Building a Low Cost (Cheap) VMWare ESX Test Server.
March 13th, 2008 by Kiwi Si
My job now involves more and more virtualised (or virtualized if you’re one of our American cousins from across the pond) server implementations so this is a good excuse to go and build my own VMWare ESX test environment.
I have been reading many articles over the last few months such as those by vinf.net and Ryan Coates who have blogged about their experiences building their own VMWare ESX test rig.
As most of you probably know much of issues faced by those wanting to build their own cheap ESX test server is having SCSI disk on which to present the Virtual Machine File System (VMFS).
There are a handful, and more with ESX v3.5, of SATA disk controllers that present the disks to ESX as being SCSI. Obviously due to the cost of SATA Vs SCSI/SAS disks this is preferable for a low cost ESX box.
I was wanting a server that would offer half decent performance and wasn’t going to cost the earth. Probably the cheapest, and one of the most hassle free ways would be to purchase an HP Compaq D530 desktop. vinf.net has blogged quite extensively here and here about his experiences with running ESX on the D530. A basic model can be picked up on EBay from about £80 (with minimum memory and disk) though it would be worth hunting around for a version with the 2.8Ghz Hyper Threaded (HT) CPU which will offer more in the way of performance.
The D530 is an attractive little unit on many fronts though I was a little concerned about the performance as ESX and it’s VM’s would be running off of a single hard drive. Although this would be fine for any low/moderate resource intensive VM’s I was hoping for something which would give me that added flexibility of a little more horse-power under the hood, especially in the area of disk access speeds.
I have an existing homemade desktop machine which has an AMD X2 4200 CPU, 4GB memory and onboard RAID 0 SATA II 320GB hard disks which runs very well. All I would have to have added to this PC is an ESX compatible SATA controller such as the LSI MegaRaid 150 and a compatible network adapter. The LSI MegaRaid 150 is a 64bit PCI adapter and as such I would have lost valuable bandwidth as my ABit motherboard only had 32bit PCI slots available. So to get the most out of the disk controller I would have had to have purchased a new motherboard and in using my existing PC as a dedicated ESX test rig I would be down one PC that I use for all my day to day computing bits and pieces.
After much more trawling of VM forums regarding ESX white boxes I decided to take the plunge and go for an entry level HP server with an entry level ESX certified disk controller.
As budget is an issue the HP Proliant ML110 (Intel) or HP ML115 (AMD) seemed like an obvious choice. I have worked with HP Proliants for a number of years now and have always been impressed with their build quality and reliability even on low end models.
Both the ML110 and ML115 have onboard SATA raid though there wasn’t any clear definitive information on whether the controller would allow the SATA disks to be seen as SCSI based by ESX - as is necessary for the VMFS volume. This wasn’t to be an issue however as I had also decided to buy and install an HP Smart Array e200i Controller. This controller can control both SATA and SAS drives so offered some future proofing for when SAS drives become more affordable and mainstream in the home market. Unfortunately the e200i only offers SATA I (1.5Gb/s) speeds though hopefully by using 2 disks in a RAID 0 (Ok, I know where’s the redundancy? - but keep in mind that this is only a test rig) configuration I should get decent enough performance in the disk access department. An HP specific 4 port SATA cable is also needed (HP PN: 430762-001).
UPDATE: I have posted another article that outlines things to look out for when going to buy an HP Proliant ML110 G4 to run ESX. Click here for more details.
The cost of a new ML110 (G4 or G5) was inexpensive enough to make it not worth the time trying to hunt for a bargain on EBay or the like. The cheapest (UK based) online vendor I found to buy an ML110 was ‘Servers Direct’. They, apparently have bought up all of HP’s remaining ML110 G4 models (G5 is the latest) from HP so are now selling them off at a reduced price (ie: £149.00).
Here is an overview of the HP ML110 G4 specification:
I have never used, or bought, an ML110 before and am used to using it’s more SMB and Enterprise level Proliant cousins such as the Proilant DL380, etc.
The first thing that struck me was it’s size… it’s really small. Smaller in fact than my current PC’s midi-tower case. This is good news as I have limited space in my inner-city London flat.
I set about installing 2 Samsung SpinPoint 320GB hard disks - to be used in a RAID 0 configuration off of the e200i controller.
