I received all my new equipment for my home lab a couple of days ago. After setting up the hardware in less than a day, I'm quite happy with it so far.
I was lucky enough to have two 12-year-olds assist me when I assembled the computer. This was their first time assembling a computer from parts and they really enjoyed it.
The first component was the Shuttle SH67H3. My friend Richard recommended the DS61, but I had two main problems with that barebones system. First, it only has two RAM slots for a maximum of 16GB. That's not bad, but I decided I wanted to get a desktop that supported more RAM without going to server components while keeping the form factor small. I actually may have a second system on my purchase list for sometime this year, and in that case I would definitely consider the DS61.
Second, I had read that the SH67H3 worked as an ESXi whitebox. Overall, I am a fan of Shuttle barebones. The SH67H3 is essentially the same chassis my coworkers and I used on our lab network at a previous job, just with a new motherboard and other improvements. I used very similar or identical parts for my Shuttle as the ones listed in the ESXi whitebox link above.
- Shuttle SH67H3 barebones
- Intel Core i7 2600 @3.4GHz
- G.Skill F3-12800CL10S-8GBXL x4 -- this memory is on the Shuttle compatibility list
- Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA3 64MB Cache 3.5" hard drive
- Lite-On iHAS524 SATA DVD/CD writer
Shuttle SH76H3 motherboard with CPU and RAM installed |
The fan slides over the heat sink at the rear of the chassis on the left |
New Network Architecture
Going to all this trouble for a relatively powerful computer compared to my three old Pentium III servers, I decided to take the opportunity to make a couple of other network changes. I used to run my network sensor inline, but along with the new computer I purchased a Netgear GS108T-200 smart switch. This switch has an abundance of features, including VLANs and port mirroring. Along with the new switch, all I needed was an extra WAP to reconfigure home network as shown below.
The router/firewall also works as a WAP, but to see most client traffic I disabled it and connected an access point behind the mirroring switch |
I plan to write more about my lab setup as I continue to redevelop it. The first thing I did after testing the new box was install ESXi and create a network sensor VM using Security Onion. I may have a post about it soon.
Hi!
ReplyDeleteDid you find a way to add drivers in order to show ESXi Health Status?
I have Shuttle SZ87R with ESXi 5.5.0 (custom image) and it shows Processor health and some Software components.
Regards,
Eps