---
title: "My new Home Lab"
date: "2017-09-14T19:31:45Z"
tags: ["Home Lab", "Supermicro"]
categories: ["Hardware & HomeLab", "VMware"]
---

![my-new-home-lab-logo][1]

Working at VMware provides many fantastic possibilities. One of it is a possibility to use vCloud Director based environment where you can spin up any lab you want (of course with per-user limits 😉 ). This environment has some limits and I decided to purchase new Home Lab.

After long considerations, I decided to buy well known in VMware community Supermicro E300-8D. It has amazing hardware combined with very small chassis.<!--more-->
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Main components:

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|--- |--- |
|CPU|Intel Xeon D-1518 2,2Ghz|
|Cores/Threads|4 Cores / 8 Threads|
|Memory|128 GB (4x 32GB) 2133Mhz DDR4 ECC RDIMM|
|Network|6x 1Gbe (RJ45) + 2x 10Gb (SFP+)|
|Disks|4x SATA3 1x M.2 – M key 2242/2280/22110 – PCI-E 3.0 x4 1x mSATA (Mini PCI-E) – PCI-E 2.0 x1|
|Peripheral|2x USB 3.0|
|Expansion|2x PCI-E 3.0 x8|
|SATADOM|2x Satadom|
|VGA|1x VGA|
|IPMI|Yes|
|Form factor|Mini-1U|
I've decided that for maximum performance I will use all-flash vSAN. Below you will find the list of components I used in my setup:

* RAM - 4 x 32GB Samsung  DDR4-2133 regECC DIMM CL15
* ESXi local storage - 32GB Delock SATADOM Module SATA 6Gb/ MLC
* vSAN: 
  * Flash Tier - WD Black 256GB SSD M.2 PCI-Express
  * Capacity Tier - Crucial MX300 2TB SATA

At the moment I am not using any managed switches (I plan to do so in the nearest future) and my lab will be entirely nested. I am in a process of building the environment and after some time I will share my thoughts how this server suits for the home lab.

I certainly recommend to read more about the Supermicro server:

  * <a href="https://michaelryom.dk/nuc-killer-supermicro-superserver-e300-8d/ " target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://michaelryom.dk/nuc-killer-supermicro-superserver-e300-8d/</a>- this is fantastic article comparing Supermicro Server and Intel NUCs
  * <a href="https://michaelryom.dk/part-2-supermicro-superserver-e300-8d-deep-dive/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://michaelryom.dk/part-2-supermicro-superserver-e300-8d-deep-dive/</a>- detailed overview of the Supermicro Server
  * <a href="https://tinkertry.com/compare" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://tinkertry.com/compare</a> - I think most comprehensive source of knowledge about Supermicro Servers

 [1]: /images/uploads/2017/09/my-new-home-lab-logo.webp