Quick question: How much RAM for VMs usable?

[Chris Moore]

We have a large power plant just a couple miles from my home so the power isn't very expensive but I don't pay for it because of the deal I have with the property owner. If they decide that the consumption is two high, they might want to consider a change. They complained a few years ago when I had three high-end workstation computers running "Folding at Home" 24 hrs a day. That was an extra 1700 watts.

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[IceBoosteR]

We have a large power plant just a couple miles from my home so the power isn't very expensive but I don't pay for it because of the deal I have with the property owner. If they decide that the consumption is two high, they might want to consider a change. They complained a few years ago when I had three high-end workstation computers running "Folding at Home" 24 hrs a day. That was an extra 1700 watts.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

Awesome - and interesting to know. Never have heard of something similar in Germany btw.
1700W? Well, thats a lot. And I am complaining about 100 watts xD

 

[MrToddsFriends]

Unfortunately I have no exact numbers at hand but I would expect the power consumption of a (single socket) Xeon E5 board to be at least 30W higher (if not even more) than a Xeon E3 board. Both systems without data disks, same amount of RAM and CPU in idle. I'm rather sure that more exact numbers can be found e.g. on servethehome.com, anandtech.com or similar sites.

BTW: Be aware that Threadripper is a consumer platform, just like Ryzen. The AMD Zen server parts are called Epyc. While Supermicro produces a few single socket Epyc boards, I would not use such a board for FreeNAS (at least not now) because I'm not sure about the state of operating system support for these boards.

 

[Chris Moore]

Unfortunately I have no exact numbers at hand but I would expect the power consumption of a (single socket) Xeon E5 board to be at least 30W higher (if not even more) than a Xeon E3 board. Both systems without data disks, same amount of RAM and CPU in idle. I'm rather sure that more exact numbers can be found e.g. on servethehome.com, anandtech.com or similar sites.

Interestingly, when I wanted more memory than my old system could accommodate, I upgraded from a SuperMicro X9SCM-F (with Xeon E3) to a SuperMicro X9SRL-F (with Xeon E-5) so I can give you first hand information about the difference. I had a Xeon E3-1230 v2 (rated at 69 watts TDP) and upgraded to a Xeon E5-2650 v2 (rated at 95 watts TDP) but I also went from 32GB of memory to 64GB. I saw about 25 to 30 watts more draw from the system based on the UPS readout.

 

[IceBoosteR]

Guys - thanks a lot!
I am still thinking about a plattfrom downgrade, but a system upgrade.
I am not sure if I should move that path or not. Even when I look at the newer entry level from Intel, I do not see the golden way to solve what I like to have on my system. Nevertheless, how cool would a 20 thread system be? Awesome! :D
But I do think about the future, how long would I use this powerful system? Do I really need it?
I have also searched for a replacement of my two 4GB sticks, and upgrade them to 8GB sticks, but I do not find anything on ebay :/

So much thoughts about this^^

 

[Chris Moore]

Code:

Primary System (new hardware!):
Xeon E3-1225v3 | 24 GB ECC RAM | 10x 4TB WD Red in RAIDZ2 | Dell PowerEdge T20 Mobo | Seasonic Focus+ 650 Platinum | Nanoxia Deep Silence 6 Rev. B | FreeNAS 11.1-U4
ESXi host:
2x Xeon L5630 | 36 GB ECC RAM | HP Proliant DL360G6
Rendering/Video edit Server:
2x Xeon X5670 | 56GB ECC RAM | HP Proliant DL380G7

Have you considered doing an all in one build like @Stux ??
You might be able to consolidate all those things into one system for a smaller electrical cost with no loss of performance.
You could go with a dual processor system and have two times 20 threads?

Build Report: Node 304 + X10SDV-TLN4F [ESXi/FreeNAS AIO]
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...node-304-x10sdv-tln4f-esxi-freenas-aio.57116/

You have to do what works for you. There are lots of options.

 

[IceBoosteR]

Have you considered doing an all in one build like @Stux ??
You might be able to consolidate all those things into one system for a smaller electrical cost with no loss of performance.
You could go with a dual processor system and have two times 20 threads?

Build Report: Node 304 + X10SDV-TLN4F [ESXi/FreeNAS AIO]
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...node-304-x10sdv-tln4f-esxi-freenas-aio.57116/

Indeed I have looked at that option but I am not sure if a dual socket system would be the way to go. This because, I don't want to sell the ESXi hosts, and I am sure no one would buy it anyway^^.
My DL360G6 is only powered up on some days in the month when I want to test something (maybe 10 to 15 days in a year). I have dozens of operation systems installed ...
The rendering host is one I have just upgrade from two L5630 to the X5670. I am using this only at some weekends. At the end of the day, both systems are great in what they are doing - and they do not idle.

You have to do what works for you. There are lots of options.

You're absolutely right, and to choose the "right" option is hard :O

-IceBoosteR

 

[IceBoosteR]

I got the idea of using a RPi3 or Odroid Cluster. I can still use my hardware, which is not bad and capable of everything I would like to do, but I could move VMs to the Cluster. They do not use puch power, but I am thinking about backups and iSCSI/NFS/SMB shared storage...

 

[adrianwi]

I think I'm pushing mine quite hard, but it hasn't missed a beat.

The motherboard has the max 32GB RAM and I have a 36TB RAIDZ2 pool. I have 8 jails running 24x7 and 1 ubuntu VM with 2 cores and 8GB RAM.

My next box will have at least 64GB RAM, but things are still working nicely with half that for now.

 

[IceBoosteR]

I think I'm pushing mine quite hard, but it hasn't missed a beat.

The motherboard has the max 32GB RAM and I have a 36TB RAIDZ2 pool. I have 8 jails running 24x7 and 1 ubuntu VM with 2 cores and 8GB RAM.

My next box will have at least 64GB RAM, but things are still working nicely with half that for now.

Awesome, thanks for sharing!

 

[IceBoosteR]

Okey,
after a while I have ordered an Intel NUC.
This one is using low power (9 watts) and is very powerful with 16GB of RAM.
I have installed Ubuntu Server 18.04 and Docker. I will now transfer all the applications from the bhyve VMs to docker. I think this is the most elegant way for this.

-Ice