Server specs

Certifications CCIE R&S
1

@Rene

Hello Rene,

I want to start building my lab for the CCIE and want to use the CSR 1000v but as of now looking for an affordable server. As far as price and specs, what hardware specs do i need to get so that it fits working with the CSR 1000 without delay and slowness? Thanks

 

2

There’s a couple of things you need to think about:

  • I would use hardware that runs VMware ESXi "out of the box". If you use any of the vendor servers like HP or Dell then you will be fine. If you build something yourself then you might run into issues with unsupported network drivers and such. You can make it work but it can be a pain.
  • CPU power isn't much of an issue but memory might be, if you use the "small" image for the CSR1000V then it configures each router with 2.5GB of RAM.
  • In reality each router probably doesn't consume more than ~1GB. I'd have to boot one to check if though.
I'm using a HP proliant DL360 G7 with 32GB of memory, these are cheap nowadays and support plenty of memory. Here's an example on Ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Proliant-DL360-G7-Intel-X5670-2-2-93GHz-6core-24GB-RAM-1-146GB-HD-1AC-/371448439833?hash=item567c0d6419

Memory is cheap, harddisks are still pretty expensive but you don’t need much for some virtual routers. I also use mine to run some Linux / Windows virtual machines so I’ve added 4x 146GB drives.

Rene

3

Hello Rene,

Thanks for the recommendation you provided. one more question please, how is the noise level of it? some of these server are very noisy when you run them, can you provide your experience with the noise level of the HP proliant DL360 G7 ? thanks

 

Ammar,

4

Hi Ammar,

When it’s idle it’s no problem but as soon as CPU load increases, it gets noisy. You don’t want to be sitting next to one…it’s annoying :slight_smile:

Rene

5

Hello Rene,

thanks for letting me know, i may end up buying a high end desktop and install the VM on it, i think that will work too as far as IE labs!

thanks

Ammar,

6

No problem Ammar!

If you plan to use VMWare workstation then a desktop will work fine, at least it’s not as noisy as a server. If you want to build something for ESXi then make sure you pick components that are supported…you don’t want to run into issues with drivers.

Rene

7

Hello Rene,

Yes for sure . Thanks for the advice :slight_smile: