nuclearsnake
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2003
- Messages
- 445
Hi everyone,
It's been a while since I've had a big project to document and seeing this new Virtualized Computing section made me feel like starting a new log
The Goal
My main Win2003 server is an old Dell PowerEdge 830 with 3x250GB (no raid) drives and one 500GB that is out of space. It hosts users backups, along with being my central repository for music etc.
My other Win2003 is an old Compaq 4500, 7U, quad Xeon 400 from 1998 that needs to be shot it's so loud.
Other Win2003 servers do DNS/DHCP/etc/
I was planning on putting the following together as my ESXi box:
From my reading, the major issue everyone comes up with is the Disk performance. The 6 drives will be in a RAID5 array connected to the 5808. I don't want to put them in a Raid 0 Array as the data is important, and SAS drives are out of the question in terms of costs. Will this work? I know the Adaptec 5805 is on the HCL, but will the performance be enough?
Also, is it wise to virtualize a Win2003 that will be acting as a file server with ~5TB of storage?
Props to agrikk for the thread titled "Your home ESX server lab hardware specs?" that I pulled a bunch of info from, and to sabregen for getting me turned onto the Supermicro X7DCA-L
It's been a while since I've had a big project to document and seeing this new Virtualized Computing section made me feel like starting a new log
The Goal
- Migrate my Win2003 Servers to VMs
- Mirgrate my Smoothwall to a VM
- Build a testing network for server 2008/Vista/Exchange 2007/etc
- Have enough free space to last a while and able to add to it if needed
My main Win2003 server is an old Dell PowerEdge 830 with 3x250GB (no raid) drives and one 500GB that is out of space. It hosts users backups, along with being my central repository for music etc.
My other Win2003 is an old Compaq 4500, 7U, quad Xeon 400 from 1998 that needs to be shot it's so loud.
Other Win2003 servers do DNS/DHCP/etc/
I was planning on putting the following together as my ESXi box:
- Supermicro X7DCA-L-O (Dual 771)
- 2 x Intel E5410
- 6 x 2GB (KVR667D2D8P5/2G)
- Adaptec 5805 Storage Controller
- Adaptec Battery for 5808
- Supermicro Case CSE-742T-650B
- 6 x WD WD1001FALS (4.65TB after formatting)
From my reading, the major issue everyone comes up with is the Disk performance. The 6 drives will be in a RAID5 array connected to the 5808. I don't want to put them in a Raid 0 Array as the data is important, and SAS drives are out of the question in terms of costs. Will this work? I know the Adaptec 5805 is on the HCL, but will the performance be enough?
Also, is it wise to virtualize a Win2003 that will be acting as a file server with ~5TB of storage?
Props to agrikk for the thread titled "Your home ESX server lab hardware specs?" that I pulled a bunch of info from, and to sabregen for getting me turned onto the Supermicro X7DCA-L