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  • Windows Home Server

After thinking about a potential new Virtual Server for at home, I figured I should at least put together a rough parts list and see where abouts I would be. A few things are pretty easy, as I want a matching case to my WHS — mostly because I am anal that way, and I really liked the power supply unit that I got, so I would be considering that again.

So, here is the first stab at a parts list:

• Case: COOLER MASTER Centurion 590 $59.99
• Power Supply: SeaSonic M12II SS-500GM 500W $94.99
• Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R $114.99
• Processor: Intel C2Q Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz/12MB 95W $219.99
• Memory: G.Skill (2 x 2GB) 240-pin DDR2 1066 $59.99
• HDD: <TBD>

Total: TBD, currently @ $549.95

I am uncertain what I want out of a HDD at this point. I almost debate going for something like a 10k raptor drive, just because I will be using this for VM’s, so I would like to have a level of performance. Potentially a WD 150GB ($179.99) or a WD 300GB ($229.99), putting my total at $729.94 - $779.94. However, I also realize I will not be throttling the machine by any means, so it is probably unnecessary — in which case I could use one of my old 500GB’s from my current WHS.

Additionally, I do not plan on a video card for this server, being as it is pointless. I would either temporarily borrow a video card during setup, or if a motherboard happens to have onboard video, well that’s fine too — but still not required.

Since installing Windows Server 2008 and running Windows Home Server in a virtual machine, I have been having stability issues. As I do not appreciate this, I have been meaning to move my Windows Home Server back to a stand-alone install, but that would leave me without a Windows Server 2008 test bed.

I originally decided to go with this configuration so that I could finally retire my previous virtual server, a PowerEdge 2800, which is a very noisy, power-hungry monster. However, due to the stability issues I am having, I feel I should default back to the PE2800 as my main virtual server in the home, and put dedicated resources back to the WHS. This means reinstalling Server 2008 and Hyper-V on the PE2800. Luckily, I did my research in advance and found my Intel Xeon 7030 chip and verified that it supports Intel VT.

However, a few minutes prior to reinstalling, I had a drive in my RAID5 configuration fail. So I spent several hours this evening rebuilding this array. During this time, I had popped open the Dell Open Manage software, and I saw that “Virtual Technology” was listed as “NO.”

I thought to myself, “this is no good,”  but obviously since my processor supports IntelVT, everything will be fine, right? Wrong. Apparently Dell didn’t think about Virtualization back when they were making the 18xx/28xx series, even after the most current BIOS update. So basically Server 2008 with Hyper-V is out of the question.

So where does this leave me? Honestly? I have no idea. I have a few options, none of which I like:

1. Leave the unstable Server 2008 box in production, and turn off the PE2800.
2. Remove 2008 on the WHS, and use the PE2800 w/ VS2k5 to run VM’s
3. Build a new low-budget Virtual Server machine

Obviously option #1 is cheapest, but also the biggest pain to live with. #3 is my ideal scenario, but this is a major set back for some other budgetary goals I have currently. Which, sadly, leaves me with option #2, which sucks. I will be losing my Hyper-V test-bed for the sake of stability. While I do not do a lot with it, Hyper-V has been fun to play with and I would like to continue, but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen.

The weekend isn’t getting here fast enough. Although I am growing increasingly concerned that I will not be able to enjoy the Holiday weekend due to work projects getting behind.

This has been a particularly bad week for myself. We have some large projects to complete, and I am getting a lot of what feels like push back and/or uncooperativeness from co-workers and vendors. Without going into too much detail, I will let you in on a little secret… I am not magical. Shocking. I know.

Completely unrelated, I would like to pick up Illustrater and After Effects and learn to make Typography videos. It sounds like it would be a fun time-waster that is a project that has next to do with the type of things I do at work. However, I have a feeling it takes more time than I would be able to dedicate to it, not to mention those tools are expensive. Maybe someday.

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