During my search for a new VMware homelab server, I’ve seen many models that were suitable to run ESXi 5. I specifically searched for a model that’s able to hold loads of memory and has dual CPU sockets. The nice thing about the Super Workstation is that VMware has certified the system and it is listed in the hardware compatibility matrix. Sander over at twp.nl as configured the Supermicro 7047A-TB tower with 128 GB of memory (16 x Kingston 8GB DDR3 1333mhz ECC REG) and two 2 x Intel E5-2603 1.8Ghz Quadcores for a total price of € 2465,00.
The 7047A-TB tower is a high-end workstation comprised of two main subsystems: the SC743TQ-1200B-SQ tower/4U chassis and the X9DA7/X9DAi dual Intel® Xeon® processor server board. In addition to the server board and chassis, various hardware components have been included with the SuperWorkstation 7047A-73/7047A-T, as listed below:
Two 8-cm hot-swap PWM "SuperQuiet" chassis fans - One 9-cm PWM "SuperQuiet" exhaust fan
- Two active CPU heatsinks
- SAS/SATA Accessories
- One SAS/SATA backplane
- One iPass cable
- Eight hot-swap drive carriers
At the heart of the SuperWorkstation 7047A-73/7047A-T lies the X9DA7/X9DAi, a dual processor serverboard based on the Intel® C600 chipset. Below are the main features of the X9DA7/X9DAi.The X9DA7/X9DAi supports single or dual Intel E5-2600 processors in LGA 2011 sockets.
The X9DA7/X9DAi has sixteen DIMM slots that can support up to 512 GB of registered/unbuffered ECC DDR3-1600/1333/1066/800 LRDIMMs (load-reducedDIMMs). The X9DA7 includes an LSI 2308 SAS controller, which supports eight SAS2 ports. The hot-swap SAS drives are connected to a backplane that provides power, bus termination and configuration settings.
A SATA controller is integrated into the chipset to provide a Serial ATA subsystem that supports RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 (RAID 5 is not supported with Linux OS). The SATA drives are hot-swappable units. The 7047A-73 (X9DA7) supports two SATA 3.0 and four SATA 2.0 ports while the 7047A-T (X9DAi) supports six SATA 3.0 and four SATA 2.0 ports.
