Hey Guys!
It’s Mike from The Geek Pub.
And on this episode we’re going to build this bad ass 1U server!
Now this video is not about building the biggest, baddest, and most redundant server we can
build, rather this video is about building the biggest and baddest server that we cram
in to a 1U case that is only 19” wide by 12” deep.
It won’t come without its challenges, but in the end it is going to be worth the struggle
and awesome!
Now I plan to use this box as home network server running VMWare ESX, meaning I will
have multiple virtual servers running on it all at once.
This server will be actually be the second server in a pair of servers forming a redundant
cluster.
These two servers connect via iSCSI to a Synology RS2416+ to share a VMS storage volume contains
the goes operating systems.
This is awesome because it means if one server fails the other one immediately takes over.
On this server cluster I have several machines running.
I have a Windows 10 VM running HomeSeer which is pretty powerful home automation package
for controlling lighting and other aspects of the home.
I also have an Ubuntu Server VM running Plex, which is an incredibly powerful home media
server.
Attached to Plex is a 10 terabyte volume for storing movies, TV shows, and music, as well
as family home video and photos.
In addition I have several lab boxes including Windows 2016 server, Observium for network
monitoring, and some other boxes.
I chose the Intel Core i7 6700K for this server build.
It’s a Quad-core 4 GHz processor design for an LGA1151 socket that can be reliably
overclocked to as high a 5 GHz.
This is of course a Skylake processor.
Now some of you are probably wondering why I didn’t choose the new 7700K Kabylake processor
and that is absolutely a fair question.
I chose the Skylake, because this is the second server in a cluster and I wanted this new
machines to be identical to the original.
It just makes things with VMWare ESX simpler.
However, if you decide to build this box, I would definitely recommend you step up the
7700k.
It will work in the same motherboard we chose, and costs only a few dollars more.
Now if you don’t need this kind of horsepower in your server, you could scale this chip
back to a Core i5 or Core i3 and same some pretty serious money.
To install the CPU, simply line up the triangle with the markings on the the socket, set it
in place, and close and lock the CPU socket.
This build has one interesting challenge that you won’t face on most builds.
The CPU cooler has to be less than 1 inch tall and still be able to adequately cool
a 91 watt CPU!
This is no easy task, and I went through several different CPU coolers before I found one that
could actually handle the job reliably.
The cooler I landed on that passed all of my stress tests with flying colors is the
K199 Active Blower from Dynatron.
This cooler is barely 7/8 of an inche tall and puts out an amazing amount of air.
And it has a feature that is not only nice to have, but necessary for a 1U server build!
The top of the cooler is sealed and the cooler has a side ejection port for exhausting hot
air.
This is required because when the cover is placed on the case there will be less than
1/8” between the top of the cooler and the bottom of the lid.
To install the CPU cooler, add the backplate rails to the bottom of the motherboard.
They connect with the included double sided tape.
Flip the mother board and screw on down the cooler after placing it on top of the CPU.
The K199 comes with thermal paste already applied, but you can replace it with better
paste if you desire.
Orient the side ejection vent on the cooler towards the left side exhaust vents on the
case.
This will provide the most efficient airflow pattern, resulting in the most optimal cooling
at the lowest RPM.
Because this is an ESX server, and it will be running many virtual machines RAM is something
that will be important - and lots of it.
For this build I chose to use 32 GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR4 at 2666 Mhz.
This is the max amount of RAM that this motherboard will support, and also the fastest.
Installing the RAM is very simple, pull back the tabs on the DIMM slots, align the notch
on the bottom of the DIMM with the notch on the slots and simply press them firmly into
place at both ends until the levers click back into place on its own.
The case I chose is a 1U 19” rack mount case from iStar USA.
This case is bare bones and doesn’t include a power supply, or even a fan.
One of the nice things about this case is that the rack mounting ears can be placed
on either end of the chassis, allowing for the motherboard ports to be at the front or
the back of the rack depending on your preference.
I’m going to mount the case with the ports towards the front.
This case is not without its shortcomings however, and we will address of few of those
shortly.
The motherboard I chose is a mini-ITX ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming motherboard.
I chose this board not because of any of the gaming specs, but because it allows overclocking
and is 99% compatible with VMware ESX 6.5.
I say 99% because this board like most non-server boards will not pass IPMI data to ESX, meaning
VMWare won’t be able to read the temperature sensors.
In my case this is fine, because the motherboard BIOS will handle cooling and fan speeds independently
of ESX and I have plenty of other devices that I can read temperature sensors from in
my network closet.
Just to be clear, you can get mini-ITX motherboards that support IPMI, but I am not aware of any
that are supported by ESX that also support a Skylake or Kabylake processors, overclocking,
or independent chassis fan controllers.
