Re-engineering a Small Business Network

[ConcordMotorspo]

Hello everyone, I am consulting for a small business to re-engineer their network. They currently have a simple 10-workstation network with just one 2U server (a TYAN Transport TA26 with a pair of 2nd Gen AMD Opteron 2000 series Dual-Core processors) running Windows Server 2003 R2 standard edition (the OS required for their shop management software) as well as all their other business applications.

My key design objectives are to:

(A) Separate and Isolate Essential Business Applications from apps that bring Web threats

(B) Simplify Desktop Provisioning and Management

(C) Introduce Fault Tolerance and Business Continuity

In addition, I need to be able to do this for absolutely as little cost as possible, and leverage our existing hardware as best I can. In other words; I need to apply Enterprise Datacenter methodologies using Small Business sensibilities. I understand what most VMware's products do for the most part, but my hands-on experience is limited to VMware Workstation, Server, ACE, and Player. I already know I want VMware View 3 for centralized desktop management, and may want to use VMware ThinApp to deploy any stand-alone applications that everyone uses (like MS Office, Firefox) except for the one app (the shop management software) which unfortunately requires Terminal Server -- So I want to convert the existing Windows Svr'03 R2se Terminal Server running the shop management software, into a virtual machine I'm hoping can also run on the same physical ESX or ESXi server that also hosts VMware View

My Questions are these:

(Q1) What is the minimum number of physical servers required for a 10-20 user VMware View 3 solution plus one virtualized Windows Server 2003 R2 "standard edition" 10-client Terminal Server?

(Q2) What is the most strategic combination of VMware purchases to make in order to assemble the most effective combination of VMware components for a virtualized Small Business Datacenter?

(Q3) Would a VMware Sphere Essentials or Plus package perhaps be an appropriate solution for what I am trying to do or would that just be overkill for a 10-20 user network?

Thanks everyone for your time and consideration on my topic B^) any useful suggestions will be very much appreciated, as I don't have time right now for training seminars or a budget for expensive consults. I just need to get this all implemented well, soon, and for the right cost.

[MHAV]

I'd go for VMware View Premier and you should get all you need from Virtual Center as Control Unit to ESX Enterprise and ThinApp. Buy a package like for 20 or 30 Users (some more for testing and expanding). You should use two physical Servers and use ESXi Embedded if it's supportet for the hardware you are planing to use (www.vmware.com/go/hcl). Use Windows XP for View and not Vista that'll give you much less trouble. CPU should be enough with 2 physical Servers and put as much memory in the servers as you can.

Regards

Michael Haverbeck

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[dtracey]

Hello there,

Some good answers above. I would agree that two physical servers will be needed to meet your engineering and fault tolerance objectives. You haven't mentioned how you are going to address your business continuity needs though.

What is the business tolerance to downtime? Do they have a realistic RPO / RTO? Have you had any thoughts about offsite backups, redundancy etc?

Just a few thoughts to chuck in to the mix really!

Dan

[ConcordMotorspo]

MHAV thank you for your recommendations ...

Would your suggestion of two physical ESXi running VMware View Premier also support running a Windows Terminal Server VM?

Also, would this require that I buy an additional ESXi license for 2 sockets? (our existing server has 2 CPUs, and while View "Enterprise" includes just 1 ESX license for 2 CPUs, I missed it if VMware states anywhere how many CPU licenses are included with "Premier")

[MHAV · Accepted solution]

I would put a Terminal Server in this Envirenment as well; but keep in mind that you need a Windows Server for Virtual Center and Connection Broker as well and I would not put the those two on the Terminal Server.

No you don't have to buy Extra Licenses for ESXi as far as I see but I'm not sure - it depends on the number View Licenses you buy meaning the more View Licenses you buy the more "free" ESX Enterprise Licences you get. Maybe this Document will give you some answers on pricing and licensing FAQ

Regards

Michael Haverbeck

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

[ConcordMotorspo]

hahah! dtracey (you make me laugh) "business continuity needs", oh my... This is definitely something I have been adamantly urging them to address for quite some time, yet this is a term no one there is thinking about unless I say "remember that $7000 rebuild after the network virus last spring?" or "too bad your old Dual-WAN router was cooked 2 years ago by a lightning strike to the improperly grounded facility housing the server".

