Inexpensive server for ESXi (win2008r2, freebsd)?

Question

VMware

The budget is up to 30k, a domain (60 users) will be spinning on a screw server, proxying on a fryaha.
I think to take either a ready-made server, or to assemble it myself ... what do you advise?

Answer 1

Better not ESXi, but hyper-v. You will simply have noticeable limitations in the free ESXi license, and under hyper-v you will have a plus - excellent integration with win2008R2.
Fryakhu, however, did not run under hyper-v. But I would change it to centOS for the sake of this.
As a result, 30k can be completely met, because. the domain does not demand especially, the gateway too. And hyper-v will pull any hardware, unlike ESXi, which has a much narrower list.
If ESXi is all the same, then take a motherboard from Intel and ESXi will get along well with it.
It is better to check iron for compatibility on the vmware website in advance.

Answer 2

If you choose, pay attention to two things: a RAID controller (under the datastore for machines, ESXi itself will become both SATA and flash) and take an Intel network one. Everything else is not so important.
Here: www.vm-help.com/esx40i/esx40_whitebox_HCL.php there is a rather large list of officially unsupported, but proven hardware for ESXi.

Answer 3

These services will not give a special load, but they need stability in the first place. So it's better to take branded hardware labeled "VMware Ready". In 30 thousand, the truth will be very problematic to fit in.

Answer 4

If you don't make a file cleaner out of a domain controller, then any raid controller from HCL that can RAID 1 is quite suitable, this one will cost <$300.
As an alternative idea, you can look towards cheap NAS (capable of NFS or iSCSI), from the VMware Certified list, for example from Iomega or Synology + diskless server with flash.