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First VMWare Host - Dell T320

R

rosco

Gawd
Joined
Jun 22, 2000
Messages
722
I am looking to put in a VMWare ESXi server at our office. We just want to virtualize a Windows server 2008 machine that does basic file/print sharing and domain functions.

I'm thinking 32GB of RAM and 600GB SAS drives in RAID1. Sound OK? Anything I should be sure to include?

That should be plenty of storage for now and I figured I would also add a RAID10 array later if need be on it to increase storage.

I also have a physical Windows 2008 server that can stand in if there are issues with my virtual server.

Also, what are your favorite how to docs on how to setup something like this? I've begun the research process but a lot of what I'm reading is targeted towards a more complex setup than what I'm looking at.

Backups will be done to a NAS device that is already in place. Thanks.
 
If you're just doing a single PC, you should be fine...however I've found that more drives helps a lot when you have multiple virtual machines.


As to schizrade's question, if you have a system with a Windows license and you choose to make it a virtual machine host rather than a physical machine, you can add additional servers in the same physical foot print. Rather than buying a separate server for AD, File serving, another for AV server and other small issues, as we're currently doing with a client, a single rack server is going to handle those 3 machines, as well as host a few virtual workstations that will be accessed remotely.
 
schizrade said:
Why do you want to run it virtual?
Click to expand...

Easier to backup, portability if your primary hardware fails or you want to upgrade hardware later, and if you want to add other servers later you don't need new hardware. There aren't many reasons not to virtualize anymore.

OP, I setup a T320 recently that hosts SBS 2011, a couple of linux vm's, and a win7 pro vm that handles the backups. All works well. Similar setup to yours, 32gb, perc 710p, 2x 600gb SAS 15k (holds the OS for all 4 vm's), and a 3TB 7.2k sas raid 5 array for data. Performance is fine. I'll probably bump it up to 48gb now that vsphere 5.1 essentials got rid of the memory limits.
 
dave - Did esxi remove the 32GB limit? I thought that was still in place.
 
No, it's still there for the free version. These 320's are for clients, they are buying the essentials license (~$500), so we can backup with veeam/nakivo type apps. No vstorage api in the free one unfortunately.
 
Maybe I am missing something but if it was me and you already have the 2008 standard licensing just upgrade it to server 2012 standard. Once you have that you are allowed to run a physical server with two virtual instances under hyper-v.
I would think that would be much easier than dealing with esxi. I have nothing against esx I currently have 16 host running in our data center but am making the shift towards Hyper-v running 2012.
Worth thinking about anyway.
If you upgraded both of your 2008 boxes you could run a two node cluster and have four virtual servers. Or just run them in a shared nothing configuration and skip the clustering. Both are easy setups.
 
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