Mastering Virtualization At Home: Guide for Homelab Setup & Servers

so are you wanting to play around with virtual machines that's great because I love virtual machines as well and there are a whole bunch of different types of virtual machines running on different Hardware running on different hypervisors like you can have virtual machines running on VMware you can have them running on prox marks on hyperv really really cool and then there's a whole bunch of different types of virtual machines that you can actually build like you can build domain controllers you can build servers that are for you know web development actually build a website you can build security servers you can build a server where you can actually go and do development the sky is the limit but then the question is well ultimately if you're going to be installing virtual machines building virtual machines and building some sort of a hypervisor or some sort of virtual platform software it needs to run on some tech of some sort right you need a physical computer of some type to actually go and build it with virtual machines and that's the great thing about virtual machines is you can now build a whole bunch of virtual servers virtual machines and run them on one piece of physical text you can have one physical computer running lots of different types of virtual machines now what we're going to be talking about here is well what is the computer that I should be using should I be going for a server or should I be going for a computer for a laptop maybe even for a little mini PC we're going do a little bit of a comparison between some of the most common types and then maybe give you some recommendations about what you could be using but hey before we do get into that my name is ailia I love Tech and if you love Tech hey we release videos all the time on all things Tech talking about a lot of things including virtual machines why don't you click on the subscription button on the Bell so you don't miss out on anything so before we even start talking about the differences and which one you sure to you know you may want to consider you've got to have a think about what is the purpose of this thing why are you even wanting a server in the first place I mean of course if you're watching this video you're wanting to build virtual servers great what sort of virtual servers what is the point what are the virtual servers going to be used for because you've got to think about all of that stuff to then help you make the decision about what server what computer whatever it is is the best one for you right if you want to go for a big server great but then where are you going to stick the thing right you're going to be able to build a lot more things but then where are you going to put it a smaller one well it's nice it's little it's tiny you can put it absolutely everywhere but then you won't be able to build as many virtual servers onto it so have to think about that in the first instance now the other thing is when you're considering all of this you got to have to think about the budget how much money do you have to spend right because really the amount of money that you've got to spend is going to determine what sort of computer you're going to be buying the more money you got the better computer you can go and buy pretty self-explanatory right ultimately a server is meant to service something it's a server it gives a service to something you can have software based servers you can have Hardware based servers essentially any computer that has some software that is running that is helping computers out on a network maybe you've got some files and all of your files are sitting on this computer and other computers on your network at home in a workplace are using the computers like the files that are sitting on that computer well that computer is sort of of acting like a server right so you can really install any sort of server software on a computer and sort of convert it into a server right that's the software based High basic level of what a server is like that's sort of how I would Define it but then you've got the actual Hardware itself the server hardware and that's when you get into the stuff that's a little bit more enterpris so rack server this is a rack server this is a server that is a rack and it's called a rack because it's made to sit inside of a server rack like if you think of data centers if you think of com's rooms server rooms uh stuff that's in the business to make the thing work make the company work you need tech you need technology of all different types and that's where a server comes in because you slide the server inside of these rails and it's called the rack server but then you've got other sorts of types of servers you've got Tower servers you've got little blade servers as well servers of all shapes and sizes but the nice thing about a rack server especially if you're going to be using it to install virtual machines is that the things are powerful they cost a lot yes they will cost a lot but they also really cool because you can install a whole bunch of computers onto them so you can install proxmox which is an awesome hypervisor you remove the operating system so for example let's say this server was running Linux or it was running Windows get rid of those install prox Mox and then you can build a whole bunch of virtual servers of all different shapes and sizes on this one little computer and then you can install servers of all types onto this big as computer because it's a big one it's a big as server okay and it's got a lot of bits in ins side of it I mean inside of one of these things there's a lot more CPUs there's a lot more RAM there's a lot more opportunity for you to install a whole bunch of expansion cards so these things are amazing and they're going to last you a long time so if you're considering and you've got the budget you got the thousands of dollars right yes you can buy cheaper ones now this is one thing that's always a nice little tip is uh I've got a big one this is a HP PR which is what I've got but this was uh expensive you can get cheaper ones go down to the eBay machine and look for cheaper version of servers and rack servers and you can find them if you've got a rack and you want to get a rack server and you stick it inside of a cabinet go for your life but they can be quite costly because the parts inside of it are more server grade which is something you've got to think about in future if you're wanting to expand the thing you want more grunt later on more CPU more RAM whatever inside of it later on you're going to have to pay for it because they do cost a little bit more but the nice thing about that is that then you can build a much better faster Fleet of virtual servers as opposed to some of the little ones now you've got the option around mini PCS mini computers micro PCS they go they go by basic lots of different sorts of names what are they they're essentially a little mini computer you don't have the big ones you have little ones and the nice thing of course about the little ones is you can put them absolutely everywhere they're also cheaper which is really really cool this is the spread that I've got I've got a few different collections out here some are absolutely amazing I love these things because they're small they're cute they're tiny they some