Editing Hyper-converged Infrastructure (section)

== Costs ==
There are four key sources of costs for a homelab [[HCI]] solution. Those are:
# Compute nodes
#* These will vary by your requirements but could be anything from [[Intel NUC]]s, to whitebox hosts, and even full size vendor servers (e.g. [[HP ML110]], [[HP MicroServer]] etc.
#* See our article on '''[[Building_a_Homelab#Compute|Compute]]''' for more ideas on chassis and form factors!
#* Bear in mind that some HCI software will require a significant amount of resources especially RAM, so you may wish to consider a minimum of 16-32GB RAM per node. YMMV depending on software vendor.
# Drives (ideally identical per node, but depending on the [[Homelab Storage Software|software solution]] used, they don't have to be). These typically consist of a combination of one or more of the following:
#* Flash Tier(s) which could be made up of one or more of the following:
#** [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NVM_Express NVMe] / PCI flash device(s) - These can be pretty expensive, and should only really be considered if you want to do a true all flash [[HCI]] solution.
#** [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.2 M.2 flash device(s)] - These are significantly less expensive than most typical PCI flash devices, can be presented as an [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NVM_Express NVMe] or [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA#Mini-SATA_.28mSATA.29 mSATA] and are an ideal solution if you are building a small form factor lab, such as an [[Intel NUC]] [[nanolab]]! They can be found online for as little as £40 ($60) for a 128GB device.
#** SSD(s) - At current prices, a 128-256GB flash device should be very inexpensive and combined with a 1-2TB spindle will be a cost effective and capacious solution! Prices start from as little as £30 ($45) for a 128GB drive, but at these prices, you probably want to start with a larger 240GB drive as a minimum (£55 / $80) to provide longer SSD life and a bit more future proofing.
#* Spindle Tier
#** Normally one or more 5400/7200 RPM drives is plenty for a homelab scenario, but the critical thing is working out how large your working set is and match your flash and spindle tiers. Many HCI solutions now support all flash, so this tier should be considered optional. Go for bang-for-buck here with 1-2TB maximum storage per drive, as you will have at least 3 drives in a 3-node [[HCI]] solution, which is tonnes of space for a homelab!
# [[Networking]]
#* If you want to use standard 1Gbps [[networking]] then this is of minimal cost, though you may want to buy a switch which can support VLANs as a minimum, for segregation of traffic.
#* If you want to use [[10Gbps Homelab Networking|10Gbps networking]], which is the general industry recommendation (though doesn't actually matter at a small scale), expect to get your credit card out!
# [[Homelab Storage Software|Software]] - This can vary anything from free to really expensive!
#* A number of popular [[HCI]] vendors provide a free community edition or non-production edition of their [[Homelab Storage Software|software]].
#* Other vendors such as [[VMware Licensing]] provide an NFR licensing method which will cost up to a couple of hundred dollars per year.
#* If you get involved with certain vendor advocacy programmes such as  [[VMware Licensing|vExpert]] or [[PernixData|PernixPro]], you can be provided with free licenses for [[Homelab Storage Software|software]].