Low power motherboard and cpu for vmware ESXI

[mgiammarco]

Hello,
I am trying to build a low power server that can run ESXI and several virtual machines.

Basically I need:

- a motherboard compatible with ESXi (of course);
- a motherboard that can undervolt via bios (you cannot undervolt via ESXi);
- a chipset that uses low power;
- a, possibly quad core, cpu that draws low power;
- a motherboard that can use vga slot also for raid cards
- a motherboard that supports a lot of ram possibly ecc (I have seen in this forum that some micro atx amd boards supports ecc even if they are not server motherboards);
- a motherboard/cpu that supports VT-D is preferable (this mean intel only....)

Sorry for this long list of needs and thanks in advance for your help.

Mario

[bigdoofus]

Hello,
I am trying to build a low power server that can run ESXI and several virtual machines.

Basically I need:

- a motherboard compatible with ESXi (of course);
- a motherboard that can undervolt via bios (you cannot undervolt via ESXi);
- a chipset that uses low power;
- a, possibly quad core, cpu that draws low power;
- a motherboard that can use vga slot also for raid cards
- a motherboard that supports a lot of ram possibly ecc (I have seen in this forum that some micro atx amd boards supports ecc even if they are not server motherboards);
- a motherboard/cpu that supports VT-D is preferable (this mean intel only....)

Sorry for this long list of needs and thanks in advance for your help.

Mario

Just to get you started

The last one (VT-d) limits you at the moment to Core i5 8xx, i7, Xeon or Opteron (AMD has IOMMU, which is equivalent). This also solves your quad core problem. If money is no object, then something that uses the L55xx series Xeons may be what you want. Their TDP is 50W. If cost is an object, then the i5 8xx is probably better.

[mgiammarco]

The last one (VT-d) limits you at the moment to Core i5 8xx, i7, Xeon or Opteron (AMD has IOMMU, which is equivalent). This also solves your quad core problem. If money is no object, then something that uses the L55xx series Xeons may be what you want. Their TDP is 50W. If cost is an object, then the i5 8xx is probably better.

Thanks for your detailed reply!

So you can confirm that IOMMMU works with esxi? I see in this forum that opteron solutions underclock better.

[StartledPancake]

The last one (VT-d) limits you at the moment to Core i5 8xx, i7, Xeon or Opteron (AMD has IOMMU, which is equivalent). This also solves your quad core problem. If money is no object, then something that uses the L55xx series Xeons may be what you want. Their TDP is 50W. If cost is an object, then the i5 8xx is probably better.

Thanks for your detailed reply!

So you can confirm that IOMMMU works with esxi? I see in this forum that opteron solutions underclock better.

How many VM's are you looking to run and for what purpose? The 4 threaded dual core i5's will be out soon and I suspect will run 6 VM's+ without issue as its usually RAM that is the limiting factor in a virtual environment. Thats where Id personally recommend spending the money/watts.

VT-d/Nehalem improvements make quite an impressive difference though in our testing at work, not that we are in any way CPU limited on any of our hosts.

[bigdoofus]

The last one (VT-d) limits you at the moment to Core i5 8xx, i7, Xeon or Opteron (AMD has IOMMU, which is equivalent). This also solves your quad core problem. If money is no object, then something that uses the L55xx series Xeons may be what you want. Their TDP is 50W. If cost is an object, then the i5 8xx is probably better.

Thanks for your detailed reply!

So you can confirm that IOMMMU works with esxi? I see in this forum that opteron solutions underclock better.

How many VM's are you looking to run and for what purpose? The 4 threaded dual core i5's will be out soon and I suspect will run 6 VM's+ without issue as its usually RAM that is the limiting factor in a virtual environment. Thats where Id personally recommend spending the money/watts.

VT-d/Nehalem improvements make quite an impressive difference though in our testing at work, not that we are in any way CPU limited on any of our hosts.

That's actually a good question I forgot to ask. How many VM's are you intending to run and what is their profile. Our ESX machines are more RAM limited than CPU limited. According to the Intel i3/i5 roadmap, the Core i5 6x0 series will have VT-x/d. Combine that with cheaper to obtain motherboards, as long as you are ok with the RAM limits and possible lack of ECC support, that would be a good budget way out.

As for the AMD IOMMU, I personally don't have any experience with them (we are an Intel shop), but I know it exists. Not sure of the support on ESXi.

[mgiammarco]

Hello again,
thanks for your replies.

I am building this system for home tests with few things (mail server,nas,mythv,caldav).
I know that I need more ram (I hope I can install at least 8 gb on the motherboard I choose) than cpu power.

Infact I am investigating also non server intel chipsets. It seems that q35 chipset supports vt-d and it is low power. Is it possible? So I can install on it a cheaper core 2 duo/quad and not a nehalem. Do core 2 support vt-d?

Thanks again for interest and Merry Christmas.

Mario

[StartledPancake]

Hello again,
thanks for your replies.

I am building this system for home tests with few things (mail server,nas,mythv,caldav).
I know that I need more ram (I hope I can install at least 8 gb on the motherboard I choose) than cpu power.

