1st World server problem

[SynergieOfficial]

Hi guys.

First off all sorry if this topic is misplaced I couldn't find a better fitting place to post it but here (So mods feel free to move).

This is the story:

At the company i work (small company: just me and my boss), my boss suddenly came walking in with a server in his hands and said to me "Got a new toy for you! I got this server from a friend mine for €300 who is closing its business"

So as a happy child on christmas i booted the thing up and looked whats underneath the hood. So i'ill give you guys a list of the specs i could figure out.

Dell PowerEdge R520

2x Intel Xeon CPU E5-2407 0 @ 2.20Ghz

4x 4GB ECC memory (32 GiB)

8x 300GB SAS 2.5' Hard drives

2x Redundant 750W power supplies

and thats what i could figure out.

When i booted it it booted into VMware ESXI 5.0.0, and since i'm not that experienced with servers can one of you guys tell me more about this kind of virtualisation management?

Since we are a Sound&Light/Event/Entertainment company we just need/planned to make a ActiveDirectory Server for the small pc's we've set up here. But i planned to do this with just a modified desktop pc but my boss just wrecked that plan . We also have a seperate NAS (Netgear Readynas Pro 6) so we're happy with the data storage side of things.

So here are my 1st world problems.

1) WTH can i use all this power for besides a simple Active Directory server ?

2) Since this thing can handle more then a couple VM's how am I going to mangae that and what am I going to use it for (1) ?

3) How will i manage it? (READ: any good advice/tutorials to get started) cuz i fear this toy wil hand my butt to me on a silver platter.

I know i always can find the right suggestions and advice from the Linus tech tips forum for this "unusual" problem.

Let me know what i should do with it besides the AD and if you guys got any advice.

[Penny5837]

Hi guys.

First off all sorry if this topic is misplaced I couldn't find a better fitting place to post it but here (So mods feel free to move).

This is the story:

At the company i work (small company: just me and my boss), my boss suddenly came walking in with a server in his hands and said to me "Got a new toy for you! I got this server from a friend mine for €300 who is closing its business"

So as a happy child on christmas i booted the thing up and looked whats underneath the hood. So i'ill give you guys a list of the specs i could figure out.

Dell PowerEdge R520

2x Intel Xeon CPU E5-2407 0 @ 2.20Ghz

4x 4GB ECC memory (32 GiB)

8x 300GB SAS 2.5' Hard drives

2x Redundant 750W power supplies

and thats what i could figure out.

When i booted it it booted into VMware ESXI 5.0.0, and since i'm not that experienced with servers can one of you guys tell me more about this kind of virtualisation management?

Since we are a Sound&Light/Event/Entertainment company we just need/planned to make a ActiveDirectory Server for the small pc's we've set up here. But i planned to do this with just a modified desktop pc but my boss just wrecked that plan [emoji14]. We also have a seperate NAS (Netgear Readynas Pro 6) so we're happy with the data storage side of things.

So here are my 1st world problems.

1) WTH can i use all this power for besides a simple Active Directory server ?

2) Since this thing can handle more then a couple VM's how am I going to mangae that and what am I going to use it for (1) ?

3) How will i manage it? (READ: any good advice/tutorials to get started) cuz i fear this toy wil hand my butt to me on a silver platter.

I know i always can find the right suggestions and advice from the Linus tech tips forum for this "unusual" problem.

Let me know what i should do with it besides the AD and if you guys got any advice.

Thanks,

Synergie

1) Yep. I use my system for active directory, we server, game servers, and teamspeak at the same time. CPU usage never goes above 50%

2) I have no idea, I don't use VMs.

3) You can always use windows remote desktop. (I have all windows machines)

[Penny5837]

Thanks,

Synergie

P.S. you can't manually sign off. Mods don't like that. We sorta have signatures for a reason.

[MichelleS]

ESXI 5.0 is a component of the VSphere family of products from VMware which allows you to deploy virtualized desktops and servers. The ESXI is the management suite of the product. Your server was built to be a host machine for other servers and desktops. VSphere is one of the most widely used virtualization tools around but there are others such as Microsoft Hyper-V. Hyper-V being a free product within the Microsoft server family line.

 

https://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere

[conspiravision]

Literally google configuring an ESXi host.  Once configured you can setup VMs and use it for other things.  

[Blake]

When i booted it it booted into VMware ESXI 5.0.0, and since i'm not that experienced with servers can one of you guys tell me more about this kind of virtualisation management?

 

So here are my 1st world problems.

1) WTH can i use all this power for besides a simple Active Directory server ?

2) Since this thing can handle more then a couple VM's how am I going to mangae that and what am I going to use it for (1) ?

3) How will i manage it? (READ: any good advice/tutorials to get started) cuz i fear this toy wil hand my butt to me on a silver platter.

 

Do you have the license for ESXi? answer is going to be no. Are you prepared to spend thousands in licensing? no? don't use it. You can pick up a free license for 6.0, but it's not really production ready yet. soon, but not yet. If you can use ESXi it is the best, hands down nothing else comes close (Linus seems to like unRAID, but when did he know what he was talking about in a corporate environment). Hyper-V server comes in a clear 2nd when compared to everything else, but it's free, so not being able to do a live migration of a VM isn't a big deal, just suspend the VM then migrate it to another host then resume it, you could do up a nice powershell script to do it for you.

