Since not everyone is lucky enough to have clusters on which to do their tests in the company, creating your homelab to be able to test and manipulate or even host services can be a serious alternative. But it is never an easy thing and it can often be expensive…
What use?
Having your own homelab under Nutanix CE is one thing, having the use of it is another. The first question you must ask yourself is: a homelab under what to do?
Is the purpose of your cluster to carry out tests with ephemeral virtual machines to improve your skills and discover new technologies? Or to host services for you, your family and other people? Will you need to back it up? Or to have redundancy? Do you have a lot or on the contrary little space to host it?
These are all questions to ask yourself in advance. It is obvious that depending on the answers to all these questions, the architecture and sizing of your homelab will not be the same. Another element to take into account: the electricity consumption which can represent a significant operating cost.
For my part, the main interest of having my homelab under Nutanix is to be able to test new things and to improve my skills on a technology that I particularly like.
Sizing your homelab
Depending on the answers you have given to the various questions concerning the intended use of your homelab, you should start to have an idea of what architecture and sizing you need.
In order to give a little more substance to the sizing part, it is important to take a look at the prerequisites necessary for installing a 1-node cluster under Nutanix CE 2.1:
- a processor with at least 4 cores and embedded virtualization technology
- 32Gb of RAM (64Gb recommended)
- a 1Gb network card
- 1 disk of at least 32Gb for the hypervisor
- 2 disks for the data
If you plan to set up a cluster with several nodes, be aware that each node in the same cluster will have to be similar in terms of configuration.
Obviously, the more virtual machines you want to host or features you want to activate on Nutanix, the more resources you will need, thus increasing costs.
Setting up your homelab
Option 1: recovery
An often forgotten option for setting up your homelab is the recovery of old hardware to create a new infrastructure under Nutanix CE. Indeed, it often happens that companies get rid of their old equipment by simply throwing it away or reselling it at a low price.
This is often an ideal opportunity to recover an old server capable of running Nutanix CE 2.1, even if it means transforming several servers into a single, somewhat muscular one.
For my part, this is the option I chose for my Nutanix CE 2.1 cluster because I was lucky enough to be in this situation during one of my previous professional experiences.
Option 2: used servers
If the company has decided to resell its old equipment to brokers, you can find these servers on sales sites specializing in reconditioning.
There are plenty of them on the Internet, with quite disparate stocks and prices, I am thinking in particular of:
These sites allow you to build some pretty edgy configurations for a homelab at often reasonable prices. For example, a SuperMicro chassis can be negotiated for less than 600 euros:
On the configuration side, we will find:
- an Intel Xeon E5-2697A 16-core processor @ 2.60GHz
- 128Gb of RAM
- 4 512Gb SDD
- onboard RJ45 network ports
- a dual power supply
The only constraint will be to add a SATA disk of about 64Gb to install the hypervisor (count about 40 euros) if you do not want to use a 512Gb disk unnecessarily. Note that you can even upgrade the configuration in the future by adding disks or RAM.
The 2 big drawbacks of this type of server are:
- the noise (good luck negotiating to have it in the house)
- the format because it is a bit restrictive to install
Option 3: NUC type PCs
With their small format and often the silence that characterizes them, NUCs are ideal candidates for setting up a homelab at home. If we can find NUCs with processors capable of running correct infrastructures, it is at the level of RAM and storage that the shoe pinches.
Indeed, RAM is most of the time limited to 32Gb without the possibility of expansion, which can quickly prove insufficient depending on the use to which you dedicate your cluster. On the storage side, most of the time NUCs only offer an additional port allowing you to connect a disk in addition to the basic embedded one where Nutanix requires 3. A workaround can be to deploy the hypervisor on a fast USB key connected via USB3.
The other disadvantage is the cost of this type of machine which is often at the same level as a used server but with much lower hardware configurations and power consumption.
Option 4: Assembled PC
The last viable option in my eyes is assembling a more traditional PC from A to Z. This will allow you to select each component of your server and thus be able to have a truly personalized cluster.
From the Grand Tour case to the mini ITX case, you will also have the choice of format, which can be practical if you only have a small space to install your equipment (example: the cupboard in the entrance where the Internet box is located).
In terms of cost, depending on the configuration chosen, it should not be much higher than that of a refurbished server or a NUC with moderate power consumption.
Conclusion
I hope that you will see more clearly in the path that will lead you to the start of your homelab. Be aware that apart from having substantial financial means, there is no miracle solution to setting up a lab and it is often a question of opportunities that will present themselves to you. Take the time to think carefully and explore all possible avenues before you start.