My plan with the hard disks is to run ESX off of the SATA hard disk that came with the server (160GB) which runs off of the motherboards SATA controller and then create the VMFS volumes on the raided 320GB drives which are connected to the e200i.
The HP Smart Array e200i comes with 128MB of Battery Backed Write Cache.
Here is the necessary HP SAS/SATA cable that connects the hard disks to the e200i array controller.
Unfortunately standard SATA cables won’t work. It costs £14 and the HP part number is 430762. Most of the suppliers I contacted always seemed to be out of stock.
Once I had added the memory it was time to start it up and install ESX v3.5!
Another item of note with the ML110 is how quiet it is. It is perfectly quiet enough to have this server running in a room without really knowing it’s actually switched on. I wouldn’t say it’s completely silent but it is no louder than your average PC.
Installing VMWare ESX v3.5 was straight forward. It picked up all the hardware devices first time (ie: disk controllers, NIC, etc).
Before I knew it I had a working ESX installation which I could connect to via the VMWare Infrastructure Manager which is running on my PC.
One interesting point of note is that ESX see’s the hard disk connected to the onboard SATA controller as a SCSI VMFS3 device so I could have saved some money and run my ESX install and the VM images off of the onboard SATA controller.
![VMWare ESX White Box[7]](http://mowser.com/web/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.techhead.co.uk%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2008%2F03%2Fvmware-esx-white-box7.jpg)
I have created a VM instance on the disk connected to the onboard controller and can confirm it works just fine. Though, as with the D530 if you want to spin up a number of VM instances depending on what these instances are doing (ie: a task that involves moderate or high disk IO) I could foresee disk access being a potential bottle neck and a separate disk controller preferable. That said, as this is just a ESX test server then in most cases the VM instances will most likely not be doing anything too resource intensive.
So all up this is what creating my VMWare ESX v3.5 test server cost:
1 x HP ML110 G4 £149.00 (www.serversdirect.co.uk)
1 x HP e200i Array Controller £173.00 (www.serversdirect.co.uk)
1 x HP SATA/SATA Cable £14.00 (www.serversdirect.co.uk)
4 x Corsair 1GB XMS2 Mem £80.00 (www.overclockers.co.uk)
2 x Samsung 320GB Hard Disk £104.00 (www.overclockers.co.uk)
Total: £520.00
I hope this has helped you if you’re currently looking around for a low cost ESX test server. Please leave any comments or questions.
UPDATE: Check out my blog article here on installing VMware ESX 3i 3.5 on an ML110 G5.
UPDATE: I have had a number of queries regarding the NIC and the onboard disk controller running with ESX. I am currently creating an article that outlines what revisions (eg: G4, G5) of the ML110 and ML115 are fully compatible with ESX (v3.5) and those that aren’t or where there are tweaks or a work around. Here is a link to my temporary blog posting - whilst I compile this information. Check back soon or add me to your RSS feed to be notified when I finish the final article.
Technorati Tags: vm,vmware,esx,v3.5,3.5,cheap,white box,server,test,virtual,virtualisation,build,hp,proliant,ml110,e200,e200i
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March 14th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
[...] has posted a nice article on his ML110 ESX test server, nice alternative to my D530 approach, he’s got a few more disks than I [...]
ike said:March 16th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Very useful article!
I am planning to purchase a ML110 G5 server to run ESX 3.5 hope I don’t have to get the HP e200i Array controllers
How many VMs are you running? What is the performance like?
Preetam said:March 18th, 2008 at 6:47 am
First thanks very much for leaving comment on my website so that other people come to know such a neat article. I found it very helpful. It is going to help lot many like us.
I would like to know how many nics did the server had. Another thing which i was looking was to make ESX cluster. In case you know how to make that cheaper.
- Preetam
Kiwi Si said:March 19th, 2008 at 12:50 am
Hi ike,
To be honest at the moment I’m only running a couple of VM’w on it as I haven’t had time to spin up any others. I hope to get some time to do this and some speed bench marking this weekend. I’ll publish my results.
The performance from the two VM’s I’m running so far has nice and responsive. They are both W2K3 Enterprise. I’ll get some bench marking software up and running to assist in getting a better idea of overall performance.
