOOD work man!!!!!

[@ramkumarpatel9014]

What is the average weight of that whole thing

[@Virtualbytes1]

~45lbs

[@TomsTech885]

Nice video!

[@Virtualbytes1]

Thank you! :) i subbed back to you, nice setup you have as well :)

[@TomsTech885]

Thanks, Just ordered some new stuff for it: USG Pro, 2x AC Lites AP, along with a PTP setup with some nanobeam AC's going to make a video soon of it all :)

[@Virtualbytes1]

+Tom's Tech oh nice! :) I have the ERP router and Ubnt AP LR, so I just bought 2 AC lites to replace those!

[@black_heart_gaming583]

Can you do a vid on LACP for vcenter 6.0 U2 ?

[@Virtualbytes1]

Sure can! :) I will do it over the weekend!! Check out the new Phase 2 Video!! :)

[@hameedahmad7213]

Sr how to install mikrotik on Dell server I can't sr Plss help me sr

[@mamdouh-Tawadros]

Booting ESXI from SSD or internal USB, doesn't really affect anything. After all it only takes a small size, and the rest of the SSD will be VMs. Additionally SSD offers more stability for updates and reboots.

[@leonardotoschi585]

Crt in 2023 are great

[@nashonabo821]

You have 11 ads in your video... That's the most I've ever seen in a short amount of time

[@AbhishekKumar-fq5mt]

nice aksing

[@OldSchoolDisco_channel]

hi, how many watt/h it consume when running in idle? hope in a fast answer because i'm deciding if buy it .. :) thanks.

[@Virtualbytes1]

Hello! Yes it is around 160-220 Watts, The R720 are much more efficient, my new R720 with 8 2TB Drives with dual Xeons is 170watts with VMs on it! :)

[@OldSchoolDisco_channel]

GNET Data Center good... how many watt you think if i put one hard drive, one xeon, and 32gb of ram?

[@vanpeters9751]

My raid controller is " 'ctrl c" and I'm limited to 2 max raid virtual disks

[@JoelWilsonthelittlen]

loud that is quiet compared to A hp Proliant dl380 G6

[@Virtualbytes1]

it is close, the quietest server if you want is a Dell R610 1U or a R810 with updated BIOs R710s are little louder then both of those i mentioned :)

[@Max34557]

Planet Bob yes, only on boot though, mine becomes very silent after boot

[@FredtheITGuy]

Wow, that's a CRT monitor?!

[@Virtualbytes1]

Sure is a clunker! xD I replaced it with my new Dell 24" LED Screens!

[@asimabdul]

the problem is when i hit F11 no deice detected in local

[@Windows-zb9il]

Thats not loud... my G5 is even Louder at first Power up after Connecting Power

[@mraljewari9381]

Man don’t waste your ssd. Install it on usb drive. Esxi is really lightweight.

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

I think that Windows carries a huge payload than say the latest version of UBUNTU SERVER which have virtual machine capabilities I think that there is a version of FreeBSD SERVER and are maybe lighter weight than Windows VMWARE

[@Virtualbytes1]

Microsoft has Hyper - V, and VMware is its own entity (ESXi) , Ubuntu server has Open Stack Autopilot, JuJu MaaS.

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

OK no problem I appear to have the capabilities to use wine for Windows as a virtual machine similar to ESXI VMWARE but when I found that I could get infected via a virtual machine I got rid of Wine for Windows, I have done a search for VMWARE and that is a module I can install as well as ESXI by the way I am running Linux Mint (Rosa) 17.3 which is based on the latest version of UBUNTU which is derived from FreeBSD.

[@Virtualbytes1]

Wine is not a hyper visor....

[@wildjokerpt]

9:25

[@alfonsogalicia3709]

Hi... thanks for the video... I work editing video, sometimes I need to connect 3 professional videocameras Full HD to a computer for switching between the cameras in alive; and as you see I need a super powerfull machine... I was going to buy a HP Z800 workstation refurbished but I just watched your video and I wonder... ¿This kind of servers will works fine for editing video? Could I to buy a Video tarjet NVidia Quadro 4000 for working with a Video Professional monitor? Are these kind of Workstation very noise? or normal noise like a desktop computer?

[@FFxO]

i just bought r730

[@ompatel8549]

how can i make my own personal cloud with that server

[@ompatel8549]

how can i make my own personal cloud storage with that server

[@maxgarcia8641]

You can use Debian or any linux os and use OwnCloud to set up your Personal Cloud Storage.

[@richardfry5991]

The boot times are sooo slow

[@Virtualbytes1]

Yep and its not Windows 10 or etc its a hyper visor :P

[@richardfry5991]

Why is that an excuse for the slow boot time?

[@jacobanderson9530]

the monitor is super old. please upgrade :)

[@Virtualbytes1]

Haha look at the age of the video 😆

[@Virlo]

Cancer

[@mjyanimations1062]

Get a lcd monitor

[@xccess21]

OMG are you still in 2006 ? change that screen

[@Virtualbytes1]

Haha Tell him! :P I have a 2 new Dell LCD displays now 25"

[@xccess21]

@ NerdTechGames Inc Hush ? lemme see, I ran Dell PE R730XD, T630 and R330 and not counting Precision t7910 workstation and some other Precision I had run in the house, by no mean I am bashing him, but damn he can at least get the better screen or use iDRAC for it. look at that screen hurt my eyes... you can say I run PORN and all other crap, but the fact is I ran VSAN, ohh don't bother to correct my grammars. computer only know 0 and 1, so with my bad grammar I still make big buck

[@ompatel8549]

how can i make my own personal cloud storage with that server