[Need Feedback] Ryzen KVM Server

[Alkahna]

Hello,

 

I'm speccing out a new server (going ryzen) and would like to hear what you guys have to say about the specs and if there is something to improve on.

 

What is should/will do:

• not break the bank (going ryzen because its much ceaper than xeons with the same raw power)
  • for the price of this unit I was no able to find a intel based system that would perform on the same level
• rackmountable
• KVM machine with 1 VM at the start
  • that VM is going to be used to archive mail (in german GPDO/GDPR compliant)
  • that system is using linux and doesnt require a lot in terms of hardware)
• NOT provide mass storage (I will have a dedicated storage server)
• I want to start out with 1 system but ideally I would like to have 3 for a HA KVM-Cluster
• Mainboard should give me 2x16 physical PCIe Slots (both running atleast at 2x8 electrical)

 

EDIT 08/05/19 | 05.08.19:

 

For reference this hardware spec will archive about 13 E-Mails/second:

• Lenovo ThinkPad R61 (about 10 years old)
• Intel Core2 Duo, 2.50GHz
• 4 GB RAM
• HDD SATA-300 / 5400 RPM / Fujitsu MHZ2250B 250 GB

 

Im not expecting more than 13 mails a second for the start.

The Ryzen 5 2600 is way overkill for this but I want the hardware to be "relevant" a little longer and maybe spin up some more VM's on it later down the line or handle more than 13 mails a second.

 

 

Spec-List

• Mainboard
  • ASRock X470 Master SLI
    • supports ECC memory
    • 2 PCIe x16 Slots both running at x8 when both slots are populated
    • thinking of maybe adding sotmething like this later on
      • Chelsio CC2-N320E-SR Dual Port 10 GbE FC PCIe x8 Server Adapter
• CPU
  • Ryzen 5 2600
    • amazing value for 6C/12T
    • supports ECC memory
    • will be using the included wraith stealth cooler
      • or would you say its not going to perform in a sever chassis and if so what heatsink would you choose?
• RAM
  • 1x Kingston Server Premier DIMM 8GB, DDR4-2400, CL17-17-17, ECC (KSM24ES8/8ME)
    • ECC unbufferd
    • 8GB is sufficient for the start (the one VM that is going to be running will need 2-4 GB max)
• Case
  • Inter-Tech 2U-20255
    • 2U
    • good airflow (4 80mm fans)
      • will either remove 1-2 fans if temps are ok and/or swap them for noctua's after I tested the system
• SSD/HDD
  • I wanted to go NVMe but reliable SSDs are not really cheap
  • 2x Samsung SSD SM883 240GB Datacenter SSDs in Raid 1
    • TBW -> 1.314PB
    • MTBF -> 2 Mio Hours
    • looking reliable and are a bit faster than HDD's
  • anyone got suggestions for going NVMe??
    • I bet KVM would really like/benefit from faster OS storage
• Powersupply
  • Going Seasonic either 1U or 2U (1U need adapter bracket for this case)
    • 80+ Gold
    • its seasonic so thats a plus
    • Have those to chose from:
      • SS-350M1U -> https://seasonic.com/m1u
      • ATX 24-pin
      • 1x 4pin ATX 12V
        • would that be enough for the chosen mainboard/CPU?
      • 2x 4pin Molex
      • 4x SATA
      • 1x FDD
      • SS-400L1U/SS-500L1U -> https://seasonic.com/l1u
        • cables (same for 400/500w)
          • 2x 4pin ATX 12V
          • 1x 8pin ATX 12V
          • 1x 8pin PCI-E (6+2)
          • ATX 24-pin
          • 5x Molex
          • 3x SATA
          • 1x FDD
      • SS-400L2U/SS-500L2U -> https://seasonic.com/l2u
        • cables -> same as 400/500 1U
    • Im not sure about the wattage yet since all I can find about ryzen is total system power with a gaming GPU
  • going redundant would end up costing quite a bit more so I tend not to (got suggestions though?)
• Graphics Card
  • Please dont hate on this one  I know the video where Linus "hates" on that card and how it should never exist^^
  • Zotac GeForce GT 710 PCIe x1
    • only populates a PCIe x1 Slot
    • half height card with half height bracket included
      • as if it was made for servers without integrated graphics^^
    • with this one I have 1x16 or 2x8 electrical slots (2x8 when both pysical x16 are populated) free for expansion cards like NICs etc.
  • its cheap
  • only needed during setup and for console work since I will be installing linux server OS with no GUI

 

What do I think about this config?

