I thought long and hard for what the best components for the money could be and I think I have really hit the sweet-spot. For under $600 which in the server components world is really cheap I was able to pick up a handful of upgrades that will allow me to run and manage my lab more efficiently and allow for growth for a few years.

The heard of the upgrade components that I chose was the Supermicro MBD-X9SCM-F-O Server Mainboard. This board is designed for the new Xeon E3 Socket 1155 processors and has a feature set that screams. I was able to get this board on NewEgg for around $180 which is a steal. This server board offers 4 DDR3 slots which support up to 32GB of ECC Unbuffered RAM, 4 PCI Express x8 slots (two are x4 electrically), four SATA II and two SATA III Ports, and internal USB port, other standard ports and two Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports. On top of that there is a dedicated IPMI port which support IPMI 2.0, KVM over IP, and the ability to attach ISO images out of band for true remote access.

For the brains of the operation I wanted to have a fast and robust processor that did not set me back a few pay checks. I was looking at some of the older Xeon processors which are tried and true but since this is a new build I wanted to pick a newer processor that had the features and speed I needed for my virtual lab. After reading a number of reviews and sites I settled on what seems to be the best bang for the buck the Intel Xeon E3-1230 Server Processor. The Xeon E3-1230 is a Quad Core processor with a clock speed of 3.2Ghz and a Turbo Speed of 3.6GHz. There is a 256KB Layer 2 cache per core and a shared Layer 3 cache of 8MB. The E3-1230 support HyperThreading which give us 8 virtual cores to work with which is going to be plenty for the virtual machines hosted on this build. Though this is a Sandy Bridge processor there is no integrated video which we don’t need for a server build anyway.

The final upgrade for this build is two sets of 8GB (2x4GB) Kingston DDR3 1333MHz ECC RAM(KVR1333D3E9SK2/8G). The server board supports up to 32GB Buffered RAM but with the cheapest 16GB set still well over $300 this upgrade was not cost effective so I opted for two 8GB sets which came to under $150 together. At least I have some more room to upgrade down the road. This set of RAM offers ECC error checking and runs at 1333MHz speeds with a running total of 16GB. With that amount of RAM I can run around eight virtual machines running inside VMWare ESXi 5.0 and about ten if I run them with Citrix Xenserver.

This particular server will be employed running VMWare ESXi 5.0 and I will retire the older parts being replaced into a new setup running Citrix Xenserver. The ESXi host will be running my server operating systems and VPN appliances while the Xenserver host will be home to my Windows and Linux clients. Stay tuned in the next few weeks for pics of the builds, full specs, and screen shots of the setups. I will be also putting together a review of the upgraded components listed above.

So far I am addicted. I am really loving the full Max OS X Lion operating system and the ability to run my Windows apps such as VMWare VSphere using Parallels 7 Coherence mode. Gives me the best of both worlds.

I still have a bit more to learn about the new OS but I can say I am having a joy doing so.

Working on the ICND2 test now which is slated to take on the 11th of July. The CBT videos and Todd Lammle’s Sybex ICND1 book really covered the material quite well. Highly recommended to those wanting to get their CCNA.

Finally after a lot of hard work and a miss the first time by 20 points I tackled the Microsoft Windows 7 client exam (70-680) and crushed it with a score of 890pts. This exam was part of my Bachelors Degree requirements for Western Governors University and the only Microsoft Exam I have to take but I plan on completing the MCITP: Server Administrator as well on my own. Next up is the Cisco CCENT Exam.

I started out building a white box ESXi server using spare parts I had laying around. Unfortunately I did have to splurge on a NIC card to get me started but once I was installed I was able to add support for the integrated Realtek 8111C NIC on the motherboard. The list of components for the server are:

• CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H
• Memory: 8GB DDR3 1333MHz (4 x 2GB modules)
• Hard Drive: 2TB Western Digital Green Drive
• NIC: Intel Pro 1000GT PCI, Onboard Realtek 8111C

With the base system installed I needed to alter the ESXi install for the Realtek card. I followed the instructions here but for simple sake I am mirroring the files and steps below:

1. Download oem.tgz and put it on a USB stick.
2. Download slax iso image from here and burn a CD.
3. Boot slax CD in ESXi machine – HDD will auto mount, USB will automount.
4. Copy (drag and drop) oem.tgz from USB stick into Hypervisor1 partition on HDD.
5. Shutdown slax and reboot ESXi from HDD – it will automatically load the r8169.

Now I have two fully functioning NIC cards. Currently they are set for teaming/failover but if needed I can take the Intel NIC out to install in another ESXi server if needed

With everything configured I am off to test the VM Appliances and my new virtual Domain Controller

Starting a new terminal can be tedious especially if you have multiple windows open and they clutter your screen. Two programs are designed to make terminal access so much easier. For GNOME there is Guake (Pronounced like Quake but with the “G”) and KDE there is Yakuake. Both are drop down terminals which make quickly entering commands a snap.

I have been using this on Ubuntu 10.04LTS and it has been the best utility I have ever installed.

To install on Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install guake

Then if you want it to run on startup enter:

sudo cp /usr/share/applications/guake.desktop /etc/xdg/autostart/

Simple as that. Once it is installed and started just press the default key “F12″ for instant terminal access.

This was done to get me up to date and allow me to run a total of three Virtual Machine hosts for my labs and testing.

Let me know what you think about the new setup.

Specs:

• CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 910e (Only 65w TDP)
• CPU Cooler: Thermaltake ISGC-400 Low Profile
• Motherboard: ECS A890GXM-A2 ATX Motherboard
• Memory: 8GB (2GB x 4) Mushkin DDR3-1600MHz 8-8-8-24
• Video: Onboard AMD Radeon HD 4200 Video
• RAID Controller: HighPoint RocketRaid 2310 PCIe x4 4-Port (RAID-5)
• Hard Drives:
  1. 1x Seagate 7200.11 750GB (Main)
  2. 3x Western Digital 6400AAKS (RAID-5)
• Network Cards:
  1. 1x Netgear GA311 Gigabit PCI card
  2. 1x Bigfoot Networks Killer 2100 Gigabit PCIe card
• Case: Norco RPC-4020 4U Rack Case
• Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts 500W
• Primary OS: Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit (VM Host/File Server)
• Virtual Machine OS’s:
  1. Server 2008 R2 (SonicWALL Viewpoint Server)
  2. Server 2008 (AD/LDAP Server)
  3. Ubuntu 10.10 (Web/File Server)

One thing I have noticed many IT administrators take for granted are network diagrams. Network diagrams are imperative to any IT Admin and should be used and updated frequently. These diagrams not only make administration so much easier but they can be a life saver for troubleshooting.

I have just updated my home network and wanted to include my SonicWALL products in my rack diagram. I spent some time trying to find SonicWALL Visio objects which was troublesome to say the least. To help pass my effort on to others that can benefit I am going to provide the link here for download. The first one is from SonicWALL Corporate and should be the most update. The second is a mirror link from this site. I am planning on designing my own so stay tuned for them.

Primary Download Link (SonicWALL Corporate)
Mirror Link (This Site, Please try Primary link first)

Well I am back writing for TalkAndroid.com again after they did some restructuring. TalkAndroid is the most comprehensive site for Android based news and reviews. Give them a visit and see what makes them so great.

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