Simon
iKE said:March 19th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Hi Simon
Looking forward to see your benchmark results.
Currently HP is doing a promo if you purchase any ML110 G4 or G5 you can double your memory for free
http://www.hp.co.uk/proliantcpuandmemory/
-iKE
Kiwi Si said:March 26th, 2008 at 1:23 am
I have come across a very cheap deal on brand new HP Proliant ML115’s (AMD) which apparently can run VMWare v3.5
Check out my blog article here for more details: http://www.techhead.co.uk/hot-hp-proliant-ml115-amd-g4-deal
Build Your Own Cheap VMWare ESX Server for $751 or Less | Buffalope.com said:June 22nd, 2008 at 9:56 pm
[...] of other people doing the same thing: http://www.vmweekly.com/articles/cheap-esx-server-hardware/1/ http://www.techhead.co.uk/building-a-low-cost-cheap-vmware-esx-test-server This guy found the same motherboard: [...]
Trevor said:June 25th, 2008 at 2:51 am
Hi,
I went the D530 route. 3 machines off ebay for $95AUD each, P4-2.6s.
2 are used for the ESX cluster, 1 used for Openfiler iSCSI storage.
Added 500GB SATA to Openfiler - $100AUD
Added 2GB of RAM to each of the ESX servers (2.5GB each total) - $160AUD
Added Linksys SLM2005 VLAN switch - $110AUD
Works a treat for $700AUD, have between 4-6 VMs running, with VMotion, DRS and HA.
titn003 said:June 28th, 2008 at 6:02 am
Techhead - There are a few people who have written that they have had problems with the nics using thse ML 110 & vmware.
eg
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/VMWare/Q_23437339.html
Any ideas why this is the case for some people ?
Call for Information! Compiling details on VMware ESX compatibility with HP Proliant ML110 and Ml115’s models. | said:July 10th, 2008 at 12:33 am
[...] controller and onboard NIC’s work just fine under v3.5. See my previous blog article here for more [...]
kiwi si said:July 12th, 2008 at 1:18 am
I am trying to install 3.5 and 3i in a ML110 without sucess.
tomier said:The ML110 has a Broadcon 5721.
2.5 Gb of RAM
160 SATA Disk
It is amost identical to your configuration.
I get an error DHCP lookup failed.
The server is expecting either for me to enter F2 or F11 but the keyboard does not respond at all.
I also try an USB with 3i that is booting in an old Pethium 4 but not in the ML110.
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advanc,
July 12th, 2008 at 5:06 am
Kiwi Si,
Goldencascade said:Could you please confirm if your embedded Nic is NC320i? As I look into mine Ml110 the NIC is a Broadcom 5721 Gigabit NIC (embedded) 10/100/1000 WOL (Wake on LAN). As I read the specifics HP uses the NC320i in ML115 with AMD processors.
I am having problems with the instalation of both 3i and 3.5 and I am under the impression that it is related to the NIC driver.
Your support will be highly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
July 12th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Dear,
Im trying to instal VM Ware 3.5.0 ESX on HP ML110 G5, im getting an error “The Installer could not find any supporting Network Devices”
Pls guide me
1. Is that the issue of NIC (embedded PCI Experss)
2. Is VM Ware ESX 3.5.0 wont support HP ML 110 G5
Thanks
Kiwi Si said:July 12th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Hi,
Unfortunately the onboard NIC in the ML110 G5 is not compatible with ESX v3.5. You’ll need to purchase a compatible NIC such as the Intel Pro.
Here is a link to the ESX v3.5 I/O compatibility guide:
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi35_io_guide.pdf
The ML110 G4 model has a compatible card but unfortunately HP changed the NIC chipset between the G4 and G5 revisions.
I picked up a cheap dual port Intel Pro NIC from EBay.
Hope this helps,
Simon
Hot HP Proliant ML115 (AMD) G4 Deal | said:July 13th, 2008 at 11:26 am
[...] can’t vouch for the ML115 as I have never owned one but my ML110 G4 server works great for my VMWare ESX test [...]
kiwi si said:July 13th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Thanks Kiwi Si,
Perhaps I opmited that my ML110 is a G4 with 2 GB RAM.I only have the SATA disk now.