 

• redundant power would be nice but comes at a pretty hefty cost
• lacking IPMI
• ASRock Rack makes 2 boards with ryzen CPU and IPMI (only ones I could find)
  • This is the cheaper one: https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=X470D4U#Specifications
  • much more expensive that the X470 Master SLI

 

Pricing (including tax & shipping)

• ASRock X470 Mater SLI
  • ~ 135 € (150,41 $ or 198,27 CAD)
  • the ASRock Rack X470D4U would be ~ 247 € ( 275,22 $ or 362,77 CAD)
• Ryzen 2600
  • ~ 130 € (144,84 $ or 190,93 CAD)
• 1x Kingston Server Premier DIMM 8GB, DDR4-2400, CL17-17-17, ECC (KSM24ES8/8ME)
  • ~ 55 € (61,28 $ or 80,78 CAD)
• Inter-Tech 2U-20255
  • ~ 111 € (123,67 $ or 163,03 CAD)
• 2x Samsung SSD SM883 240GB Datacenter SSD
  • ~ 204 € (227,29 $ or 299,61 CAD)
• Zotac GeForce GT 710 PCIe x1
  • ~ 54 € (60,16 $ or 79,31 CAD)
• SS-500L1U or SS-500L2U (price is for the 2U one)
  • ~ 106 € (118,10 $ or 155,68 CAD)

Total Server Price: 795 € = 885,99 $ = 1.168,00 Canadian Rupees

 

Well enough about the system^^

What do you guys think about it?

What would you do different?

 

regards

[Jarsky]

Exlease seevers are going to be better value. $600 USD for 2 x E5 2670s (16C/32T), 64GB ECC Ram, Raid Card, redundant PSUs.. just add some ssd's?

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Build-Your-Own-Dell-R720-8B-SFF-Server-16-Core-2-60GHz-E5-2670-Wholesale/382183767200

[shuri]

1 hour ago, Jarsky said:

Exlease seevers are going to be better value. $600 USD for 2 x E5 2670s (16C/32T), 64GB ECC Ram, Raid Card, redundant PSUs.. just add some ssd's?

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Build-Your-Own-Dell-R720-8B-SFF-Server-16-Core-2-60GHz-E5-2670-Wholesale/382183767200

+200€ of postage AND probably some taxes to get it to Deutcheland.

Not to mention since OP talked about GDPR, his business probably would enjoy a reliable machine with warranty instead of a old Dell that's gonna melt down any day..

[dalekphalm]

57 minutes ago, shuri said:

+200€ of postage AND probably some taxes to get it to Deutcheland.

Not to mention since OP talked about GDPR, his business probably would enjoy a reliable machine with warranty instead of a old Dell that's gonna melt down any day..

If it is indeed a business, then warranty becomes an even larger consideration. How much uptime is important to the OP? What's the maximum downtime that is acceptable?

 

By doing a custom built job like the above, each individual component has it's own warranty - you'd be looking at 1-2 weeks turn around on average per component, for a failure. Some of the warranties may allow advance-replacement, but most would not.

 

So warranty vs cost is an important factor. Yes, that custom build will be far cheaper than a new Dell or HPE server. But the warranty support will be far inferior too.

 

You pick your poison.

 

Also in terms of old Dell servers, the vast majority of them get replaced because they are EOL or out of warranty, and are otherwise perfectly functional. Assuming he buys new HDD's (with warranty), an old used server will likely outlast the new HDD's. Is that worth the risk? To some people, but not others. Up to the OP to decide.

