VMware

Building a Powerful Home Lab Server with Nested Virtualization

Building a Home Lab Server with Intel Xeon Gold 6252 Processor and Intel Optane NVMe SSDs

In this blog post, I will detail my experience building a new home lab server using the Intel Xeon Gold 6252 processor and Intel Optane NVMe SSDs. The journey began when I received an Intel Xeon Gold 6252 processor and Intel Optane NVMe SSDs as part of the VMware vExpert program in partnership with Intel Corporation. My goal was to build a server that could host nested instances of VMware vSphere and other components, and provide enough RAM to take advantage of the available horsepower.

Choosing the Motherboard

I selected the Super Micro X11SPI-TF motherboard due to its reputation for reliability and support for the Intel Xeon Gold 6252 processor and up to 2TB of DDR4 ECC RAM. The motherboard also provided one PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, an additional PCIe 3.0 x16 slot that can be either x16 or x8, one or two PCIe x8 slots depending on the configuration of the second x16 slot), and one PCIe 3.0 x4 slot.

Selecting RAM

I opted for 2400MHz DDR4 ECC RAM from Kingston, which provided enough RAM to take advantage of the available horsepower.

Connecting Intel Optane NVMe SSDs

To connect six Intel Optane NVMe SSDs to the motherboard, I used the 10Gtek PCIe to NVMe Adapter Card for U.2 SSD, X16, (4) SFF-8643 (PN NV9614) and the 10Gtek PCIe to NVMe Adapter Card for U.2 SSD, X8, (2) SFF-8643 (PN NV9612). These adapters required PCIe bifurcation to support separating the x16 and x8 slots into individual x4 slots to connect to each Intel Optane NVMe U.2 SSD.

Other Components

I utilized an existing NZXT H440 EnVyUs case, which is excellent at absorbing noise and includes room for numerous 3.5″ or 2.5″ hard drives. I added multiple Noctua Redux fans and utilized a Super Micro 4U Active CPU Heat Sink Socket LGA3647-0 (SNK-P0070APS4) to keep the system cool.

Bill of Materials

As you can see in the table below, most of the cost is from the motherboard and the RAM. I likely could have found a cheaper alternative for the motherboard, but I opted to buy new hardware to customize the build to my component selections.

Future Posts

In future blog posts, I will provide more information on the configuration of this VMware vSphere ESXi host, details on the nested VMware ESXi configuration, and testing of VMware vSAN ESA using Intel Optane NVMe devices.

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