{"id":725,"date":"2011-01-23T23:30:11","date_gmt":"2011-01-24T06:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/?p=725"},"modified":"2011-01-24T10:45:30","modified_gmt":"2011-01-24T17:45:30","slug":"esxi-server-on-a-showstring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/?p=725","title":{"rendered":"ESXi Server on a shoestring"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A customer of mine asked me about setting a low cost ESXi server for them, and another customer may benefit from an ESXi server.\u00a0 On Thursday I purchased the parts to build one and begin building one.<\/p>\n<p>This was going to be a whitebox single processor so the licensing would be free.\u00a0 It would have 2 cores but licensing is based on sockets.<\/p>\n<p>So first stop was to Fry&#8217;s where I got<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>USB thumb drives (only needed one but got more) $12.99<\/li>\n<li>DDR3 8GB 1333 RAM $89.99<\/li>\n<li>AMD Athlon II X2 255 3.1Ghz Processor $64.99<\/li>\n<li>ASUS M4A785T-M<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Frys-Receipt-for-Flash-USB.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-727\" title=\"Frys Receipt for Flash USB\" src=\"http:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Frys-Receipt-for-Flash-USB-300x119.jpg\" alt=\"Frys Receipt for Flash USB\" width=\"216\" height=\"86\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Frys-Receipt-for-Flash-USB-300x119.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Frys-Receipt-for-Flash-USB.jpg 562w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 216px) 100vw, 216px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Frys-Receipt-for-Components.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-730\" title=\"Frys Receipt for Components\" src=\"http:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Frys-Receipt-for-Components-201x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"201\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Frys-Receipt-for-Components-201x300.jpg 201w, https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Frys-Receipt-for-Components.jpg 590w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 201px) 100vw, 201px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I also purchased a 500GB Hard drive which I later returned because I already had one.<\/p>\n<p>Next stop was RePC where I purchased a 450 Watt Power Supply for 17.95 and some drive bay panels (not really needed, got wrong on anyway).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/RePC-Power-Supply.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-731\" title=\"RePC Power Supply\" src=\"http:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/RePC-Power-Supply-300x178.jpg\" alt=\"RePC Power Supply\" width=\"300\" height=\"178\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/RePC-Power-Supply-300x178.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/RePC-Power-Supply.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I also previously purchased a USB plug which was on a bracket.\u00a0 I removed the bracket and zip tied it internally.\u00a0 If I recall, that part cost less than $2.00<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Whitebox-ESXi-Internal.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-732\" title=\"Whitebox ESXi Internal\" src=\"http:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Whitebox-ESXi-Internal-300x217.jpg\" alt=\"Whitebox ESXi Internal\" width=\"300\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Whitebox-ESXi-Internal-300x217.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Whitebox-ESXi-Internal.jpg 448w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I already had a case, and it is appropriate too, because it was beige, old school case.<\/p>\n<p>I also had a CD player, but I am going to remove it when I am done and after I find an appropriate Drive Bay Cover.\u00a0 If I were to by the CD drive and case, that would&#8217;ve added another $20 or $30 to the cost.\u00a0 I was going to use a new case I purchased, but it was not white \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Whitebox-ESXi.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-733\" title=\"Whitebox ESXi\" src=\"http:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Whitebox-ESXi.jpg\" alt=\"Whitebox ESXi\" width=\"448\" height=\"285\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Whitebox-ESXi.jpg 448w, https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Whitebox-ESXi-300x190.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 448px) 100vw, 448px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The final part was something I have had difficulty finding, and that is a NIC compatible with ESXi.\u00a0 Luckily, my buddy Rob, introduced my to a small hidden used shop.\u00a0 It is an interesting place.\u00a0 I did pay for 2 dual Gigabit NIC for a total of 4 ports.\u00a0 But unfortunately, when I got home, I realized one was a 100MB version.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Gigabit-NIC-3R-Tech.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-734\" title=\"Gigabit NIC 3R Tech\" src=\"http:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Gigabit-NIC-3R-Tech.jpg\" alt=\"Gigabit NIC 3R Tech\" width=\"465\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Gigabit-NIC-3R-Tech.jpg 465w, https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Gigabit-NIC-3R-Tech-300x241.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 465px) 100vw, 465px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Anyway, paid $48.00 hopefully I can get a refund on the other one, I did have another Single Port Gigabit card so I was able to use that.<\/p>\n<p>The interesting note regarding these cards is that they use a PCI-X format which is longer than the standard 32PCI you find at store.\u00a0 But they will work, you will not get 64bit bandwidth, but it still works.\u00a0 Also your motherboard needs to be able to accommodate the extra length<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/PCI-X-NIC.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-735\" title=\"PCI-X NIC\" src=\"http:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/PCI-X-NIC.jpg\" alt=\"PCI-X NIC\" width=\"640\" height=\"318\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/PCI-X-NIC.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/PCI-X-NIC-300x149.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I may have missed something big, but I don&#8217;t think so, stuff like a keyboard and monitor and stuff were not added to the cost because normally one does not sit in front of this machine.<\/p>\n<p>Here is the total cost<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_736\" style=\"width: 243px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Whitebox-ESXi-Cost-Breakdown.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-736\" class=\"size-full wp-image-736\" title=\"Whitebox ESXi Cost Breakdown\" src=\"http:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Whitebox-ESXi-Cost-Breakdown.jpg\" alt=\"Whitebox ESXi Cost Breakdown\" width=\"233\" height=\"241\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-736\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Whitebox ESXi Cost Breakdown<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Before Taxes, $370.65<\/p>\n<p>One thing to note is that I do have 2 more slots free to increase memory another 8GB.<\/p>\n<p>Today was a semi rest day, slowly but surely I am increasing my running distances and walking the rest.\u00a0 I think I did 1.25 miles and walked 1.75.<\/p>\n<p>What the hay, I weighed in for the heck of it.\u00a0 It is right after dinner and wearing long sleeve and sweat pants.<\/p>\n<p>Weight:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A customer of mine asked me about setting a low cost ESXi server for them, and another customer may benefit from an ESXi server.\u00a0 On Thursday I purchased the parts to build one and begin building one. This was going &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/?p=725\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,11,3,12,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-toys","category-technical","category-training","category-virtualization","category-weighin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=725"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":746,"href":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions\/746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}