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dediosj
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HELP for design

Hi guys

I need some advice to virtualize my current server room.

Currently , there are 4 servers: DC, WEB/Intranet,Exchange and Financial.Without redundancy.

I will buy a new server + NAS

My questions are:

1. Should I install the ESXI 5.5 from the scratch into the new server and configure 4 VM and a NAS? Can I manage it with a management laptop with the VMware cliente, or Web client, etc...

Is interesting to have the DC separate in other physical server ?

or

2. Install into the new server first a Windows 2008 as DC , and after WMware workstation 10 and install the 3 VM?or is there any other way to install ESXi?

How much RAM do you recommend for this WMvare server, or how can I calculate it? for each server is fine with 8 GB?

so can I consider to buy the server with 32 GB? I need to consider also memory for the ESXI ? how much memory take this process 4 GB?

For the physical server hard disks, I think in a RAId 5 with, 300GB. This server will only have the OS of all the servers, data will storage into the NAS. Is this OK?

And how may network cards??

The second part of this project will build another VMware server for clustering,

What do you think mates

thanks a lot in advanced for any comment or suggestions

KR

Jesus

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VRBitman
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For vCloud I would recommend this: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/VMware-Architecting-vCloud-WP.pdf

But are you sure your company really needs a cloud? You mentioned your server room is small with only 4 servers offering some basic services.

But virtualization is no doubt the way to go if you want to reduce costs and consolidate your physical servers. As regards storage it's difficult to say how much space you would need, but judging by the size of you server room maybe not much.

Take a look at VMware's Virtual SAN solution, it allows you to virtualize even the storage part of your infrastructure, thus eliminating even the NAS. https://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadBody/25933-102-2-34324/VMware_Virtual_SAN...

Also, there is really a lot to learn before implementing a virtual infrastructure. Not to mention one needs to have at least some experience administering virtual environments to efficiently and correctly design and implement a vSphere-based infrastructure. As grasshopper suggested, I would strongly recommend taking a course to learn the basics of vSphere.

-- VR Bitman | http://virtualis.info | vSphere 5.5 Guide: http://goo.gl/QUqTH7 VMware professional, virtualization & FOSS evangelist, informatician, geek VCA-Cloud, VCA-WM, VCA-DCV, VCP-DCV

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grasshopper
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Hi dediosj,

Welcome to the Communities!  Since this is your first introduction to VMware, let me clear up a couple of items.  You mentioned VMware Workstation, but keep in mind that Workstation is not used to run production VMs.  ESXi is the version you would use to get the best performance and reliability.  What may be confusing in your google searches is that consumer-grade products like VMware Workstation and VMware Fusion are popular for running virtualized versions of the ESXi hypervisor.  However, this is only for lab purposes or development.  So when you see mention of installing ESXi on Workstation, just remember that's for lab / testing only and you won't run real VMs like that.  Installing ESXi on Workstation is often referred to as Nested virtualization, as you can then run VMs on a virtualized ESXi VM (i.e. virtual inside a virtual).  Ok, I'll stop there as it may get confusing... but you will learn quickly.  There's nothing overly difficult about using VMware.

Baremetal vs Hosted

ESXi is a "baremetal" hypervisor, meaning it sits right on top of the hardware.  Both Workstation and Fusion are known as "hosted" solutions and they are installed as an application on top of an existing operating system (i.e. on top of Windows, MAC, linux, etc.).  In contrast, VMware ESXi is the operating system, and will be installed directly onto your new hardware with no other operating system below it.  Once you've booted your new Hardware to an ISO or CD and installed ESXi, after some configuration you can then run VMs on it.

Redundancy / Clustering

You mentioned you will start with buying one server, then adding another later.  I recommend purchasing both servers at the same time if possible so you can make mistakes and learn how the clustering works (it's easy don't worry) before placing production workloads on there.

VMware HCL

Perhaps the most important thing is ensuring that the hardware you buy is on the VMware Hardware Compatibility List.  Also the NAS device you choose will be important, though that is not listed on the HCL (it's up to you).  You mentioned that you are considering splitting the disks between local and NAS storage.  Although that would work, it's generally not a good idea.  Pick one option (either local disk or remote NAS) and commit to making that good.

Memory

There is no hard requirement for memory (other than the minimum requirements at install time which is currently between 4 to 6GB required to install ESXi).  With that said, you should plan on the ESXi hypervisor using about 4GB of RAM.  You can of course add more VMs than you have memory (known as over-committing) but that could cause performance degradation (balooning, swapping).  I would recommend a minimum of 64GB for your config.  More if possible.  Remember you need to size your 2 host cluster so that in a failure scenario all VMs could run on one host if needed (handy for maintenance too).

P2V

Since you will be migrating your existing physical servers to VMs, you can use VMware Converter to P2V them.  The only exception is the domain controller which you should build a fresh VM and join it to your existing environment, then promote it.  Once all looks good you can decom the physical, or keep it as a secondary.  It's a good practice to keep a physical DC around if possible but that's becoming more and more rare nowadays.  For example, my company is 100% virtualized.  We don't have a single physical server that isn't running ESXi.  It takes time though to build up your experience and confidence to do that.

Important

You will also need to learn how to configure timesync on your ESXi hosts and VMs.  This is critical to your success.

