Building a Home Server for Virtualization.

[Reapt]

I'm gonna build a home server and set up virtual box to run multiple servers. Apache, an open source backup(not sure which one yet), and a web hosting. What do you guys think would be a decent set up for around 600-800.

Should i just go i5 or should i grab a xeon?
16 GB of RAM good enough to run three virtual servers?

I build computers all the time. But never a server. Seeing as how this is just a basic home server the specs wouldn't be much different than a high processing home desktop no?

 

[PP Mguire]

How many VMs do you want to run at the same time, and what will be running on each VM?

 

[Reapt]

Probably 3: Windows server 2008, Apache, and probably bacula.

 

[PP Mguire]

To do what exactly though, on each one. Because you can get away with a single core and like a gig of RAM on certain things.

 

[Reapt]

Windows web platform for MYSQL. Bacula to backup all the computers on my home network. Apache for the HTTP

 

[Reapt]

Or could i just make the windows the HTTP and the MYSQL?

 

[carnageX]

Or could i just make the windows the HTTP and the MYSQL?

General practice in a business environment is to separate each server individually (either on separate systems, or in different VM's)... that being said... there's nothing wrong with putting everything on a single server, especially for home use.

I have the following on my home server:

Pentium 4 HT with 4GB RAM
WAMP (Apache / MySQL / PHP)
IIS7 (used for ASP.NET webpages)
FTP (FileZilla FTP Server)
Local Fileserver
BTSync server
Plex Media Server
TeamSpeak 3 Server
Minecraft server

 

[PP Mguire]

Yea I think you'd be better off getting the hardware you mentioned previously but allowing the system as a whole to share full resources so something doesn't get purposely bogged down by being split.

 

[Reapt]

Do you think I could get away with an i3 and 4gb of ram? Trying to go cheap as possible while still being efficient enough to virtualize those three.

 

[iFargle]

My home server runs everything on a single install of Debian... four websites, a dozen subdomains, HTTP, mysql, plex, a backup system I wrote myself (nothing fancy, just timed backups of various directories to an external drive), smb, ftp, transmission web daemon, ssh, a minecraft server, pydio, etc. (various small daemons for resource usage, like this or this )

Been running for a solid 128 days now!

Specs:
AMD A-10 5800K (sort of regret it, but eh, it does more than okay for a server)
8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
450W PSU
64GB SSD for the OS, websites, MC server, etc + 4TB HDD + 3TB external
A Mini-ITX motherboard and this case:
http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B008J0ZQCU/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1