suggestions on a cost-conscious home server build, for a home network lab.

[firstserverpcbuild]

This is being used for educational purposes. To possibly obtain certications.
I would like some suggestions on server software, inexpensive wardware to start out with and add as budget will permit if possible.

Purposes:
Experience with networking, raid 5, and servers

Optional educational purposes:
Experience with web hosting, virtual operating systems, home/office media storage and anything else that I can learn with it.

P.S. can you have a raid 5 set up and only run one hd at first and add hd's later?

Thanks for any help possible.

 

[dbhosttexas]

Operating system suggestion?That depends. what certifications do you want to obtain? Personally I would go with CentOS.

Hardware wise it all depends on what you have already, and what you are trying to accomplish. I went a little bit big, but not too bad. I am honing networking skills as I go along as I do not do much networking work on the job any more. I do NOT want to get rusty...

I am using a small lab for my study / practice work, 2 @ Quad Core Phenom II boxes. MSI mainbaords etc... They were Tiger Direct barebones boxes. RAM not counted, I have less than $300.00 in each box. They are set up with 32GB DDR3 RAM, 1TB HDDs, onboard gigabit NIC, and inexpensive Intel Pro 1000 dual port NIC each. They connect to 3 switches. A 16 port gigabit LAN switch, and 2 8 port gigabit SAN dedicated switches for iSCIS SAN.

For the iSCSI SAN, a SAN filer head was made out of an old single core Athlon 64 SFF PC with 2GB RAM, eSATA controller, Rosewill RSV-S8 enclosure with currently 4 2TB HDDs in RAID 4, I have room to add another 4 when budget allows).

To mimic an enterprise environment, and like I said, keep my networking / cabling skills sharp, not to mention grow my home network to something much less reliant on WiFi, I got my hands on an inexpensive relay rack, and mounted up that 16 port gigabit switch, a 16 port category 6 patch panel, an 8 port usb / ps2 KVM, a couple of rack shelves which hold a Buffalo WZR-600DHP DD-WRT router, 3TB USB 2.0/3.0 HDD, Zoom 5341J cable modem, the two 8 port gigabit desktop switches I am using for iSCSI SAN fabric switches, and an Obi100 SAN adapter.

The pair of quad core servers are running as a virtualization cluster. I have a server 2008r2 instance running as a member server, SAMBA 4 domain controller, Apache and IIS servers, etc...

Yes I have some bucks wrapped up into it, but consider this. My wife is in I.T. as well, as is my brother in law. An average Red Hat certification course, just the class itself, costs around $3K, and I have far less in my network than that... Plus that Red Hat course typically is one of at least 2, sometimes 3 or 4, that you will need to get through to get your certification if you can't set up a practice lab. Plus it only benefits one person. In case, we figured we could afford to between the RHEL cert stuff for me, the CompTIA stuff for my wife, and the Cisco / Microsoft cert stuff for my brother in law, whom we split costs with, we can afford to drop about $9K (one class per person cost), and still come out TONS of cash ahead. Plus we aren't limited to just one certification, and we are ready to expand, or modify as tech changes...

If you would like more detailed information on my setup, PM me, I can give you a list of what I have setup, how much it cost, and why I picked it... That might help, might not, who knows?

 

[firstserverpcbuild]

Operating system suggestion?That depends. what certifications do you want to obtain? Personally I would go with CentOS.

Hardware wise it all depends on what you have already, and what you are trying to accomplish. I went a little bit big, but not too bad. I am honing networking skills as I go along as I do not do much networking work on the job any more. I do NOT want to get rusty...

I am using a small lab for my study / practice work, 2 @ Quad Core Phenom II boxes. MSI mainbaords etc... They were Tiger Direct barebones boxes. RAM not counted, I have less than $300.00 in each box. They are set up with 32GB DDR3 RAM, 1TB HDDs, onboard gigabit NIC, and inexpensive Intel Pro 1000 dual port NIC each. They connect to 3 switches. A 16 port gigabit LAN switch, and 2 8 port gigabit SAN dedicated switches for iSCIS SAN.

For the iSCSI SAN, a SAN filer head was made out of an old single core Athlon 64 SFF PC with 2GB RAM, eSATA controller, Rosewill RSV-S8 enclosure with currently 4 2TB HDDs in RAID 4, I have room to add another 4 when budget allows).

To mimic an enterprise environment, and like I said, keep my networking / cabling skills sharp, not to mention grow my home network to something much less reliant on WiFi, I got my hands on an inexpensive relay rack, and mounted up that 16 port gigabit switch, a 16 port category 6 patch panel, an 8 port usb / ps2 KVM, a couple of rack shelves which hold a Buffalo WZR-600DHP DD-WRT router, 3TB USB 2.0/3.0 HDD, Zoom 5341J cable modem, the two 8 port gigabit desktop switches I am using for iSCSI SAN fabric switches, and an Obi100 SAN adapter.

