The Spyder
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2002
- Messages
- 2,628
Hey guys, looking for your input on a small project I am planning over the next 3 months. I started working for my old company again and while I was gone, everything went to heck. Since it is a no downtime /little as possible environment (equipment runs 24/7), I decided to replace the 5yr old servers/ Corrupted SBS2003 I originally put in and switch to an ESXi environment.
Hardware plans consists of the following thus far:
Primary ESXi host:
Supermicro 2u Dual Quad Xeon, 32gb ECC, 4x 300gb SAS Raid 10, Intel Pro 1000PT Quad
Secondary ESXi host/test box:
IBM X3560 2u, Dual Quad Xeon, 24gb, 4x 300gb SAS Raid 10, Intel Pro 1000PT Quad
Storage server:
IBM X3550 1u, Quad Xeon, 8gb, 2x160gb Raid 1, Intel Pro 1000PT Quad, Acera 1680
Norco 4220 4u, HP SAS expander+ PCMIG, 600w Redundant Powersupply, 2x 300gb 15k SAS Raid 0 (volatile test box storage), 6x 750gb SAS Raid 5 with 1 hotspare, 2x 2tb Hitachi Raid 1 (IT storage.)
I have been advised to keep the VM/OS storage local to the servers and use my SAN for the larger storage pools. (As reflected by the disk choices in the servers.) OS of choice so far is SBS2011 as it fits our environment. However due to projected growth, I am open to running straight S2K8R2 and splitting the rolls between a AD/DNS, exchange box, fileserver, and Open Filer for the SAN. We have 35 users/50 devices now and over the next three years this will double and a second site will be added. I do need several virtual workstations (2nd server) and I figure it will be a good dev/test box.
The company has a limited budget and much of the hardware has come from ebay/CL/local businesses who have shut down. We have been incredibly lucky so far, grabbing the 2 IBM boxes for $1800 for the pair, and hopefully buying the supermicro off a user here for 1/2 price as new. We just grabbed 12 300gb 15k SAS drives for $80/each. I have 2 spare at all times for both 300 and 750's. I am hoping a 4gb trunk between the servers and iSCSI box will be enough.
I have used ESXi at home for years now and deployed it twice before, but I do greatly appropriate input and helpful advice from here. Thanks!
Hardware plans consists of the following thus far:
Primary ESXi host:
Supermicro 2u Dual Quad Xeon, 32gb ECC, 4x 300gb SAS Raid 10, Intel Pro 1000PT Quad
Secondary ESXi host/test box:
IBM X3560 2u, Dual Quad Xeon, 24gb, 4x 300gb SAS Raid 10, Intel Pro 1000PT Quad
Storage server:
IBM X3550 1u, Quad Xeon, 8gb, 2x160gb Raid 1, Intel Pro 1000PT Quad, Acera 1680
Norco 4220 4u, HP SAS expander+ PCMIG, 600w Redundant Powersupply, 2x 300gb 15k SAS Raid 0 (volatile test box storage), 6x 750gb SAS Raid 5 with 1 hotspare, 2x 2tb Hitachi Raid 1 (IT storage.)
I have been advised to keep the VM/OS storage local to the servers and use my SAN for the larger storage pools. (As reflected by the disk choices in the servers.) OS of choice so far is SBS2011 as it fits our environment. However due to projected growth, I am open to running straight S2K8R2 and splitting the rolls between a AD/DNS, exchange box, fileserver, and Open Filer for the SAN. We have 35 users/50 devices now and over the next three years this will double and a second site will be added. I do need several virtual workstations (2nd server) and I figure it will be a good dev/test box.
The company has a limited budget and much of the hardware has come from ebay/CL/local businesses who have shut down. We have been incredibly lucky so far, grabbing the 2 IBM boxes for $1800 for the pair, and hopefully buying the supermicro off a user here for 1/2 price as new. We just grabbed 12 300gb 15k SAS drives for $80/each. I have 2 spare at all times for both 300 and 750's. I am hoping a 4gb trunk between the servers and iSCSI box will be enough.
I have used ESXi at home for years now and deployed it twice before, but I do greatly appropriate input and helpful advice from here. Thanks!