Getting Started

Anyway, you will mostly learn from experience.  Just go to https://my.vmware.com and download the evaluations you want; they are all 60 day full trials with all features.  If that runs out, you can login with another email address (i.e. gmail, etc.) and get another 60 day evaluation key and rebuild your test ESXi hosts again.  In the end, you can go with the totally free version of ESXi, but that gives no access to APIs and does not provide redundancy.  You will probably want to install 2 ESXi hosts and a vCenter server. The vCenter can now be deployed as a virtual appliance known as VCSA (vCenter Server Appliance) or you can do it the old fashioned way where vCenter is installed on a Windows VM and point to a local SQLexpress (comes with it) or point it to a SQL VM.

Networking

As for network cards, just make sure they are on the HCL (Intel and Broadcom are the popular ones).  Most 10Gb shops are using only 2 NICs per host.  If you will be deploying Gb Copper (i.e. 1000Mbps) you may go with anywhere from 4 to 8 NIC ports total typically.  Ideally this should be spread across multiple physical cards to avoid single point of failure.  Really, it's totally up to you how you want to lay it out and depends how you want to divide your traffic.  Multiple functions can be blended together on the same interfaces (i.e. Management and vMotion) but typically Storage traffic (i.e. NFS or iSCSI) go on a dedicated pair of NICs.  The VM network can consist of as little as 2 interfaces up to the theoretical maximums.

Network Example

I dug up an old copper example I did a while back.  I made an effort to cleanse it where it's blacked out but you should get the idea of the main things we look at when designing the networking.  I think this was one of the first iterations before I confirmed the actual PCI slot numbers from lspci so for the discerning HP advocates out there don't bite my head off if the slot naming is off Smiley Happy.  Overall the idea of the design should show what I'm trying to express.

Example-ESXi-Copper-Design-Cleansed.png

Well that should be enough to get you started.  I don't want to overwhelm you with too much (maybe too late lol).  Hopefully some others can help out here by adding feedback, links, videos, blogs, etc. that are useful in learning.  Of course the official VMware Education classes would be a great investment (i.e. install configure manage) and really is mandatory before going production.

dediosj
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Hi grasshopper !!!


Many thanks to take your time  writing this clear doc. Now you solve my doubts and misunderstandings, sure new will come.Smiley Wink

only last questions: DC should be also virtualzed . Not installed in a separate box.

How much  HD storage local server need I provisioned for the 4 servers? all are Windows 2008R2 , around 500GB?

I am not pretty sure if  I will have budget for 2 servers ( for clustering) for this fiscal year,anyway I will highly recommend it.

Do you agree for a storage cabin, to buy a synology?

To perform backup from the NAS, can I  use HP store solution in DLT´s right? for security reason we need to send the data out of the office and keep safe.

I will have only one NAS for both servers, I will create 2 LUN`s , this sound good to you refer to cluster, or I need to have also 2 separate NAS?

which frequency do you think I need to do a snapshot for every Virtual machine for backup purpose.


and the last last question , could you link to a dummy document that explain moving to the Cloud,, like Cloud Director. I really don´t understand what is necessary to do and for what.,Maybe means to have all infrsatructure in third company who offers cloud servers..  Maybe for mobility..:smileyconfused:


Anyway thanks again mate

cheers!

Jesus

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VRBitman
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You should definitely virtualize DC. See this excellent VMware white paper on the matter: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/solutions/Virtualizing-Active-Directory-Domain-Services-on-VMware-vS...

-- VR Bitman | http://virtualis.info | vSphere 5.5 Guide: http://goo.gl/QUqTH7 VMware professional, virtualization & FOSS evangelist, informatician, geek VCA-Cloud, VCA-WM, VCA-DCV, VCP-DCV
dediosj
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Thanks VR!!!

do you have any doc like this for Cloud VMware? something for dummy's...

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VRBitman
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For vCloud I would recommend this: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/VMware-Architecting-vCloud-WP.pdf

But are you sure your company really needs a cloud? You mentioned your server room is small with only 4 servers offering some basic services.

But virtualization is no doubt the way to go if you want to reduce costs and consolidate your physical servers. As regards storage it's difficult to say how much space you would need, but judging by the size of you server room maybe not much.

Take a look at VMware's Virtual SAN solution, it allows you to virtualize even the storage part of your infrastructure, thus eliminating even the NAS. https://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadBody/25933-102-2-34324/VMware_Virtual_SAN...

Also, there is really a lot to learn before implementing a virtual infrastructure. Not to mention one needs to have at least some experience administering virtual environments to efficiently and correctly design and implement a vSphere-based infrastructure. As grasshopper suggested, I would strongly recommend taking a course to learn the basics of vSphere.

-- VR Bitman | http://virtualis.info | vSphere 5.5 Guide: http://goo.gl/QUqTH7 VMware professional, virtualization & FOSS evangelist, informatician, geek VCA-Cloud, VCA-WM, VCA-DCV, VCP-DCV
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dediosj
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Training for sure Smiley Wink

Many thanks

Jesus

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vfk
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You have a lot to learn but nothing too daunting if you are willing to cover some basics.    You mention, you have some application without redundancy, are you planning to make them redundant when you virtualize them.  Think about features you would like from virtualising your data center i.e. vmotion, ha, drs and so on.  Also, think about growth, are you likely add some more servers.  Approach this with end goal in mind, and work backwards.

--- If you found this or any other answer helpful, please consider the use of the Helpful or Correct buttons to award points. vfk Systems Manager / Technical Architect VCP5-DCV, VCAP5-DCA, vExpert, ITILv3, CCNA, MCP