And by the way, this board supports Aura RGB lighting, which means your server will glow
through all of the open vents, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Installing this motherboard into the iStar case represents a few challenges.
Lets start with the fact that the IO shield is about 3/8 of an inch too tall.
This is a pretty common problem with 1U cases and the good news its not too hard to solve
for.
Mark the IO shield with a pencil, and using a pair of aircraft snips, remove the top portion
of the shields and then place it into the IO shield slot on the motherboard.
The second challenge you may face with the iStar case is that the motherboard standoffs
on the bottom of the case are just not quite tall enough to lift the motherboard to the
proper height allowing it to align with the back of the case and keep the CPU backer plates
from making contact with the bottom of the case.
I solved this problem by using some 3M Super 77 spray adhesive to add two small nickel
washers between the case and motherboard on all four posts.
This added the necessary height to the standoffs and everything fit perfectly in place.
Follow this up by installing the four post screws and snugging them up.
The Power Supply Selection
The power supply I chose is a 1U variant from Apevia.
It’s a relatively small 250 watt supply but it is more than enough to power our motherboard,
CPU, SSD hard drive, and a 4 port network interface card.
The power supply just slides into place and is attached by four screws on the back of
the the chassis.
Follow that up by plugging the power supply leads into the the motherboard.
Now is also a great time to plug in each of the connectors from the case for the power
and reset buttons along with the power and activity LEDs into the appropriate pins on
the motherboard.
Also attach the USB block connector for the case front USB ports.
I chose to install two fans in the case.
Both are 40x40 millimeter brushless fans.
The fans are installed by screwing them into the front of the case with the eight provided
screws.
You can position the fans to either exhaust air from the cause or intake air.
Be sure to orient them in the correct direction based on how and where you are mounting your
server in your rack.
I will be mounting my fans in the intake position.
One fan will be connected directly to the power supply and run continuously at full
speed.
The other fan will connect to the chassis fan connector on the motherboard where its
speed will determined by the cooling needs of the system.
The iStar 1U server case supports the mounting of two drives, however, our internal storage
will only be used for holding the operating system and some installation images for our
virtual machine installs.
This is because all of our virtual machines will be booting and operating from a shared
VMS volume on a Synology Rack Station 2416+ over iSCSI.
I honestly, could have skipped the hard disk completely and just booted my servers from
a USB stick, but I wanted to provide for future functionally should I ever use these for any
other purpose or decide not use network attached storage.
The drive I chose is a Samsung EVO 850 SSD in the 500 gigabyte variant.
Again, complete overkill for me but likely perfect for most of you who won’t have network
storage.
The iStar 1U case does allow for two drives, meaning you could mirror two drives for better
performance and redundancy.
To install the drive, simply screw it to the backer plate with the four provided 2.5”
drive mounting screws, and then attach the backer plate to the bottom of the case.
Attached the SATA power connector from the power supply.
Attach the SATA connector to the hard drive and then to the SATA 1 port on the motherboard.
Since this server is going to not only get its storage from iSCSI, but also be responsible
for streaming movies and media throughout the house, robust network connectivity on
this box is of vital importance.
For that reason I selected an Intel Pro 1000 VT Quad port card.
This card is 100% compatible with VMWare ESX and performs exceptionally well for the price.
Since this card mounts sideways at a 90 degree angle from the motherboard a PCIe riser cable
will be required to mount it.
First, plug the riser cable into the motherboard and then plug the card into the other end.
Orient the cable so that it will not interfere with other components and then screw the card
into the case card slot with the provided screws.
I installed the server in the 1U rack slot above my existing server.
It just slides into place and is secured by four rack screws.
That’s really all there is to it.
I connected it to my gigabit network switches.
loaded VMware ESX and I now have two servers in a VMware cluster.
I honestly couldn’t be more happy with this pair of servers.
Anytime I build a box I always stress test it before putting it into daily use.
In this case, I used Prime95 to calculate prime numbers for 24 hours straight, all while
keeping the CPU at 100% utilization.
The CPU never thermal throttled meaning everything is working as designed and we don’t have
any cooling deficiencies in this build.
The CPU cooler and case fans did run at 100% during the entire time which can be quite
noisy, so if you plan to run your Bad Ass 1U server at or near maximum load, placing
it in a closet away from the main part of your house might be a good idea.
That being said, under normal loads the server is extremely quite and barely noticeable do
to the fans running at near idle speeds.
Well thats all for this video!
If you enjoyed it please do me a favor and like this video, subscribe to my channel,
and by all means share it with your friends.
And hey if you hated, go ahead and hit the dislike button and comment below to tell me
why.
See you in the next video!