ESX 3.5 Hardware Recommendations

[ANorton]

I am looking to implement VMware ESX 3.5 into my department. I am currently running the eval version on an older server but the server is no where near useful enough to run in full deployment. I am looking to deploy 3 servers, 2 Servers at my main location and 1 server at my DR site. I will be running about 8 Server and 4-5 workstations. I am also using NFS for my storage on my NetApp.

I am looking at some Dell servers but not sure if AMD or Intel is best and I know a lot of memory is good.

Thanks for all your help.

Aaron

[Texiwill]

Hello,

Pick something that is on the HCL (http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/docs/vi35_systems_guide.pdf). For that # of VMs, a dual Quad Core system with 8 pNICs and 16GB of memory would be more than sufficient. This means when you need to do so you could upgrade memory to gain access to more VMs are required. You will need at least 6 pNICs but 8 is usually better.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

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Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

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[ANorton]

What would I lose if I decided to use local storage instead of a SAN setup?

[gary1012]

VCB and vMotion to start the list...