[Jarsky]

11 hours ago, shuri said:

+200€ of postage AND probably some taxes to get it to Deutcheland.

Not to mention since OP talked about GDPR, his business probably would enjoy a reliable machine with warranty instead of a old Dell that's gonna melt down any day..

 

It was an example...Germany has an absolutely massive ex-enterprise gear market which he could get locally. 

Also, what exactly do you think is going to 'melt down' in a Dell enterprise server? CPU's/Memory/Motherboard/Raid Controller are fairly reliable parts - I recommended getting new disks separately so you can get consumer SSD's, and raid batteries are cheap. Also what does warranty matter on parts? You arent going to be waiting around for the RMA of a vital part until you get a replacement to get the machine back up...you'll have to go out and buy that part, and then work out what youre going to do with that RMA replacement later. 

 

[Alkahna]

On 7/26/2019 at 3:29 PM, Jarsky said:

Exlease seevers are going to be better value. $600 USD for 2 x E5 2670s (16C/32T), 64GB ECC Ram, Raid Card, redundant PSUs.. just add some ssd's?

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Build-Your-Own-Dell-R720-8B-SFF-Server-16-Core-2-60GHz-E5-2670-Wholesale/382183767200

I thought about those as well but found the following issues:

• Dual CPU's are nice and all but not needed for my use case^^
• will scream like crazy (the one I compiled will be much more quite, possibly remove some case fans or put noctua's in)
• old CPU's come with (much) higher TDP so consuming more power and putting out more heat
  • this is possibly the biggest one since for an equal performance an "old" Dell server will consume way more power that the Ryzen 5 2600 in this case
• most come only with the option to install 2,5" SAS drives so I need one with 3,5" drive support as I may put some 3,5" drives in down the road!
  • I know there are some like the  Dell R710
• not all "server-rooms" have AC or are behind big doors where you cannot hear what's inside^^

On 7/26/2019 at 5:12 PM, shuri said:

+200€ of postage AND probably some taxes to get it to Deutcheland.

Not to mention since OP talked about GDPR, his business probably would enjoy a reliable machine with warranty instead of a old Dell that's gonna melt down any day..

I can get ex-lease servers here in germany but that comes with issues (listed above)

I would be business/private use (just for myself at start and maybe some friends/family) and since I plan to build them as an HA-Cluster there might be 3 machines at the start. So 1 failing will not be that big of an issue. That missing VM can be spun up on different hardware till replacements come in.

 

On 7/26/2019 at 6:13 PM, dalekphalm said:

If it is indeed a business, then warranty becomes an even larger consideration. How much uptime is important to the OP? What's the maximum downtime that is acceptable?

 

By doing a custom built job like the above, each individual component has it's own warranty - you'd be looking at 1-2 weeks turn around on average per component, for a failure. Some of the warranties may allow advance-replacement, but most would not.

 

So warranty vs cost is an important factor. Yes, that custom build will be far cheaper than a new Dell or HPE server. But the warranty support will be far inferior too.

 

You pick your poison.

I hear your point. I think the HA-Cluster will somewhat help me get over the possible downtime and I have the abbility to spin the VM that went down up on a different server while waiting for replacements.

 

On 7/26/2019 at 6:13 PM, dalekphalm said:

Also in terms of old Dell servers, the vast majority of them get replaced because they are EOL or out of warranty, and are otherwise perfectly functional. Assuming he buys new HDD's (with warranty), an old used server will likely outlast the new HDD's. Is that worth the risk? To some people, but not others. Up to the OP to decide.

That is correct

Biggest issue I find is them pesky 2,5" drive option without sleds, I would have to track them down seperatly... (most come from china and those "receipt's" if you can call them that are worth nothing for taxes etc.)

A single Raid-1 with 240GB SSD's is more than enough for this usecase but I also want the option to put in some 3,5" drives in the future.

 

For reference I added some hardware specs of a machine above which is an indicator of the performance I would need the machine to have

 

greetings

Alkahna