 

1). You could throw everything inside Hyper-v or ESXi. Then as you get more servers etc, implement vMotion and have live migrations between systems.

2). vSphere for ESXi (they do have a web browser based one now, but it's terrible). or RSAT/Hyper-V manager/Powershell for Hyper-V

3). Start off looking at CBTnuggets, they'll hold you hand setting up a DC, or ESXi or both. Youtube also has a few good videos (eli the computer guy/Chris Davis). Get a MCSA 70-409/410/411/412 book.

[SynergieOfficial]

1) Yep. I use my system for active directory, we server, game servers, and teamspeak at the same time. CPU usage never goes above 50%

2) I have no idea, I don't use VMs.

3) You can always use windows remote desktop. (I have all windows machines)

You got a simular system ?

And thanks for your insight . But its a machine that can handle way more than that so it would be a bummer to not use its full potential.

P.S. you can't manually sign off. Mods don't like that. We sorta have signatures for a reason.

Wops sorry fixed that.

[SynergieOfficial]

ESXI 5.0 is a component of the VSphere family of products from VMware which allows you to deploy virtualized desktops and servers. The ESXI is the management suite of the product. Your server was built to be a host machine for other servers and desktops. VSphere is one of the most widely used virtualization tools around but there are others such as Microsoft Hyper-V. Hyper-V being a free product within the Microsoft server family line.

https://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere

Thanks for the info

Do you have the license for ESXi? answer is going to be no. Are you prepared to spend thousands in licensing? no? don't use it. You can pick up a free license for 6.0, but it's not really production ready yet. soon, but not yet. If you can use ESXi it is the best, hands down nothing else comes close (Linus seems to like unRAID, but when did he know what he was talking about in a corporate environment). Hyper-V server comes in a clear 2nd when compared to everything else, but it's free, so not being able to do a live migration of a VM isn't a big deal, just suspend the VM then migrate it to another host then resume it, you could do up a nice powershell script to do it for you.

1). You could throw everything inside Hyper-v or ESXi. Then as you get more servers etc, implement vMotion and have live migrations between systems.

2). vSphere for ESXi (they do have a web browser based one now, but it's terrible). or RSAT/Hyper-V manager/Powershell for Hyper-V

3). Start off looking at CBTnuggets, they'll hold you hand setting up a DC, or ESXi or both. Youtube also has a few good videos (eli the computer guy/Chris Davis). Get a MCSA 70-409/410/411/412 book.

I got the sever not altered (straight pulled out of the rack). It comes form a printing service company (sadly 100 employees lost their jobs).

So About licencing. ESXi is licenced and probbably all the VM's too (if i knew wich are running)

Do i know what the licence is/ can i acces it ... No

Do i gonna spend that much on new ones .. No

Is their maybe any way to salvage the licenced of ESXi or the VM's ? Knowing i don't have any passwords or other validation.

So if i understand you correctly. If i manage to salvage ESXi. Just keep it and get the live migration and vMotion running. otherwise go the Linus way of life ?

Thanks for the usefull info and i'll definitly check the links/suggestions out.

[Jonny]

As its ESXi, you may need to buy a new License depending if its an annual cost.

 

http://xenserver.org/ is a free Visualization operating system, really easily to setup, you can find guides all over the internet for it.

[conspiravision]

As its ESXi, you may need to buy a new License depending if its an annual cost.

 

http://xenserver.org/ is a free Visualization operating system, really easily to setup, you can find guides all over the internet for it.

esxi hypervisor is free

https://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/esxi_pricing

[Jonny]

esxi hypervisor is free

https://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/esxi_pricing

You learn something every day.

[SynergieOfficial]

You learn something every day.

The world would be boring otherwise

esxi hypervisor is free

https://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/esxi_pricing

Arent some key features blocked ? Otherwise why woul there be a paid licence

[SynergieOfficial]

The forum derped

[SynergieOfficial]

And again sorry

[Blake]

esxi hypervisor is free

https://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/esxi_pricing

There are some restrictions to the free licence. Basically at that point the only reason to keep ESXi over Hyper-V is the ability to virtualise hyper-v for a pretty nice white box.

 

 

Thanks for the info

I got the sever not altered (straight pulled out of the rack). It comes form a printing service company (sadly 100 employees lost their jobs).

So About licencing. ESXi is licenced and probbably all the VM's too (if i knew wich are running)

Do i know what the licence is/ can i acces it ... No

Do i gonna spend that much on new ones .. No

Is their maybe any way to salvage the licenced of ESXi or the VM's ? Knowing i don't have any passwords or other validation.

So if i understand you correctly. If i manage to salvage ESXi. Just keep it and get the live migration and vMotion running. otherwise go the Linus way of life ?

Thanks for the usefull info and i'll definitly check the links/suggestions out.

 

it is my understanding that you can't salvage the license for esxi. Give them a call if you want to confirm. You can keep the VM's but it wont be recommended, just make some new ones. If you know how to manage a windows core system then go with hyper-V server as it is free and the next best option. Otherwise, it comes down to what you know. if unRAID is you thing then use that.