Thursday, May 5, 2016

Hardware for Virtualization Home Lab

I started my VMware home lab in late 2012 by building a server using Chris Wahl's blueprint found here.

I'm now in the process of upgrading my servers to machines that allow for more memory.  With 8 cores (16 threads), 4 on board NICs (2 x 1 GB and 2 x 10 GB), a dedicated IPMI port and up to 128gb of memory in a small, quiet, mini tower case, the Supermicro Superserver 5028D-TN4T is tailor made VMware home labs.  More details on that system can be found here.  I bought mine from WiredZone - their prices are good and customer service terrific.  I'm partial to their Bundle 2 package with an additional 64gb of memory tacked on.

If you are looking for a solid home server for your VMware lab but aren't ready to purchase the Supermicro system described above, you might consider that server I built in 2012, which I'm now selling on eBay.