server Building a Server

[JorisLight]

So i'm going to build a server for around €700 and need some help with the parts. I was planning to install VMware vSphere on it to be able to use multiple vm's. I mainly want to use it as a multiplayer processing server for several games, i also want it to act like a file server so that i could access the files over the network. Any ideas for a reasonable build?

[Tosa]

How many VMs? How many game servers? Regardless, you'll probably want lots of CPU cores and lots of RAM if you want the games to run smoothly. SSD storage could also be advantageous, but you should probably concentrate on getting a better CPU and more RAM rather than SSD storage.

[JorisLight]

@Tosa I'll probably be starting off with something like one or two VMs and it'll probably be starting with 5 game servers, but i would prefer the option to be able to expand as needed.

[Tosa]

I don't have too much experience here, but I know you'll need several powerful CPU cores and plenty of RAM for each game server, and Minecraft servers, for instance, are especially hungry for RAM. My best guess is that each game server should have access to around 2 or 4 CPU cores and between 2 and 8 GB of RAM, depending on how many players will be playing.

Hopefully, someone with more experience when it comes to what hardware to pick will come around soon.

[CNY RMB]

1 hour ago, Tosa said:

I don't have too much experience here, but I know you'll need several powerful CPU cores and plenty of RAM for each game server, and Minecraft servers, for instance, are especially hungry for RAM. My best guess is that each game server should have access to around 2 or 4 CPU cores and between 2 and 8 GB of RAM, depending on how many players will be playing.

Hopefully, someone with more experience when it comes to what hardware to pick will come around soon.

That seems reasonable. 2 dedicated intel cores should be fine for most MC servers with a few dozend players, RAM wil be more of a scarce resource. Generally I would recommend to not buy new hardware. While the new hardware may give you some minor performance improvements and a warranty, buying second hand datacenter gear will allow you to get high core count CPUs and motherboards with enough RAM support for fairly low prices. Probably even enough for something like 3-4 machines and a switch in the 700$ budget.

 

Also, it may be worth to take a look at KVM instead of VMware vSphere. Its free and has similar performance. It is harder to configure tho. Not sure about the amount of resources required by the host os with vSphere, but it is very low with a barebones linux install. (e.g. Arch). Just as a warning tho, you would have to use the CLI.

 

Jakob

[leadeater]

11 hours ago, CNY RMB said:

Also, it may be worth to take a look at KVM instead of VMware vSphere. Its free and has similar performance. It is harder to configure tho. Not sure about the amount of resources required by the host os with vSphere, but it is very low with a barebones linux install. (e.g. Arch). Just as a warning tho, you would have to use the CLI.

 

Jakob

Basic ESXi is also free FYI. Very much agree with your recommendation to buy used server gear off ebay, will get much more for the same money.