File Server running as a VM

[heyeric]

Hello… I’m planning on upgrading my office from the “free” VMware server to ESXi or the new Vsphere this summer. My question is that one of my current Dell PE2950’s will act as one of the VM Host; it’s now our file server for Excel, Word, PDF etc..

My question is PtoV this file server and run it as a VM along with 10 other VM’s…. The volume has about 680 gig of data on it.

I’m also purchasing a SAN as well, but with the 7200RPM drives..

Is anyone running a file server as a VM? Is it suggested and any opinions on if the SAN will have enough performance to do all of this? Thanks in advance!

[coax_k]

I run a 200gig file server as a vm on a 2950 (the host has 2 other windows VM's on it) with no issues.

vm images are stored on a MD3000i SATA (7200rpm) SAN and all runs well. Other vm's on the host are both w2k8r2, one with SQL 08.

Have 8 cores on the 2950 and 8 gig of RAM.Don't come anywhere close to touching the sides re CPU usage but my RAM allocation is tight.

If you 2950 is a decent spec and your san has the space and spindles you won't have any issues.

My recommendation is that you can never have enough ram.

Not sure if I read this right but your not planning to run the 10 vm's on a single 2950 are you? If they are windows based and you are planning on doing that then your 2950 and SAN had better be monsters then......

[heyeric]

Hey thanks for your response. Sounds like it’s very doable depending on your hardware of course! I Plan on using my 2 2950’s that are both running VMware server free addition that’s runs on top of Windows, not ESX. I just don't have a SAN yet, just direct attached storage so going to Vsphere this summer hence my question.

I have 2 Dell PE2950’s that will have ESX installed on to them. Both have Dual Quads, 1 of them with 32 gigs of ram and the other one has 16. That server is the current file server that I need to free up and virtualize so I can install ESX on it. The 32 gig machine just hosts VM’s, 10 of them now. The 16 gig has 4. So I’ll split the load between these 2 and hope to get decent performance. Thanks for your input!

Attached is one of the SAN candidates, any opinion on it? Please see attached... Thank you!

[nanair01]

But since you are using the P2V converter to convert your Host to a VM (file server), I believe you will have to make some amendments in the memory and CPU allocated for the converted VM.

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[rucky · Accepted solution]

It is very doable

And i have virtualise file servers in different companies, you just have to plan it very carefully.

Depending on your SAN and disk configuration (raid levels) you will get much better read/writes from the SAN disk.

The first file server i virtualised was on DAS PV220s (set with raid5 – 10 disks) the performance was bad bad ! once i moved all the data to san disks (equalogic) and it perfomaed a lot better (again your underlying raids will be important) talk to a storage expert.

Note – I use RDM’s (raw device mapping) – better for disk intensive apps, servers, (obviously you will loose some of the flexilbiy with vmdks, but its a balancing act)

And nanair01 is right, you will have to do some modifications , you can detach all the perphrials which you dont need like, like serial, floppy, its also a good idea to install any dell open manage stuff if you have got it..

But yes file servers can be virtualised.

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[Bradpinkston201]

Did you decide on the ix12?  I'm considering this storage array for a VMWare project also.