Hardware Question

[pmolina]

I've inherited a network with 50 + users running on 2 terminal servers supported by 2 W2K domain controllers, an Exchange 2003 server, and a SQL 2000 server for a printing solution. File serving and VPNs are handled by one of the DCs, Backups by the other DC. The warranties have expired so I finally get to rebuild this.

I'm very new to VMware, but my gut is to virtualize this network to make upgrading to Windows 2008 easier. I have extensive testing to do to make sure everything will work, and no budget for test hardware. So a big ESX server would be just the ticket to run the old network side by side with a test network.

The Dell Sales Engineer suggested a pair of dual quad core 32 gig 1950s for ESX connected to an MD3000i iSCSI san and just rip everything onto that. I would use the one new standalone server they have for management and retread one of the faster older servers as a domain controller.

Is this plan complete suicide, vis performance? What other questions should I be asking? I'm kind of looking at this as creating one gigantic SBS.

[Ken_Cline · Accepted solution]

Moved to a more appropriate forum.

You're looking at only five servers, and from the sounds of it, they aren't overly busy servers. Also, since the warranties have expired, I'm assuming they're at least three years old - which means they aren't real "barn burners". I doubt you'll have any problems with this...couple things to consider:

- When you migrate your systems to VMs, make your VMs as small as reasonable. Basically, you've already got these workloads running. Take a couple of weeks and monitor their resource usage (CPU, RAM, Disk, Network) and use the actual utilization numbers to help you size the VMs. Start with a single vCPU in your VM - you probably won't need two or four. Limit the RAM allocation to what is actively used - if the system doesn't need 2GB RAM, don't allocate it!

- Size your systems so that you can support the entire workload on N-1 servers. In your case, N=2, so N-1=1 (i.e. you need to be able to run everything on one box so you can take one offline for maintenance).

- Keep your VI design simple - especially if you're not going to bring in a consultant to help. Even if you do bring in help, justify every configuration change that is made - don't change a default value unless there's a good reason to change it (and make sure you document any changes and the rationale for the change)

- These forums are your friend - hang out here

Ken Cline

VMware vExpert 2009

VMware Communities User Moderator

[Jasemccarty]

I agree 100% with Ken.

Also, in my part time job, we have 3 Dell 2950's w/ 3 MD3000i iSCSI SANs. Good setup.

They are also dual Quad w/32GB of RAM.

Jase McCarty, VCP, vExpert

http://www.jasemccarty.com

Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center

(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach

_{Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct}

[khughes]

Welcome to the forums. I agree with everything that Ken says. You would be surprised that you have all these servers which might have 2+ CPU's and 2-4GB of RAM, and when you virtualize them, they run perfectly well (if not better) using 1 vCPU and 1GB of ram. This was the case for our file server which before was 2 CPU's and 4GB or Ram, now its 1 vCPU and 1GB of ram. Also look down the road at what you might want to do, if you're looking to expand or add servers. I tend to never buy for "right now" but I buy for 2-3 years down the road. Also you will need to decide if you want features like DRS / HA / VMotion.

• Kyle

[khughes]

Don't forget the networking side of things, you probably will need to invest in a couple Gig switches if you don't already have some.

• Kyle

[pmolina]

Thanks Kyle,

The quote came back with an iSCSI optimized PowerConnect 5424. So I think the Dell Engineer covered me there. I hadn't thought much about it except to make a couple of vLANs, one for the iSCSI, one for the servers, then uplink the servers to 10/100 land for access to printers, inet and workstations/thin clients.

-Paul

[pmolina]

Thanks Ken!

The whole SAN thing is worrying me a little: The unit was quoted with 2 dual-port controllers, and 7 300 GB 15K drives. She seemed to say I could go in and set up different RAID levels depending on the requirements of the role of the virtualized server - eg RAID 10 for the SQL server. But wouldn't I do that before laying VMFS onto the drive that creates? In which case, isn't 7 drives a little small spindle-wise? Might I be better off with 10 - 15 10K 150 gig drives? I had hoped to run 3 raid sets minimum, one for each ESX server, and one for my DEV/test VMs.

This is a departure for me, in the past I have just had 8 internal drives in a RAID 5 on an R900 or in a big HP ML370.

-Paul

[khughes]

Well if you have an iSCSI SAN you should be connecting all the LUNs to all the ESX hosts so everyone sees all the Virtual Machines. Designing your LUNs is something you will need to sitdown and figure out, there is a great post that is just getting going on this subject - http://communities.vmware.com/thread/198071

Also the more spindles are usually the better, but it does also limit expansion later on if you need to go that route. I wouldn't worry about making a LUN for each ESX server since you should configure them to see all the storage space on the SAN, if that makes sense. For example we have ~ 3 TB of space on our SAN which we broke down into 2 logical drives, LUN 0 and LUN 1. Those two LUNs are presented to all of our ESX servers so we can vmotion them around, along with allowing drs and HA to work.

• Kyle

[pmolina]

Hmmm. After reading that thread I think I have some homework to do. SANs are their own topic.

-Paul

[khughes]

Well if you want to read up on configurations, best practices etc.. http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vi_pages/vi_pubs_35u2_3i_e.html lists all the documentation you would need. Its a great source of information.

• Kyle

[pmolina]

IE to Paul: the name you have entered for the shortcut already exits on your favorites folder.... I guess thats a really good link!