The pair of quad core servers are running as a virtualization cluster. I have a server 2008r2 instance running as a member server, SAMBA 4 domain controller, Apache and IIS servers, etc...

Yes I have some bucks wrapped up into it, but consider this. My wife is in I.T. as well, as is my brother in law. An average Red Hat certification course, just the class itself, costs around $3K, and I have far less in my network than that... Plus that Red Hat course typically is one of at least 2, sometimes 3 or 4, that you will need to get through to get your certification if you can't set up a practice lab. Plus it only benefits one person. In case, we figured we could afford to between the RHEL cert stuff for me, the CompTIA stuff for my wife, and the Cisco / Microsoft cert stuff for my brother in law, whom we split costs with, we can afford to drop about $9K (one class per person cost), and still come out TONS of cash ahead. Plus we aren't limited to just one certification, and we are ready to expand, or modify as tech changes...

If you would like more detailed information on my setup, PM me, I can give you a list of what I have setup, how much it cost, and why I picked it... That might help, might not, who knows?

[Wow that is impressive, I Hope to have a set up like that one day. All I have so far is

• 
  Old dell desktop running windows XP pro
  old laptop running vista
  printer

]

Im currently studding for comptia A+ and planning for network certs as well but no sure what operating system to go with yet, would WHS help for now or do i need to buy windows server 2012 to get any real experience that would help with certs, or should I go with lynux and try mixed operating systems?

I was thinking of
Cooler Master HAF 912 mid tower
Thermaltake TR2 700w
GA-Z77-HD3 LGA 1155
3rd Gen Ivy Bridge i5 quad core 3350
16 gig ram ddr3 (for now)
1 500 gig hdd for operating system and apps
4 1tb hdd for storage on a raid 5 ( to start out I would like to just use the 500 gig until budget allows if I can)

Im not sure about the mother board and cpu if I can go lighter and cheaper or not.
I hope to try some virtualization for diferent os maybe stream movies and host a website. but my main thing is getting networking skills.

What do you think about the list for now.

Thanks again. as you can tell I have a lot to learn

 

[dbhosttexas]

That gives me a much better idea of where you are at...

#1. Hardware. I personally prefer to buy AMD barebones kits due to cost concerns. Performance per dollar is just impossible for Intel to beat. Look at Tigerdirect and Newegg.com for affordable AMD based barebones kits.

On the Windows end of things...
In the typical enterprise environment you will find a lot of Windows XP still knocking around, and Windows 7, what you do not see much of is Vista, or 8, and for very good reasons. For servers, 2003 is still out there, but like XP, is being phased out, fast. Server 2008 is really the big thing you see in production. Adoption of server 2012 has been very slow. I suspect it will be the Vista of server operating systems.

On the Linux / Unix side of things...
The undisputed king of U.S. Enterprise class Linux is Red Hat Enterprise Linux, however it comes with support subscription fees that would gag a goat... For non production / learning purposes, I would use a distribution based on recompiling the GPL source code from Red Hat. The most common are CentOS and Scientific Linux. Oracle also recompiles RHEL and resells it at a lower cost than Red Hat, and with some tweaks specifically tuned for database work. Not something I would give serious looks into... I personally use and like CentOS.

The runner up in the U.S. and king of European enterprise Linux is SuSe from Novell. Their Open SuSe product is freely available, and will let you get your feet wet with that distribution.

The big contender is Ubuntu. Many third party enterprise class software vendors are now supporting Ubuntu as well as RHEL and SuSe.

You say you want to more or less master A+ (mostly IT generalist stuff) and Network+. Those are good certifications, but honestly you can get through then by reading a book. If you want to ace the test, and really impress an interviewer for a job, you need to have your hands on the type of stuff you will be working with in the field. Even if it is SOHO oriented gear, you should be able to prove skills in the following areas.

#1. Desktop administration, and troubleshooting. This means installing, patching, adding software and drivers to, user administration, file system administration, security etc...

#2. Server administration. Same as Desktop administration, but add administration of network services, distributed file systems (SAN / NAS), and server services such as web server, file server, database, directory services etc... I do not know if A+ covers clustering, I somewhat doubt it, but check the CompTIA website to verify... I know in the real world, clusters and virtualization are huge...

#3. Network administration. Everything from the physical build, to enabling network services such as DNS, DHCP, Firewalling, VPN, etc...

