New VMWare Server install server sizing question

[chadd39]

We are going to get our toes wet with VMWare Server (Free version). We are a small shop, 200 users with 25 servers. I have setup a test server and been fairly happy with the results. Here is my plan:

Purchase a Dell Poweredge 6800.

(2) Zeon 3Ghz quad processors

32GB Ram

Windows 2003 Advanced

(6) 500GB 15K SCSI (Raid 5) 1 being Hot spare

(2) Perc4/DC controllers

Dual onboard GB NICs

Dual power supplies

I would like to put on it the following servers:

(1) Citrix server. This is one server out of our farm of 5. It is currently running on a PowerEdge 2650 with 4GB RAM and (2) 2.8 Ghz Zeons. Normal load is 25%

(1) Crystal Report server. Currently running on PowerEdge 1650 with 1 GB Ram and 1 1.4Ghz Pentium III Average load is 15%

(1) Voicemail server. Running on PowerEdge 1650 with 1 GB Ram and 1.4Ghz Pentium III. Average load is 15%

(1) Utility server. Does web filtering, Ipswitch What's up Gold, DHCP. Running on PowerEdge 1650 with 1 GB Ram and 1.4Ghz Pentium III. Average load is 15%

(1) Exchange 2003 server. Currently running on a PowerEdge 2650 with 2GB RAM and (1) 3 Ghz Zeon. Normal load is 10%

(1) Cognos report server. Currently running on PowerEdge 1650 with 1 GB Ram and 1 1.4Ghz Pentium III Average load is 10%

Based on what resources are available once all these servers are migrated over, I may throw a second Citrix server onto the Vm server.

Does anyone have any comments (good or bad) about this configuration.?? Any input would be greatly appreciated!!

[esiebert7625]

You have some heavy hitters on that server: Exchange, Cognos, Citrix. You mentioned average loads but I would be concerned with peak loads. Some of those apps are capable of using alot of processor and if they do they might negatively effect the performance of the other VM's. You might consider ESX Starter, it is relatively inexpensive and will provide much better performance then Server. At a minimum I would consider using a Linux OS as your host OS for Server which may give you the best performance.

Choosing between VMware Server and ESX Server - http://www.virtualization.info/2006/12/choosing-between-vmware-server-and-esx.html

Fyi…if you find this post helpful, please award points using the Helpful/Correct buttons.

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Thanks, Eric

Visit my website: http://vmware-land.com

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[chadd39]

What do you mean by ESX Starter. Is that the official name?

Peak loads on Citrix never go above 50%, Peak on Cognos never over 30% and Peak on Crystal Never over 30%

[esiebert7625]

Yup, ESX comes in 3 flavors, Starter, Standard, & Enterprise. Although now that I think about it Starter is limited to 8GB total physical RAM which would not work for you, you'd probably have to use Standard. You might start off on Server and migrate to ESX if performance becomes a problem.

Pricing, Packaging & Licensing Overview - http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi_pricing.pdf

[VirtualNoitall]

Since you are a company of about 200 users I would not be as worried about the performance; even with traditionally heavy hitting applications.

ESX starter would not be an option for this server as you would be running more than the 8GB it supports. To get 32 GB of RAM on ESX you would have to spring for Standard Edition.

RAID 5 would be my biggest concern. Are you able to get a battery backed cache for your raid controller? If so I would highly recommend adding that to the order.

Hope that helps!