WilliamLam.com

Supermicro Home Lab Group Buy

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Happy New Years everyone! I was supposed to get this out right before the holidays but #babylam got really sick and I had to put this on hold.

Back in November I threw out an idea on Twitter to see if the #vCommunity would be interested in doing a group buy for some Supermicro kits, especially for those looking to upgrade their personal home labs to take advantage of all the new VMware goodies such as vSAN, NSX and PKS for example.

Within minutes, I had several dozen replies and it was clear that folks were definitely interested in refreshing their lab, especially with a smaller and more modern platform. Over the last few weeks, I have been working with MITXPC (who I have worked with before) on putting together some packages that would appeal to the majority of the community. Initially, I was thinking about three options: system-only (no memory/storage), system with memory (no storage) and system with memory and storage. To be clear, system means complete chassis with CPU and motherboard included. Please see the product links below for more details. 

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with MITXPC nor am I receiving any referral bonus/compensation for the discounts listed below.

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Is a DNS server still required when using a Static IP for VCSA?

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When deploying a vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA), customers have two options for setting up a static network address: using either a hostname (Fully Qualified Domain Name) or just a static IP Address (e.g. no DNS). In the first option when using an FQDN, it should be no surprise that you need to also specify a valid DNS Server which the VCSA UI/CLI Installer will automatically validate both the forward and reverse address. This is the most common deployment model for customers in both production as well as for development environments such as a vSphere home lab.

In the second scenario, where a static IP Address is used, a DNS server is not required because we are NOT using an FQDN for the hostname but rather an IP Address. Having said that, if you have ever used the VCSA UI or CLI, you will find that the DNS Server entry is actually a required field and you can not proceed without providing an address.

VCSA UI Installer:

VCSA CLI Installer:

"network": {
    "ip_family": "ipv4",
    "mode": "static",
    "ip": "192.168.30.151",
    "dns_servers": [
        "192.168.30.1"
    ],
    "prefix": "24",
    "gateway": "192.168.30.1",
    "system_name": "192.168.30.151"
}

As mentioned earlier, we know that it should not be required but currently the VCSA Installer is a bit overly cautious in its pre-checks and does require a value today. This is something that has already been shared internally and the team will be relaxing this requirement in the future.

With that said, this leads us back to the original question posed in the blog title, do we need a valid DNS server when using a static IP for the VCSA?

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Supermicro E300-9D (SYS-E300-9D-8CN8TP) is a nice ESXi & vSAN kit

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Supermicro kits such as the E200-8D is a very popular platform amongst the VMware community and with powerful Xeon-based CPUs and support for up to 128GB of memory, it is perfect for running a killer vSphere/vSAN setup!

Earlier this Fall, Supermicro released a "big daddy" version to the E200-8D, dubbed E300-9D and specifically, I want to focus on the 8-Core model (SYS-E300-9D-8CNTP) as this system actually listed on the VMware HCL for ESXi! The E300-9D can support up to half a terabyte of memory and with the 8-Core model, you have access to 16 threads. The E200-8D is also a supported platform by VMware, you can find the VMware HCL listing here.


I was very fortunate to get my hands on a loaner E300-9D (8-Core) unit, thanks to Eric and his team at MITXPC, a local bay area shop specializing in embedded solutions. In fact, they even provided a nice vGhetto promo discount code for my readers awhile back, so definitely check it out if you are in the market for a new lab. As an aside, when doing a quick search online, they also seem to be the only ones actually selling the E300-9D (8-Core) system which you can find here and in general, they seem to be priced fairly competitively. This is not an endorsement for MITXPC, but recommend folks to compare all prices when shopping online, especially as today is Black Friday in the US and Cyber Monday is just a few days away.

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