Mini-pcs As Server Hardware

C

Cal Miyatake

Geek Trainee
I have received advice from our project manager that he believes that we should remove/refresh all our Dell Servers hosting ESXi6 with Zotac Zbox mini-PCs bare version. He believes this is where the industry is going and highly recommends it. He is pushing this quite heartedly and our manager is actually considering. So, I am being asked to to do "Due Diligence" to see if this is , in fact, the way to go or is this a "pie in the sky" project.



Anyone also considering this? Any advice?
 
Thanks very much. The specific device recommended is the Zotac ZBox. From the spec's it appears it has the power and memory to run as a server but its small form seems to hint to me that it would be difficult to find parts or work on it should there be a problem. But, my main fear is that this technology is focused as a media workstation and not server for a reason. I don't know of anyone taking this technology beyond that and have not heard a peep from anyone who would even consider this for servers not to mention domain based or virtual environments server/hosts. It is curious that our Project Manager would propose let alone promote it. So, I need to get as much info as possible. It could be that I am wrong and that this is, in fact, the technology of the future for servers as he states.
 
Those Zotacs use processors very unsuitable for servers, so you're right. Add list somewhat poor virtualization support.

There are certain stupid people that think they know (or someone pays for them for telling lies). Cloud storage is good example.

What that "in the future" probably means is that there will be datacenters with huge amount of "simple" and ineffective cores available, so it's very easy to dedicate cores. Like customer 1 gets x amount of cores for use.

Anyway, those are specially made for that purpose. That ZBox is not. So your project manager is wrong.
 
What's the endgame here? Power efficiency? Smaller space?
You can achieve those, but as already stated, the ZBox isn't the solution and is lacking in flexibility. You don't know the future, so making a radical change because you think it's the future is a bad idea. The Zbox isn't intended for server-level stress levels. Servers are pretty much no-frills for environment, but they are very solid and built for reliablity. Zotac isn't a big name in the business last I checked. I've read very few reviews of their motherboards or the Zbox. The products are consumer level, not server level, so what if you need RAID 5 or 6, or something else? They can't pull it off because they're not meant for it.

My suggestion is to look at solutions that expand the capacity of what you do have, assuming they're due for replacement. If you wanted an HTPC, the Zbox might be something to consider. For a server, hell no. Tell your manager to keep a pallet of Red Bull on hand at all times if he does that move. You'll need the energy to keep going with all the trouble you'll have with the "upgrades".
 
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