A litte bit of my homelab history
I am running a home-lab since more then 10 years, with changed design scope depending on my current use cased. Where I had started with a single computer ESXi based server with a local RAID 5 served from an HW controller. Then I have switched to a single node VSAN system. And this was performing like a champion.
But to get enougth resources for my need I run now since 4 years my current lab based on a ROBO-VSAN design. Base on two desktop servers and a VSAN quorum server. And this was working more than great for years. But through the increasing number of products and compute/memory footprint I ran more and more in resource limitations.
What do I want to run
I would like to run for sure vSphere and VSAN, but in addition to that also:
- VCSA – 16 GB MEM
- vRealize Automation – 34 GB MEM
- vRealize Orchestrator – 8 GB MEM
- vRealize Operations – 16 GB MEM
- vRealize LogInsight – 8 GB MEM
- NSX-T – 20 GB MEM
- vRealize Network Insight – 42 GB MEM
This will need massiv memory (144 GB) for a homelab. So I checked how to get an affordable homelab that can be scaled up, and delivers enough performance for my needs. And i came across the refurbished IT dealer www.bargainhardware.com, where you can get fully assembled build to order systems.
But for the VSAN storage disks, eBay is may buddy. Were I found used Fusion-IO drives with a more than crazy price point. And i can compete with the Samsung 860 EVO on the €/TB prize.
I think you can guess what massive change that will be for my home lab, ab like replacing my old hors with the Bugatti Veyron.
In my next post i will go more in detail into my new hardware setup, and the components.
Checkout the next post in this series VMware Homelab on steroids – The Hardware.