I'm hoping to pick up several (cheap) servers to each run ESXi 5.5, hopefully building out a vCD cluster for a lab environment. First question; does anyone have luck installing ESXi 5.5 on these servers?
Assuming vCD was possible, I'd have to come up with a shared storage solution. I do not have a separate NAS server, so I've been toying with the idea of installing ESXi to and booting from a 16GB USB thumb at each server. I also have 5 2TB 7200 RPM SATA drives (nothing fancy, but one for each server). For shared storage, I was then thinking of running one minimal Ubuntu VM per server (Off the USB or 2TB SATA) where each VM would be a "node" for some distributed FS like GlusterFS. The aggregated SATA disks would then be accessible to the vCD cluster via NFS.
Does that setup even sound feasible? How might you tweak it (ex. suck it up and build a separate NAS server)? Any complaints or tips and tricks with GlusterFS?
Many thanks, and do note...this is as much a science project as it is a lab build out. Suggestions are very much welcomed!
