Homelab the current state

It’s time for a new update about my new Homelab. In the past I was running HP Microserver 2x N40L and 1x Gen8. All these machines are still here but no longer in use and will be for sale soon. My new Homelab contains now 2x HP ML10v2, 1x Zyxel 16 Gbit Switch, 1x Lenovo ix4-300d storage.

2x Server HP ML10 v2: HP ProLiant ML10 v2 G3240-Server (nicht Hot-Plug-fähig, 4 GB-U, B120i, 4 LFF, 350-W-Netzteil)
2x SSD adapter per Server: Kingston SNA-DC2/35 SATA DriveCarrier Einbaurahmen für 6,4 cm (2,5 Zoll) bis 8,9 cm (3,5 Zoll) schwarz
Memory: Samsung 8GB (1x 8GB) DDR3 1600MHz (PC3 12800E) 2Rx8 ECC Unbuffered Dimm Server Workstation Arbeitsspeicher RAM Memory
1x Zyxel 16 Port Gbit Switch: Zyxel GS1100-16-EU0101F Gigabit Switch (16-Port, RJ-45)
1x Lenovo ix4-300d Storage: Lenovo Iomega ix4-300d Network Storage (0TB Diskless EMEA, Marvell Armada TM XP, 1,3GHz, 4x HDD, 512MB RAM)
2x HP Quad Network adapter: HP 538696-B21 PCI-e Quad Port Gigabit Server Adapter
2x Intel SSD 240GB: Intel SSDSC2BW240H601 interner Solid State Drive 240GB schwarz
4x WD RED 2TB: WD 2TB Red interne NAS-Festplatte (8,9 cm (3,5 Zoll), 5400rpm, SATA III) WD20EFRX

I have installed vSphere 6 on my servers. The Lenovo storage is providing 2 iSCSI targets to fulfil the requirement of 2 shared datastores for HA. Both datastores are part of an SDRS cluster. Besides this I have created a cluster which has HA and DRS enabled. On the network side I have created 3 standard vSwitches each with 2 Gbit network adapters. vSwitch0 is for the virtual machine traffic. vSwitch1 is for iSCSI and vSwitch2 is for VMotion. Yes I know thats a bit the old school way of networking but hey thats only my Homelab so a dvSwitch with Network IO control should not be required. A simple setup is sufficient for Homelab use. Maybe in the future I’m going to change it but that will have to wait until the next vSphere release.

So whats next?

Next will be to setup vRealize Operations Manager 6.3 to improve my troubleshooting knowledge of this product. Additionally I have an idea about how to simplify the troubleshooting and improve the supportability of the product. But this is a different topic. Today I’m going to install the lastest ESXi patches and check for upgrades of my vCenter appliance.

More to come …