My big plans have been delayed - so... that means it's time to upgrade my server to keep my sanity while I wait for life to resume. I am building a 2 processor Xeon 2.8Ghz machine with 6 gig of ram and a 1 TB SATA hard drive (for starters). I wanted something to host VMWare Server Images. My existing rackmount server has been converted to VMWare and the DNS and DHCP duties it performed have been rehosted on my OpenWRT Router. I also have an extra power supply laying around from when I rackmounted this particular server mobo and realized that ATX really wouldn't work correctly with the hybrid board (long story).
My buddy Carlos the Jackal said I shouldn't buy this particular motherboard because I would spend too much money finding RAM for it. The place that sold the mobo had RAM for $49/gig so I decided he was wrong :-D
Most of the parts should be here this week. I need a snow day so I can put it all together after the parts arrive.
In the meantime I'm building a base VMWare image that I can use for development. I'm going with CentOS 4.6 i386 for the initial VM. The Host is probably going to be the x64 version of the same OS. Seems pretty stable. CentOS 5.x sucks in VMWare right now - VMWare tools won't install. I'm sure you CAN get it to install, I just don't want to dork with it.
I eventually plan to ring the devil's doorbell and run away (install Vista on VMWare and play with it). I may as well with my MSDN Subscription it won't cost me anything.
I also want to try out various other Linux Distros like Ubuntu, Debian, Slackware etc. This will give me the opportunity to try out a ton of things without using old crappy hardware or committing myself to one particular install.
I may try to convert my trusty FreeBSD machine to VMWare as his hardware is aging. I wonder if it's as easy to virtualize as Linux is now that I know the secret ;-)