Kiwi Si said:I also learned that NC320i is the HP OEM for Broadcom 5721, however it my have a different Chipset. Anyway I just put in an INTEl Pro E1000 1 GB ethernet that is fully supported. No changes what so ever. So by reading your specs th only difference with your ML110 is the HP Smart Array.
I just got this ML110 from Ebay so I tested the ML110 with Ubuntu8 and worked fine
When installing the 3i from a USB I can only get to the screen where it says http://0.0.0.0 and I can not do neither F2 nor F12.
Then I try using ESX 3.5, I can select
Disk ATA FB160c4081 SCSI/ATA 149 GB.
it seems that it is installing Ok but it will stop at 99%. When I try again I can get to the same point but remains at 0%.
I try to find the log. The only change that I have done to the BIOS was to enable the Intel VT parameter. My understanding is that 3.5 supports Local Disk SATA and I don’t need any SCSI devices (true in the past for 3.1.0 but not for 3.5? please let me know if I am wrong?)
I also try to run a 3.1.0 but as expected due to the lack of support of SATA disk, however interesting enough it ask me to choose either the Broadcom or the Intel Pro drive.
Is there a particular BIOS level I am using BIOS 00 07/10/2007
Do you recommend a particular BIOS setting?
Please HELP!! and take me out of my misery
July 17th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Hi there,
Apoloigies for the delay in getting back to you.
I have had a look at both my HP ML110 G4’s and can confirm that they are running a later BIOS revision to yours. Mine are dated 07/20/2007 (010) which is the next BIOS update after yours.
Looking at the ‘Fix List’ on my BIOS revision there isn’t mention of any fixes that may be related to the problems you’re experiencing though I guess it may be worth upgrading just in case.
The latest Firmware update file is named
SP36639.exe and can be download from the usual HP location.
I’ve had a look at the NIC chipset on the system boards and can also confirm that mine is the Broadcom 5721 - I find that ESX v3.5.1 picks it up and uses it just fine.
If you can forward your v3.5.1 log through I’ll try and take a look.
Let me know how you get on after upgrading the Firmware.
Simon
Kevin said:July 18th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Hey Simon,
Great blog, thanks! I need to get VMWare going too, will need to help the VMware admin here at work and a jumpstart would definitely help. Trevor’s setup with ESX cluster sounds cool, if I can get my hands on a couple of DL530s or similar.
Question for any of you VMware folks though, is there a non-commericial or test-type license that’s “cheaper”? I think the ESX demo/eval is free for 60 days. Are you guys going with the 60 day or is there an option that I’m not aware of.
Thanks,
Kevin
George said:July 20th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Hey guys, nice article, I also have a bit of a problem.
I setup ESX with my ML110 G4 and really needed to VM Server 2003 64 bit, but it’s saying my CPU is not compatible. I heard about having to enable the VT option in BIOS but that option is not there, and my BIOS revision is up to date.
Any information will be appreciated, thank you.
Kiwi Si said:July 20th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Hi George,
The VT option can be found in the following location within the BIOS:
Press F10 –> enter BIOS –> Advanced –> Advanced Processor Options –> Intel (R) Virtualization Technology –> ‘Enable’ this setting.
Then ‘Exit Saving Changes’
Your ML110 should now have VT enabled.
Let me know how you get on.
Cheers,
Simon
George said:July 20th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Hello Kiwi,
I did go into these options, but VR is not there. The CPU in the ML110 is a D915 2.8 Dual Core. Do you think it is not supported? If not is there any other way I can VM a 64-bit OS?
Thanks.
George said:July 21st, 2008 at 12:07 am
VT I mean.
Kiwi Si said:July 21st, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Hi George,
Unfortunately the Intel D915 doesn’t have VT functionaility built into the chip so x64 OS’s won’t be possible.
Here is a chart from Intel outlining what models in the ‘D’ range have ‘VT’:
http://www.intel.com/products/processor_number/chart/pentium_d.htm
Sorry it’s not better news.
Simon
Kiwi Si said:July 21st, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Hi Kevin,
I just use the 60 eval license in my home lab. I have a scripted build that I deploy again when I want to rebuild the environment.
Unfortunately I don’t know of any cost effective way of purchasing a license - apart from purchasing the entry level foundation edition of ESX.