of them are fanless which means they don't even have a fan which means they're completely silent which is absolutely awesome and then the nice thing is rather than buying yourself maybe a big computer or a fully fledged server you get yourself maybe one or a selection of these little ones and then you can build yourself a virtual Farm you can install a whole bunch of hypervisors virtual machines and you can go to town because you've got a whole bunch of different ones and if one of them fails if you've got it set up properly the other one can take over the load and keep doing its thing but the only thing about the Mini PC is yes they're small they're tiny they're absolutely very very beautiful is that they're not as powerful they're not as grunty as the bigger ones ultimately you're going to pay less but you're not going to get the performance that you may want to and especially if you're thinking about building a whole pool of virtual machines whatever they may be the more virtual machines you want to build the bigger the more powerful the computer should be so when you're doing all of your planning you're having to think about what computer should I get always have a think about that the small ones yes they're small they're cheaper you know if you're on a budget they're really really good but you won't be able to build as much stuff onto one of those so things like the CPU right the CPU is not going to be as big as some of the bigger ones on some of these fully fledged servers big performance computers you've got your Zeon processor your Intel Zeon processors for example some of the smaller ones or they're going to be maybe your Intel i5 i7 sometimes I9 perhaps you you've got seller on as well you've got essentially CPUs that aren't going to be as powerful the big servers you could have sometimes two CPUs how amazing with lots of threads which lets you do a whole bunch of cool stuff the smaller ones well you can only really have one CPU and that's really where you're at the same deal is around your RAM of course the big servers you can put a lot more RAM which then allows you to build a lot more virtual servers the smaller ones not so many I mean some of these smaller ones yes you can get 32 64 gig of ram in some of them and that's really really nice but also you're not going to be able to build as many virtual machines because you don't have the ram processing power that you need processing power is for your CPU then you've also got the storage what does the storage look like and really this really depends on what your storage platform is going to be in my case I've got a NZ I've got a place where I can stick all of my virtual servers in this one spot now look I don't want you to Discount the small ones all together because I love the small ones and they're awesome I can easily just pick them up relocate them easy they're tiny which means I can put them absolutely everywhere you know they're great for media service you can put them on the back of your TV you can do a lot more little things with them little Labs little development stuff great for learning while the big ones they're big they're chunky they're heavy they're going to cost you a lot of money they're noisy all of these other negative things with the big ones as well so a simple sidebyside comparison between the two the big ones are big the small ones are small the performance you can't even compare the big ones especially if they're pumped full of these aome some resources are always going to be faster they're going to perform better they're going to have more storage you're going to be able to build a bigger Farm virtual service than the little ones the big ones will always win then the big ones are more costly they're bigger it's important to also think about the future what is this thing going to be use for in the next 5 years right now you're wanting to build five virtual machines great good for you then in 10 years 5 years you're wanting to build a lot more but you don't have the capacity you don't have the space so you going have to go and buy something else later on maybe you need to buy more RAM more drive space more processing power later on well do you want to do that later on or are you willing to do it now that way you've got a good beefy computer that will last you a fair bit of time is have a think about the actual Virtual Technology virtualization technology that you're going to be using you're wanting to build virtual servers all right great well you need to have some software to be able to build virtual servers so to be able to build a virtual server you need to be using something like VMware like Citrix like proxmox there's a whole bunch of different sorts of hypervisor virtualization platforms that are out there you can even have a Mac computer a Windows computer and then install something like VMware Fusion VMware Workstation directly on the computer virtual box would be another one that you can run directly on the computer so you actually have Windows running some virtualization software to then be able to allow you to build virtual machines virtual PCS really really cool really really complex now yes of course the choice is yours about what uh computer you're going to buy but here are the some of the ones that I have this is uh my server rack this is where I keep all of my gear and I've got got a collection and they all serve different purposes and I've got all of the virtualization platforms but anyway my big old rack server here is a HP DL 360 it's a proant and this thing is awesome couple of CPUs lots of ram it's just awesome right and that is my main main one where I use for all of my Dev stuff all of my testing all it's essentially called a Sandbox environment where I can just build a whole bunch of stuff but I don't leave it on all the time because this is my home this is not a workplace where I'm at right now and it can get quite noisy and my electricity bills go up and I don't want any of that but then together with that I've got a range of little computers and yes I have uh my favorite ones are probably the pro liant and I've also got this thing called the Zimmer board and the Intel knck they're probably the three that I use more than anything else now outside of these uh little computers and this rack server I've also played around with more Tower based servers either a Dell or a HP Tower and they're cool because they're actually serers they've got server grade parts are not as big as the rack one but they're also been pretty good so do you love Tech I love Tech and if you do love Tech I'd love it if you do the subscription thing let me know Down Below in the comments what you thought of this video and hey remember to do that notification Bell as well when you do the Subscribe thing so you don't miss out on any of our videos we release videos on all things Tech and we'll see you on the next video

Channel: Tech With Emilio

Views: 1,121

Keywords: tech with emilio, VMware homelab setup, how to build a homelab, best computer for homelab, best server for hokelab, VMware intel nuc, rack vs desktop server, what is a rack server, best mini pc for homelab setup, best computer for homelab setup, best home server, best home server mini pc, best home server for virtialization, installing vmware tools

Id: TTwR8MxtAUU

Length: 11min 50sec (710 seconds)

Published: Sat May 11 2024