I know it seems like an awful lot to absorb all at once. Like I mention above, get the book for the test you want to master, and aim your study around that. I am presently working on my RHCE, with an eye toward RHCSA, (Already have A+, Linux+, RHCSA, MCP, and a stack of Brainbench certs...). It is kind of like eating an elephant, Do it one bite at a time...

Mind you, not that I want more competition in the job market, but I have to be honest here. Windows guys are a dime a dozen, super easy to come by, so the don't command the bucks UNIX / Linux admins do. If I were just starting out again, I would be aiming toward Linux certifications as quickly as I could master them... It has served me well and helped me make a decent living for my family...

 

[firstserverpcbuild]

Thank you so much, very helpul.

Am I off base trying to save money by doing one server for file storage, web server and virtualization of multiple operating systems. Now that you have expanded my vision, I think maybe I should work toward multiple systems. (clustering if I am correct)

Could you recommend the main features of the barebones kit from what I described that i would like to do?

I have a friend that said to do a work station with a big processor and a lot of ram. and set the servers as vm's ( virtual networks). What is your opinion on that? I think I might want to work toward all of the above.( virtual as well as physical)

If i was to do a cheap nas server what software do you recomend? and will windows and linux systems be able to use the nas? Still not sure what horse to ride, linux or windows.

Im starting to think that I should work toward, having on my network,
my two pc's,
printer,
a nas server, and later
web server,
and virtualization workstation for os's and networks.

Just to start I guess. What do you think?

Thanks again

 

[dbhosttexas]

The main features I am looking for in an AMD motherboard / barebones kit are...

#1. At least 4 cores @ 3ghz, 64 bit should be plenty obvious.
#2. 32 GB or better DDR3 or faster support.
#3. Virtualization support. Almost everything these days does, but better safe than sorry...
#4. Multiple PCIe slots. You want at least one for video, and two to three for add in network controllers, External RAID controllers etc...
#5. Minimum 500w Power supply. The quieter the better.
#6. Integrated graphics is okay, but barely. I prefer a stand alone graphics card with its own memory.
#7. Heat sink to match the CPU, and get some quality heat sink paste. Do NOT use the stuff that comes with OEM heat sinks. On AMD and Intel chips that come boxed with their own coolers, the paste typically fails within 6 months causing thermal problems. Spend the extra bucks and get a quality heat sink paste like the stuff Antec sells...
#8. Onboard gigabit ethernet controller. Dual port is better but avoid boards with 10/100 only. Too slow...
#9. SATA III controller on board. There is no excuse to buy a new board with SATA or SATA II controllers these days...

A single 8 core box with 32GB can handle virtualizing several servers, but may end up being kind of slow. Mind you, at work I still have old single core 63 bit 1 GB RAM Dell PowerEdge servers running a large Listserv server. But it is running RHEL without a GUI, and services stripped down pretty much down to if it is absolutely not neccessary, it is off, and if possible, uninstalled.

I studied with, and got my RHCSA using an AMD Athlon II x4 quad core I think 2.8 or 3GHZ, Biostar MB of some flavor, do not recall specific model, but it was using an Nforce chipset, add in Intel Pro1000 PCIe ethernet controller, 2@ 1TB Western digital HDDs, and 8GB DDR3. I have it set to dual boot Windows 7, and CentOS 6.4 now. I have 4 virtual machines built in With over provisioning, I can run all 4 at once, and as long as the load isn't too great, they respond no slower than say my CentOS 5.9 Athlon XP 3000+ 2GB 32 bit box does. (Yes I am still using some OLD legacy hardware...). However, due to where my work is taking me technology wise, I opted for the bigger, multi system approach as it allows me to run much more. Including like I mentioned previously, clustering. It also lets me get my hands on and elbows deep into the operation of the SAN. In my work that is handled by a different group from mine, so I don't get OTJ exposure to it like I would like...

On your idea, I would spend a little bit extra if you can, I don't know, on a pair of small gig switches, inexpensive dual port gig cards, and some inexpensive cable / ends etc... Learn to terminate cable BTW. That has been a heavily used skill in my career for sure! Anyway, you want to build a SAN if you can. Many employers are clamoring for people with SAN skills... NAS is good, but it puts the storage traffic on the same network as the rest of your network communications, slowing everything, including storage down. I have NAS on mine simply to serve DLNA services to the house. I know I pay a speed penalty for that. But it is a price I am willing to pay to get the huge stack of DVDs out of the living room and into a box in a closet...

You can run your web service from a virtual machine, you don't need a stand alone physical box for a web server.... To start with, one box big enough to run virtualization and host at least 2 or 3 VMs would be a good start! A pair big enough you can make a cluster, and prove to employers that you have clustering skills. Another area that pays well...