George said:July 22nd, 2008 at 12:28 am
Hello Kiwi,
Yeah I did some reseach and confirmed my fears. I’ll have to purchase something like a Xeon 3050 to be able to use VT. Thanks for the assistance though.
VMware ESX Lab - Installing ESX on an ML110 G4 | said:July 30th, 2008 at 12:37 am
[...] have had a good response from my article on building a VMware test/lab environment running on a HP ML110 G4. There does however seem to be some confusion in the VM ESX [...]
Jonas Back said:July 31st, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Now with 3i being available for free, have you successfully installed it on ML115? I only get the error during CD installation that it can’t find supported HW so the installation cannot continue.
» Using the HP ML115 as a Test Server said:August 9th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
[...] ML115, but I’ll post more about that when I’ve done it but in the meantime checkout the TechHead Blog on this particular topic. Also, check out Dave Sobel’s blog for some great real world [...]
Nathan said:August 14th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
ML110 G5 - From ebuyer at a bargain £111 and succesfuly running ESX 3.5 U2 on the server.
Cost a total of £209 with 4Gb of HP Ram
Important steps.
1. With BIOS at the defaults install ESX 3.5 Update 2 (Do not configure SATA Raid its not compatible)
2. After the install enter the bios and change SATA to SATA and enable VT
3. Using a VI Client create VMFS partition
I can confirm the SATA controller works and the onboard NIC works only with ESX 3.5 Update 2
Nathan Perkins said:August 15th, 2008 at 1:27 am
“Nathan said:
August 14th, 2008 at 9:37 pm .. I can confirm the SATA controller works and the onboard NIC works only with ESX 3.5 Update 2″
I have an ML110G4 with the embedded Sata, and have experienced the 99% hang with ESXi, and just installed ESX3.5 on the RAID set, but on reboot, didn’t find a bootable disk.
Your instructions in Step 2 suggest to change SATA to SATA, is this a mistake and did you mean to turn on the RAID after the initial install?
Has anyone got the embedded SATA running in a RAID configuration to provide disk mirroring and running ESXi3.5 or ESX3.5?
Mick said:August 15th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
You can use embedded SATA RAID only with supported OS + drivers, so not with ESX. You can take them as modern version “winmodems” for RAID. You can use these SATA’s in native-mode with no RAID.
Nathan said:August 15th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Im using an ML110 G5 could net get ESX to install with RAID configured as it was unable to see any disks, After looking through the VMWare forums its seems the Intel ICH9 SATA controller in the G5 will only work in SATA mode without RAID.
I also found I need ESX 3.5 update 2 for the ICH9 SATA driver without update 2 the SATA was seen as IDE not SCSI as required by VMFS
Step 2: refers to changing the SATA mode in the BIOS from AUTO to SATA not sure if the G4 has the same chipset as the G5.
Kiwi Si said:August 15th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Hi all,
Mick: That’s a really good way of describing the onboard SATA - as a “winmodem” type equivalent. That’ll make it easier for others to understand.
Nathan: Thanks for the good information your ML110 G5 experiences with the RAID. I will be installing ESXi 3.5 onto one of my ML110’s this weekend. I not envisaging any problems as both Storage Controller and NIC worked fine under ESX v3.5 - though I guess you never know.
Thanks all for your great comments - keep them coming.
Simon
Bemen said:August 15th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
My ML110 G5 hangs when I try to install ESXi. It works fine with ESX (using an intel pro card) so I have no idea yet how to fix it. When the countdown for Automatic boot reaches 1 the system locks up. If someone finds a solution, please share it here!
Bemen
Claudio said:August 22nd, 2008 at 3:05 pm
ML110 G5 hangs on install i think for serial ATA cdrom.
If you install ESXi on other host, then move hard disk to G5 (with default BIOS and SATA settings on SATA not in AUTO as previous post)…
…works like a charm :-))
Claudio
thomas said:August 31st, 2008 at 6:53 am
Tried ESX 3i 3.5 Update 2 on a ML110 G4 … no success
- ML110 G4, BIOS 010, Intel Dual Core 925 CPU (no VT setting in BIOS).
- 8 GB RAM, 2 * 500 GB SATA HDD
Tried all possible disk settings combinations, always freezes at the install screen.
Any suggestions greatfull recieved?