NEW 3VM SETUP Suggestions??

[tcsuhit]

Greetings,

I am rebuilding our small business server setup. I have one: HP ProLiant ML350 G6 with 1.9TB (4TB RAID 10), 16GB, 2 x Xeon 5620 Quad Cores.

I have another:  HP ProLiant ML350 G6  12GB, 4TB (RAID 5), 2 x Xeon 5620 Quad Cores for secondary AD, DNS, Backup. That one will be a physical server, No VMs. All 3 VMs will be server on Windows 2008 R2 64bit. I am new to virtualization and plan to use ESXi 4.1. Here is what i plan to setup:

1. AD, DNS, DHCP
2. File/Print, Secondary AD (currently have 600GB in storage for shares)
3. Web(MYSQL, Apache, nothing heavy)

How much each server should get for RAM, Hard disk, thin-provision, etc....???

I appreciate any help given. Many thanks in advance.

Thanks

Brion(Noob)

[DSTAVERT]

What version of ESXi will you be installing? You hardware suggests that it can be the latest version 4.1 but you have posted in an older forum. If you can confirm the version I will move this thread.

The best advice for resources would be what the servers need. There is no rule. One of the benefits to virtualization is that you can tailor the resources to the exact needs of a particular application. Generally you would assign 1 virtual CPU to a server. If in testing the single vCPU wasn't enough it is easy to simply add another. RAM is the same. Start with the minimum suggested by the VMware new server wizard and add RAM if that isn't enough. As for storage there is no reason to not use thin provisioning unless there is a reason to do otherwise.

[tcsuhit]

I will be using ESXi 4.1. Sorry about posting in an older forum.

[DSTAVERT]

Moved to the vSphere ESXi 4 forums

[DSTAVERT]

I would take a run through the getting started webcasts. The first webcast will probably be most beneficial but the others might help you decide to use one of the licensing packages. If you are adventurous you can try this as well http://blogs.vmware.com/esxi/2011/04/become-a-true-esxi-expert-with-the-new-free-vmware-elearning-co...

[Walfordr · Accepted solution]

tcsuhit wrote:

Greetings,

I am rebuilding our small business server setup. I have one: HP ProLiant ML350 G6 with 1.9TB (4TB RAID 10), 16GB, 2 x Xeon 5620 Quad Cores.

I have another:  HP ProLiant ML350 G6  12GB, 4TB (RAID 5), 2 x Xeon 5620 Quad Cores for secondary AD, DNS, Backup. That one will be a physical server, No VMs. All 3 VMs will be server on Windows 2008 R2 64bit. I am new to virtualization and plan to use ESXi 4.1. Here is what i plan to setup:

1. AD, DNS, DHCP
   
2. File/Print, Secondary AD (currently have 600GB in storage for shares)
   
3. Web(MYSQL, Apache, nothing heavy)
   

How much each server should get for RAM, Hard disk, thin-provision, etc....???

I appreciate any help given. Many thanks in advance.

Thanks

Brion(Noob)

Its going to be based on your environment - users connecting, etc.  No one can give you hard figures to live by.

1. AD, DNS, DHCP - Server 2008 R2 - 2GB RAM, 1vCPU, At least 40GB for storage should be sufficient.

2. File/Print, Secondary AD- I suggest that you make the File/Print and the secondary DC separate servers. See suggestions above for DC VM specs. You could start off with 4GB and 1 or maybe 2 CPU for the file/print server - all depending on the load...

3. Web (MYSQL, Apache, nothing heavy) - Again its going to be based on your environment. A good place to start is with the application requirements/recommendations - scale up from there if necessary.  Even when tightly tuned databases can use up all the RAM that you have in the server.

Hope that this info helps.

Robert

[tcsuhit]

Hey thanks. I have a couple of dumb questions. Do you not use most of your RAM CPU resources if i will only ever have 3VM's? I am in a research center within the university and we will only have about 20 users max. on our own Forest. We have a lot of use of shares. What would you suggest to start with for RAM on the web server?? Do you believe that having the one physical as a secondary DC  and just the primary DC on VM should be enough?

[DSTAVERT]

There is no point to over provisioning RAM or CPU regardless of the fact that there is only a few VMs. The VMs will only be able to really use what they need. Most workloads only consume a tiny percentage of the CPU resources available whether it is a physical or virtual environment. Over provisioning CPU resources is hardly likely to make the application run faster. Start with the minimum and add resources only as normal running dictates. Once you start virtualizing you will find more VMs you would like to add. If you have over provisioned you will only need to remove resources.

It takes moments to add additional RAM or CPU to a VM. Start with the minimum for your web server. If you find you need more then add it. You can add RAM in very small increments

You can virtualize both DCs if you like. ESXi is used in huge organizations virtualizing many mission critical VMs. It is more than capable.

[tcsuhit]

Thank you to all!!! I will take this information and begin planning the structure.

Best Regards.

[DSTAVERT]

It will be most helpful to others if you keep this post updated with your progress.

Thanks and good luck with your adventure.