Drive Space For 2x Win2k12 VMs - Hyper-V

R

rosco

Gawd
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I have a Dell T420 server with 2x 146GB 15kSAS in RAID1, plus 4x 600GB 10k SAS in RAID10.

I need two guest Windows Server 2012 VMs with Hyper-V as host. One of the VMs will have Sql 2012 and needs 600GB (more is always better) of space. The other VM needs 100GB of space (OS and LOB app that connects to SQL database). So, any extra I will just allocate to the SQL VM.

I'm wondering if I should try to have the 146GB RAID1 array host more than just the Hyper-V host OS? I'm wondering if the SQL server VM could also run from there for example for OS and SQL program only and keep it's database on the RAID10 array.

So, is the extra speed from the 15k RPM drives worth trying to fit the host and one of the guests on the array? Or, is it not worth the extra complexity and just put both VMs on the RAID10 array (guest VM and their data) like I was originally thinking?

When I received it from Dell, they had the 146GB RAID1 divided into one partition with 40GB and one with 90GB. They have Hyper-V host installed to the 40GB partition.

Thanks.
 
I'd keep the drives layout as you have listed above (OS/Hyper V guest on Raid 1 and SQL on RAID 10). I think the extra few IOPs you will get from the higher speed drives is not worth the sacrifice of redundancy/resiliency of the Raid 10. The partitioning of the Raid 1 is preference. I would partition leave the partition as is (or increase first partition to 60GB) and load the host on the first partition and the guests onto the second partition. That way if you have to reload the host for some reason the VM guests are somewhat safe.
 
But you do think it is worth trying to install the guest OS to the RAID1 array (second partition)? Is 90GB big enough for two Win2k12 installs? Or, if I resized the first partition to 60GB then I would have even less for the two guest OS installs.

So, the question is guest OS on the second partition of the RAID1 array or guest OS on the RAID10 array along with the SQL database?
 
Hope much use will the SQL DBs/VM see? Would there be a possible IOP or contention issue?
 
It will be used for the main LOB app database. That said, there are only 10 people in the office. The company that makes the LOB app gave us a choice of doing one physical machine or two virtual machines as either would meet their requirements. I chose two virtual. Now I'm just wanting to figure out the best way to slice it up for the two virtuals to use.
 
I would not give a 2k12 VM anything less than 40GB each. I have been having issues with 2k12 VMs blowing up and filled a 30GB drive quickly. These servers are doing nothing but hosting an IIS test environment for our small application. That stupid winsxs folder is over 12GB on those servers, and there is no way to decrease it (at least not by much).

You don't have access to the windows drive cleaner (which can clean up update files), without installing the desktop experience (WMP and other useless shit on a server) and the tablet/ink feature. I love working with 2012 except for this one issues that MS was absolutely stupid to overlook. There are so many complaints on the forums about this too...
 
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