Setting up Home Lab - Mini PC vs Refurbed Server hardware?

T

TestLink

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I am thinking about setting up a Home IT Lab. I am bit confused with the hardware required. Like a base OS with various VM's for various purpose like pfsense, couple of Linux distros like Kali Linux etc.

Should I go for a Mini PC with components like AMD Ryzen 9 + 64 Gb RAM + 2 TB etc? AliExpress have lots of these.

Or should I get refurbed server hardware with Intel Xeon processor range and other components? If Ys, which is the best place in Ireland or EU to get this (without import duty etc for the likes of UK)?

Prefer to get the whole server with components with or without an OS.

Thanks...
 
For a test lab you're not going to notice much performance difference between 'server hardware' and a high spec PC. The differences you will notice though are that server hardware tends to be bigger, noisier, hotter, complex and much more expensive to buy and run. The only reason I'd go with server hardware is if you're trying to learn about server hardware (redundant components, rack mounting, RAID etc), otherwise a PC with plenty of memory will be a much better bet.

For Linux/pfsense type VMs you'll find that the hardware requirements are actually very modest, an older PC with a decent bit of memory in it (even 32Gb for a couple of VMs) will be more than sufficient to get you started.
 
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You can pickup an old second hand rack server with RAID 5, dual power supplies and built in remote hardware management etc for not much money.
The problem is these tend to be loud, very loud. But they can be cheap and fun to play with, just don't be surprised if is it as loud as vacuum cleaner.
 
Which OS would be the best as the base bare metal operating system?

Windows Server 2019 / 2022 and VMs in Hyper-V
or
Ubuntu Server + VMs
or
Some other Linux Distro

Thanks...
 
Really depends on what you're trying to learn and why. If you're trying to become more familiar with business/enterprise environments, then I would start with VMware ESXi as the base as it's by far the most common, although you do see more of HyperV these days. If you're not too interested in learning about the hypervisor and are more interested in the VMs then just choose whichever is easiest for you to setup, though at a guess I'd say HyperV may not be the best choice for lots of different flavours of Linux, ESXi or KVM on Ubuntu might be more compatible.
 
Other than Windows 2022 server I prefer to have open source free softwares like Ubuntu. My main purpose is to run various VM's. I would like to have a bare metal OS that doesnt have a big learning curve and prefer the use of GUI rather than CUI.

I doesnt have any experience with any Bare Metal OS.

Is VMware ESXi free for home use? On top of it can I run both windows and Linux VM's?

Or Windows Server with VM's running on Hyper V?

I have seen reviews about Proxmox, but still pricey for my home use.

What would be the best?
 
ESXi is free for individual servers yes. It is very much an enterprise product, so you might find it struggles to run on non-server hardware, but you have nothing to lose by trying it out. You will make a bootable DVD or USB key to get ESXi installed, there's a basic GUI to get it setup with an IP address then you can use a browser from your Windows/Linux/Mac to connect to that and use the web interface to setup your VMs. The learning curve is going to be a bit steep, but I suspect it will be for any of these hypervisors and as I say the advantage to VMware is that you'll encounter it in most businesses using virtualisation. You will be able to run most flavours of Windows/Linux on it.

No idea about Proxmox sorry.

Windows Server with HyperV will be an easier initial setup because you have the familiar Windows interface to work within, but HyperV is not as mature for hosting Linux VMs as the likes of ESXi.
 
TestLink said:
Other than Windows 2022 server I prefer to have open source free softwares like Ubuntu.
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@Zenith63's advice here is excellent, but I'll just add a question on your primary goal. If it's to get a job somewhere, note that most of the big companies here will use vendor supported products like VMware over freeware. They like having a vendor at the end of a phone call when things go wrong. Smaller leaner operations are more likely to use open source.
 
I have got a free take away offer for a Dell PowerEdge R620, but with no RAM and internal storage.

May I know where to get few DDR3 RAM sticks and SATA SSD's cheap?
 
TestLink said:
I have got a free take away offer for a Dell PowerEdge R620, but with no RAM and internal storage.

May I know where to get few DDR3 RAM sticks and SATA SSD's cheap?
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You could check out adverts.ie, donedeal.ie and ie.webuy.com (CEX) can even be good for memory
 
Leo said:
I see the Broadcom aquisition means the free tier is now discontinued.
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Yeah very strange decision, that free tier was the entry point for lots of us to becoming VMware fans, now only their main enterprise competitor HyperV has a free (long trial) version. Guess it won’t be the first piece of good software bought and killed accidentally!
 
Zenith63 said:
Yeah very strange decision, that free tier was the entry point for lots of us to becoming VMware fans, now only their main enterprise competitor HyperV has a free (long trial) version. Guess it won’t be the first piece of good software bought and killed accidentally!
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This is how Broadcom operate their chip business. They are not interested at all in the small business or hobbyist. When the Raspberry Pie came out is amazed people that they managed to get Broadcom to supply them with a CPU, let alone data sheets on how the it operated.
 
Towger said:
This is how Broadcom operate their chip business.
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Yeah, they've even gone about alienating and cutting off most of the reseller channel that were selling to and supporting small and medium businesses.
 
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