Used server suggestions
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I am looking to use xcp-ng with Xen on a used server to play with in my home lab. Any recommendations for a good used machine?
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XCP-ng pretty much works on a good chunk of hardware.
- Before I switched, I did a validation test with an old Optiplex with a 3rd gen i5.
- Some on here use mini PCs.
- I’d be cautious, and probably avoid, modern Intel CPUs that use hybrid P (performance) and E (Efficiency) cores. Xen doesn’t work great with them.
- You can also use pretty much all server hardware. person favorites are the R720, and R730, although they’re starting to show some age
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@drewq HP DL360/DL380 G8 and newer are good, but not great for the home lab as the are rather loud and power hungry. Dell PowerEdge R620/R720 or newer are in the same age range (Xeon E5). Don't go older than the Xeon E5 v1 CPU. Enterprise servers normally have full remote management too.
For older desktops, the HP EliteDesk 800 G3 is a nice and cost effective unit. You can get it as an i5/i7 7th gen Intel Core CPU with UEFI boot and NVMe drive option (on most versions). The mini tower (TWR) has a lot of options for growth and testing. I use one all the time as a test machine. It's cheap enough that you don't need to buy an older box. HP is still updating the BIOS for them!
There are a lot of small desktops under $100USD ready to go. You'll want to add memory as windows desktops only need 8G but you'll want at least 16G for XCP (32G is better) so you can run several VMs at the same time.
For newer smaller units, the Intel NUC10/11 are nice units. There are many small AMD boxes as well. Avoid the small cheap low performance CPU systems. They look nice but will be dog slow for VMs.
Don't buy a newer Intel 12th Gen Core CPU system as they have the P/E cores and are not a good choice for a XCP system. They will work but you are also spending more just because they are newer machines.
It all depends on your budget.... (you should get 3 machines and a NAS and 10G networking and a full rack and big UPS...)
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The 13th gen dells (like R530, 730, etc) are at a great price point right now. And we have several in our office lab running xcp-ng with loads of vms that change daily.
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It might be worth noting that you can get some pretty decent used Threadripper parts online and build your own machines for XCP-ng, this is what I've done in my lab and it's been great (well some used that I bought online, some are from my old desktops), you get high core counts and close to server level hardware without spending quite as much.
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@drewq Your choice depends on what you want to play around with. To explore 10G, different physical network scenarios (like seperate management, VM/storage motion, VM traffic, VM backup or out of band management networks) or GPU passthrough, you can start with something like a 8th to 12th generation Dell SFF or MT with vPro.
I actually use four Dell 9010 with Intel i5-3550 CPU @ 3.30GHz CPUs and 32GB RAM in my playlab (three XCP-ng hosts, one TrueNAS host). These 3rd generation systems are already very old, but they are also very cheap on ebay and you can tinker a lot with virtualization. If you need more memory or expansion options, a workstation or server is the better choice. I personally like the Dell Poweredge R720 or R730 series.
My home production cluster lives on two HP ProDesk 600 G6 host with a 10th generation CPU, 64GB RAM and a 128GB SSD for XCP-ng and 2TB NVMe for local SR each. In everyday life, the single 1G network card is not a real drawback for me and I can use VLANs to create different networks. Unfortunatly, the HPs vPro only support SOL and not KVM and that is a real shame.
For general information on used server /r/homelab is also a good starting point. But be prepared for some "watch your power bill" or "space heater" comments though.
Edit: @Virtual recommended the MS-01 and you can find good and detailed reviews by Craft Computing or ServeTheHome on YT.
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Thank you for the input. I am kind of partial to the dell power edge series myself. Sounds like that would be the best option going forward.
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@drewq said in Used server suggestions:
Thank you for the input. I am kind of partial to the dell power edge series myself. Sounds like that would be the best option going forward.
Also aim for Gold or Platinum (preferably Platinum) efficiency PSUs where possible. Taking into account the wattage of the PSU and the hardware's requirements and also considering whether the PSU will be upgraded for future hardware growth.
The higher efficiency hardware will mean that it will use less power when in operation.
The efficiency ratings range from No Rating (or a minimum of Bronze) up to a rating of Platinum (the highest).
Checkout this https://breadnet.co.uk/ as its a fellow home lab user.