Infact I am investigating also non server intel chipsets. It seems that q35 chipset supports vt-d and it is low power. Is it possible? So I can install on it a cheaper core 2 duo/quad and not a nehalem. Do core 2 support vt-d?

Thanks again for interest and Merry Christmas.

Mario

No idea about VT-d enabled Core processors, sorry but VT and Intel is a total minefield. At least with the Q chipset you get vPro/AMT which can be handy for remote management and BIOS VT support for sure.

Im currently running a hyper-v + 3 2008 R2 VM's on an undervolted acer 1410 with 4GB RAM and a celeron su2300 cpu (VT-x). That runs at 12 watts undervolted and has plenty performance for a lab environment, its suprising how little you really need. I do use a separate storage server though.

For ESXi youre really restricted by VMWare's HCL, although its usually the network card thats the issue.

Merry Christmas to you too .

[bigdoofus]

Hello again,
thanks for your replies.

I am building this system for home tests with few things (mail server,nas,mythv,caldav).
I know that I need more ram (I hope I can install at least 8 gb on the motherboard I choose) than cpu power.

Infact I am investigating also non server intel chipsets. It seems that q35 chipset supports vt-d and it is low power. Is it possible? So I can install on it a cheaper core 2 duo/quad and not a nehalem. Do core 2 support vt-d?

Thanks again for interest and Merry Christmas.

Mario

8GB will be more than enough to power your rig. I would even go as far as to say 4GB will suffice. I would probably ditch the ECC requirement, as its probably overkill.

The only chips with VT-D at the moment are

Core i7 (all)
Core i5 860
Nehalem based Xeon

Future will include

Core i5 6x0 (I believe this is a dual core chip)

All processors are Nehalem

As a side question, presumably you require VT-d for capture cards for MythTV and nothing else? If so, what TV tuners are you using and what are you tuning in?

[mgiammarco]

I have found this page that show all chipsets that have vt-d and that work with xen:


http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/VTdHowTo

[mgiammarco]

I would probably ditch the ECC requirement, as its probably overkill.

The only chips with VT-D at the moment are

...

As a side question, presumably you require VT-d for capture cards for MythTV and nothing else? If so, what TV tuners are you using and what are you tuning in?

Thanks for detailed reply.
ECC was not mandatory but was a nice feature... if at no additional cost...
I have two pci cards one for satellite tv and one for traditional tv. At least the satellite card is not replaceable with usb. And anyway I would like to try vt-d to learn if it really works, I probably will try it with graphic card.

[mgiammarco]

I suppose I will buy asus "p5q-em do" to save money; q45 chipset has vt-d and it seems is also "low power".

Can someone suggests me a low power socket 775 cpu? Core2duo has vt-x and I know that also some pentium e5300 have vt-x.

Thanks again for help!

Mario

[p4b]

Hi Mario,

I am wondering how you are getting on with the "p5q-em do"? I am looking at getting the same board to run ESXi for a similar job including MythTV backend, etc.

In particular I am wondering if you have had any problems with the TV card passthrough?

As a long shot have you noticed any option to configure passthrough for the built in SATA drives so that one of the VMs can access them directly? I am exploring the possibility of setting up Linux software RAID managed by a VM to provide bulk storage where performance is not critical.

Thanks

[kaotikfunk]

Be sure to read up on this - many motherboards have been discussed for server use here:
viewtopic.php?t=54409

There are multiple boards listed with ECC support, but nobody has compiled a list of which ones support undervolting in BIOS.

Since you're looking at a virtualization server - here's a few things to consider:
second-level address translation (Marketing names - AMD: RVI, Intel: EPT) - this is a feature of the CPU. It speeds up many server workloads.
IOMMU / Directed IO support - this depends on both the CPU & chipset
ECC support - feature of CPU, chipset/BIOS support required

With AMD, all current chips including the cheapest Athlon II's support RVI and ECC in hardware. As long as the motherboard supports ECC - you're good to go. I don't know which chipsets support IOMMU, I haven't researched that part yet.

With Intel, you only get SLAT/EPT on the Core i3/5/7 series, and you'll have to pay extra for a Xeon if you want ECC support.

I'm planning on using AMD for my next build since it will get me ECC and RVI support essentially for free, that's just my 2c.

[mgiammarco]

Hi Mario,

I am wondering how you are getting on with the "p5q-em do"? I am looking at getting the same board to run ESXi for a similar job including MythTV backend, etc.

In particular I am wondering if you have had any problems with the TV card passthrough?

As a long shot have you noticed any option to configure passthrough for the built in SATA drives so that one of the VMs can access them directly? I am exploring the possibility of setting up Linux software RAID managed by a VM to provide bulk storage where performance is not critical.

Thanks

Hi,
sorry for late reply.
I have bought the board and it works perfectly in esxi.
I have only several problems if I try to enable the Intel VPRO mode.
I am sorry I have not tried it yet with TV card passthrough.
I have briefly tested firewire passthrough and it works.
I have not tried passthrough for sata drives (I suppose you have to move the entire sata chips with all channels).
Anyway I had already two hdd with linux distro and md raid: I recycled them using a tutorial for esxi that let the virtual machine see directly hdd (no need for hardware passthrough support). It works.

Mario