[superblades]

Hi All,

Ive just recently purchased an N40L Microserver and upgraded to 8gb RAM, a HD5450 graphics card and added a 2TB HD alonside the stock 250gb.

I'll explain what im trying to achieve and maybe someone can help and suggest if a) its possible b) it will work c) any advice / guidance to help me on my quest

I want to setup the Microserver as a VM server (ESXI?) so that i can have the following:

VM for Windows 7 (XBMC, Couchpotato, sickbeard, SABNZBD etc or should i put couchpotato / sickbeard sab on another VM?) I want to use the server also as a media centre connected to my tv.
VM for MYSQL for XBMC server.
VM for a file server (Samba? Grayhole? or something else?)

I want to be able to access the content on the microserver from any other XBMC install around the house or remotely on an iOS, Raspberry Pi or A.N.Other device etc.

I will use the stock 250gb for the VMs and the 2tb for the data/media. Should i also use a USB flash drive for the ESXI install or can i just do this on the 250gb?

Ideally i want to be able to add additional hard drives in the future and pool them (seen something called greyhole that might do this?)

Any help would be great as there are so many tutorials but pinning them all together to achieve what im trying to achieve (and if its at all possible) is becoming a nightmare!

Regards

Superblades[/align]

[artrafael]

Please don't double-post the same questions in the same forum. I'm deleting your duplicate thread.

[ScotchTape]

Hi,

Some questions came my mind:
why a dedicated vm for MySQL as MySQL is very easy to dump and backup
Why windows 7 and not WHS 2011 or Linux?

For me it looks over complicated but doable, depending on your skills

[Polydwarf]

FYI, I tried the same sort of thing with the n40 microserver. It worked fine for ESXi, but the big issue is that it doesn't support IOMMU, so you won't be able to pass through any devices (which makes running XBMC in a VM a no-go).

I ended up installing Linux on the bare metal, though, and it's fine for everything I need (which is pretty much everything you asked for in all the vm's, except xbmc). Mine does:

1. Sick/Couch/Sab
2. Transmission (torrent)
3. MDADM Raid5 array
4. Samba server (which serves up the MDADM array)
5. Mysql
6. KVM hosting an Asterisk virtual server
7. Network printer
8. Apache (very light usage)

The rest of the XBMC devices in the house use 4+5 for sync'd library.

Anyways, I installed linux to a usb stick, which is plugged into the USB port that's internal to the box (which is insanely handy, since I don't have to waste a SATA slot). There can be hiccups sometimes when it has to go hit the USB stick for something, but it's fine for me. Running something truly interactive on it, like XBMC, would probably be annoying with the USB lag.


With Linux, at least, it can do everything you want to do without going the ESXi route (granted, you may just want to play with ESXi, which I can respect ) I don't actually know what kind of video card is on the motherboard, but if worse comes to worst, you should be able to drop a cheap nvidia card in and go from there.

[superblades]

Thanks all, ive got to go down the WIN 7 route and not Linux as my graphics is ATI 5450 and i want Netflix access - ive been told ATI arent great with linux and Netflix doesnt work? plus im pretty much a newb when it comes to linux o

Thanks for the info RE IOMMU i didnt realise that, not really looked into WHS 2011 to be honest!

I think i might just go down the WHS or WIN 7 and just install everything on the O/S.

I only wanted to seperate the VMs to make backup and restore easier if i ever needed to move them onto a new machine etc.

Polydwarf you were correct in your assumption though i did want to play with ESXi

Thanks all again

Superblades

---

Ive just done a bit of googling and it seems IOMMU is now supported in ESXi 4.1?

---

Please don't double-post the same questions in the same forum. I'm deleting your duplicate thread.

Apologies this was a slip of the finger hence the subject being 'Mic'

Regards

Superblades

[Hitcher]

HotUKDeals?

[charlie0440]

Ive just done a bit of googling and it seems IOMMU is now supported in ESXi 4.1?

Your microserver does not have IOMMU (as Polydwarf said)

[Polydwarf]

Ive just done a bit of googling and it seems IOMMU is now supported in ESXi 4.1?

Your microserver does not have IOMMU (as Polydwarf said)

Ayup.. looking back, now I see what the confusion was... By "it" I meant "the microserver", not esxi. As noted, esxi supports vt-d/iommu (although, as with everything that's on the esxi not-officially-supported list, it can be a tossup whether it'll actually work)