Comments on: New host: Dell PowerEdge R710 http://www.virtlab.biz/vmware/177 ...playing around with technology Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:00:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jenshttp://www.virtlab.biz/vmware/177/comment-page-1#comment-223 Jens Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:43:10 +0000 http://www.virtlab.biz/?p=177#comment-223 Another Rack XU (2U this time) version... Do you have a rack since you specifically choose those?, personally I would choose the Rack-mountable Tower versions. My own server is built into a Intel SC5600Base tower which is just that. Just curious... Another Rack XU (2U this time) version…

Do you have a rack since you specifically choose those?, personally I would choose the Rack-mountable Tower versions.

My own server is built into a Intel SC5600Base tower which is just that. Just curious…

]]> By: Frode Sandholtbråtenhttp://www.virtlab.biz/vmware/177/comment-page-1#comment-99 Frode Sandholtbråten Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:09:36 +0000 http://www.virtlab.biz/?p=177#comment-99 Hey, I have had four VM's running on my PE2850 with 3GHz, 7Gig ram and 4x 73Gig 10kRPM disk drives: mail/web/file server (linux 2.6.x) login server (linux 2.6.x) windows 2003 R2 terminal server with VMware vCenter seti compute client (linux 2.6.x) Performance have never been an issue. It was never an issue when I used it exclusively for the mail/web/file server and it has never been an issue after I installed VMware ESXi. On the other hand, the PowerEdge 2850 isn't the best virtualization host. It lacks support for hardware virtualization and will not, as far as I know, run 64bit guests. The CPU's are first generation 64bit processors and are therefore not very well suited for running virtualization software. I only use it because I already have the PE2850 and are doing the virtualization research as a hobby. The performance issues could be because of a number of things: the lack of IO-MMU support, memory controller issues, cache sync problems and hyperthreading. My advice is that you should look at the next generation (10th or 11th) if you want to play around with virtualization. The PowerEdge R200, which I also have) supports 8Gig of RAM, hardware virtualization and such. They are also cheap. If you get the PE2850 for free, feel free to play around with it, but it is not the best machine for virtualization. Hey,

I have had four VM’s running on my PE2850 with 3GHz, 7Gig ram and 4x 73Gig 10kRPM disk drives:

mail/web/file server (linux 2.6.x)
login server (linux 2.6.x)
windows 2003 R2 terminal server with VMware vCenter
seti compute client (linux 2.6.x)

Performance have never been an issue. It was never an issue when I used it exclusively for the mail/web/file server and it has never been an issue after I installed VMware ESXi.

On the other hand, the PowerEdge 2850 isn’t the best virtualization host. It lacks support for hardware virtualization and will not, as far as I know, run 64bit guests. The CPU’s are first generation 64bit processors and are therefore not very well suited for running virtualization software. I only use it because I already have the PE2850 and are doing the virtualization research as a hobby.

The performance issues could be because of a number of things: the lack of IO-MMU support, memory controller issues, cache sync problems and hyperthreading.

My advice is that you should look at the next generation (10th or 11th) if you want to play around with virtualization. The PowerEdge R200, which I also have) supports 8Gig of RAM, hardware virtualization and such. They are also cheap.

If you get the PE2850 for free, feel free to play around with it, but it is not the best machine for virtualization.

]]> By: Marnohttp://www.virtlab.biz/vmware/177/comment-page-1#comment-98 Marno Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:08:17 +0000 http://www.virtlab.biz/?p=177#comment-98 Hi Frode, I'm currently in the process of getting a new server for ESX, would you recommend the Dell 2850 as a test ESX server? Specs: 2x Intel Xeon 3Ghz cpu 8Gb DDR2 ram (4x2) Perc 4e DI array controller6x 72Gb disk 15k rpm (plaats voor 6 st) Adaptec 39160 scsi kaart After reading http://communities.vmware.com/message/1065335 I'm doubting the performance of this server. Could you please let me know how it performs? I want to use this as a test server hosting about 4 servers (1 domain controller, 1 Windows XP workstation, 2 servers for testing). No heavy (production) load or anything like that, just testing. I would really appreciate some feedback, thanks in advance & nice blog!! Greets Marno Hi Frode,

I’m currently in the process of getting a new server for ESX, would you recommend the Dell 2850 as a test ESX server? Specs:

2x Intel Xeon 3Ghz cpu
8Gb DDR2 ram (4×2)
Perc 4e DI array controller6x 72Gb disk 15k rpm (plaats voor 6 st)
Adaptec 39160 scsi kaart

After reading http://communities.vmware.com/message/1065335 I’m doubting the performance of this server. Could you please let me know how it performs? I want to use this as a test server hosting about 4 servers (1 domain controller, 1 Windows XP workstation, 2 servers for testing). No heavy (production) load or anything like that, just testing.

I would really appreciate some feedback, thanks in advance & nice blog!!

Greets Marno

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