What's the best way (in addition to grounding the building from lightning) to maintain business continuity, given the small size of the organization? ... I will ask the owners what they consider their RPO / RTO to be ... (just as soon as I explain what that means) B;^)

[dtracey]

Haha - i know what you mean - I am an independent consultant too and get this all the time! "Just quickly put a DR solution in place - we dont wanna know about it..."

The bottom line is that the BCDR plan must be driven by the business. There are a few metrics that you can work on that will need management input, such as maximum tolerable downtime (how long can the business can tolerate being completely down and yet still viable), and the businesses recovery point objective and recovery time objective (sorry - should have explained those earlier) meaning your (IT Dept) goals for recovering the infrastructure to agreed point.

Your solution in this scenario will be anything from a simple tape backup solution that is taken offsite every evening (typically meaning that the business must be able to tolerate a whole day lost transactionally, say if they lose the site at 5:59pm before the backup is taken etc - and the subsequent 'rebuild time' once they have retrieved tapes from offsite store and obtained relacement hardware if needed etc) - right through to paying for a cold/warm standby soluton - leased from a datacenter provider or similar.

Sorry it's very brief but it's lunch time - i'm happy to talk further on specifics if you want help fleshing something out for your scenario!

Dan

[ConcordMotorspo]

thanks! I will take all the help i'm offered to get a plan together, I'm interested in learning more about the standby soluton - leased from a datacenter -- (I'm sure it isn't cheap but maybe there's a low-cost method of achiving this kind of availability. I'll check back later today, thanks again Dan!

[ConcordMotorspo]

Michael, I think you gave me a correct answer, and want to mark it as such, so Thank You B:^) ...but I'm just a little confused about your answer and how it pertains to my first question: (Q1) What is the minimum number of physical servers required for a 10-20 user VMware View 3 solution plus one virtualized Windows Server 2003 R2 "standard edition" 10-client Terminal Server?

In addition to the two ESX servers you suggest ...

(A) how many other physical server machines will I need for the Windows Server for Virtual Center and _*Connection

Broker*_? ... and

(B) can the Windows Server and be the same machine as the Connection

Broker?

(C) How powerful should this machine / machine be for a 10-20 user environment?

I've looked at the diagrams ...if it would help you explain this to me, would you possibly be able to provide me with a simple layout topography of how this should look? Thanks so much for your responses, every little bit helps!

[ConcordMotorspo]

I posted a variation of this question on Michael Haverbeck's thread above, but I'm interested in everyone's input ... and I wanted to clarify and update my questions after factoring in the helpful ideas and concepts you've all offered so far -- thank you all B:^) ... I've been studying the attached diagrams trying to ascertain how to scale the right VMware solution for this small 10-20 user VMware View environment, including one Terminal Server VM and reasonably-priced fault tolerance -- down to the common denominator for a small business "micro-Datacenter" ... using the minimum number of bare-metal servers ... and fitting all this into a 22" tall rack". If anyone is up to it ... I think a simple, quick, MS paint style edit of one of these network topography layouts I attached, might speak volumes to me about how this should look. I've identified the aspects of the implementation I'm still a bit fuzzy on and formulated these questions -- they pertain mostly Bare-Metal requirements:

(A) Given the small scale of this 10-20 user implementation (and very limited-yet-flexible budget), how many physical servers should I expect to require -- in order to decide on what to purchase for the project? ...

(B) ... Which VMware components must be installed on which of the minimum number of required physical machines? ...

(C) ... (this is the more complex question): Can any of the required physical machines (such as for dual redundant Connection Broker/Servers, or for the Windows Server for Virtual Center) ... be (separately, or running on the same PC) ... be just simple one-socket, single or dual-core desktop boxes with perhaps the added reliability of a mirrored OS disk array? -- Or would it be almost necessary or overwhelmingly preferable to get more fault-tolerant hardware for these infrastructure nodes? -- Maybe a dual-node 1U rack-mount system such as the 2-socket-per-node Transport GT28 or the 1-socket-per-node Tank GT24 ... and re-purpose the existing dual-socket Opteron TYAN Transport TA26 server (with it's 1.5 TB RAID6 array) as a NAS or SAN storage appliance + an identical physical TA26 machine perhaps, to support the High Availability feature in Sphere Essentials Plus package for the storage infrastructure?

Thanks so much for your responses, every little bit helps!

I edited this message for clarity at about 8:45 PM Eastern Time