"Enterprise-Class" Small Business Network (10-20 users)

[ConcordMotorspo]

I posted a variation of this question on my previous discussion, 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 I've been presented 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 examined the aspects of the implementation I'm still a bit fuzzy on to formulate 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 I should 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!

[mnasir]

A. Two physical servers - preferably quad cores with at least 20 GB memory on each server. Servers are cheap these days.

B. You will need vCenter 2.5, ESX 3.5 (vSphere/vCenter 4 are not supported for View 3.1.1) with HA and DRS, VMware view manager server license, preferably with linked clones license.

C. You don't need a secondary view manger server, since your primary view manger sever will be virtual and will be highly available due to your cluster being a HA cluster.

Only thing is remaining is you deciding on what kind of storage you want to get, I will just get a cheap VMware supported ISCSI storage from Dell or HP.

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[mnasir]

I have a 100 node View environment - I only have 1 view manager server (1 vCPU + 2GB memory) and I have no issues. Please let me know if you need any specific information configuring your view environment. It is very important to read the view deployment best practice guide.

Please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful", if you find this post useful. Thanks!!

[ConcordMotorspo]

, Thank you so much, I think I'm one step little closer to understanding the physical hardware layout -- I wish we had a dry-erase board here B^) ... So if I understand all this correctly, I require no more than two well-equipped physical servers to install ESX 3.5 / vSphere / View onto?

The part I'm still unclear on is whether VMware View requires a (3rd) separate physical machine to install Windows Server onto -- in order to run Active Directory for the VMware View desktops -- Keeping in mind that one requirement I have is to virtualize an existing server running an application central to the small business (which requires Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition running a 10-CAL Terminal Server). Michael Haverbeck was giving me some helpful info on my last discussion topic before it went cold, and had this to say:

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.

Does this mean I need a physical Windows Server for vCENTER and a second physical Windows Server for a View Connection Server? Additionally, does vCENTER install on

the two ESX servers hosting View or on a Windows Server?

I'm having trouble understanding where the VMware components all need to fit into physical machines, I think because there are different ways to do things, I'm getting different answers ... I'm still trying to break this down into distinct physical machine groups and including the appropriate VMware components in each group so I can make a Network Map ... I'll post when I have it made so please keep checking in B^)