Virtualization Hardware - Need help :(

[Lipe]

Hi mates,

Im pretty new to dedicated virtualization, but have been working with VMWare Infrastructure and HyperV labs for some time.

Im looking forward to virtualize three Windows 2003 tower servers of my company into a single ESXi server, rackmounted, but im not sure about the specs.

All the servers run Windows 2003 Std, and would be upgraded to 2008 R2 - except the AD.

The 1st server runs a financial software that relies on MS Sql Server 2005, the DB itself has about 1Gb. There will be 5 simultaneous users querying and writing to it along the day.

The 2nd server is our office AD, DNS and DHCP server with about 50 users, no profiles are saved on this server. It also runs an old garbage inventory software with a 200Mb database witch has about 10 simultaneous access, some of them made thru TS sessions - its quite IO abusive since its poorly written, but may not be a problem.

The 3rd server is a FTP and Intranet server (apache and jabber). The ftp is highly used but the low bandwidth will not cause any IO issues on VM's. Apache and Jabber either, i guess.

I would like to know if a Dell PowerEdge R210 II would cover these machines with ease. Its a Xeon E3-1240 with 4Gb RAM (probably more if i can buy them outside Dell), 2x600GB 15K RPM SAS 6Gbps in Raid 1, willing to purchase 1 more to Raid 10 over a SAS6iR/H200.

Best regards

 

[dashpuppy]

Hi mates,

Im pretty new to dedicated virtualization, but have been working with VMWare Infrastructure and HyperV labs for some time.

Im looking forward to virtualize three Windows 2003 tower servers of my company into a single ESXi server, rackmounted, but im not sure about the specs.

All the servers run Windows 2003 Std, and would be upgraded to 2008 R2 - except the AD.

The 1st server runs a financial software that relies on MS Sql Server 2005, the DB itself has about 1Gb. There will be 5 simultaneous users querying and writing to it along the day.

The 2nd server is our office AD, DNS and DHCP server with about 50 users, no profiles are saved on this server. It also runs an old garbage inventory software with a 200Mb database witch has about 10 simultaneous access, some of them made thru TS sessions - its quite IO abusive since its poorly written, but may not be a problem.

The 3rd server is a FTP and Intranet server (apache and jabber). The ftp is highly used but the low bandwidth will not cause any IO issues on VM's. Apache and Jabber either, i guess.

I would like to know if a Dell PowerEdge R210 II would cover these machines with ease. Its a Xeon E3-1240 with 4Gb RAM (probably more if i can buy them outside Dell), 2x600GB 15K RPM SAS 6Gbps in Raid 1, willing to purchase 1 more to Raid 10 over a SAS6iR/H200.

Best regards

4 gigs of ram ? why so little ? why not 8-16 as it's cheap enough..

Remember the more ram the better...

btw you can only put 4 sas drives in it if they are 2.5" only 2 @ 3.5 "

 

[Pythagorus]

Don't cheap out on the hardware as down the road, you might not upgrade again.. and things might change so will your needs.

I'd look at, if I was you at a Dell machine and look at deals where they give a second processor for free... and like dashpuppy says, the more ram the better, especially for your DB server...

 

[dashpuppy]

Don't cheap out on the hardware as down the road, you might not upgrade again.. and things might change so will your needs.

I'd look at, if I was you at a Dell machine and look at deals where they give a second processor for free... and like dashpuppy says, the more ram the better, especially for your DB server...

You are so right about that, i just looked in my manual again at the R210 II and i wouldent buy it if i were him.

Id start at a 310 and go from there, but as usual it depends on budget. The R210 II woulden't really be that good. 310 supports better raid levels..

 

[af22]

It would help if you listed the specs of the current tower machines so we can tell if you will be getting better or worse performance then what you currently have.

 

[Lipe]

Thanks for the feedback mates !

4 gigs of ram ? why so little ? why not 8-16 as it's cheap enough..

Remember the more ram the better...

btw you can only put 4 sas drives in it if they are 2.5" only 2 @ 3.5 "

Im outside US, ram is not that cheap here. The difference between 4 and 8Gb is about US$300.
Im glad you replied, didnt noticed the 2.5/3.5" limitation - the quoted were 2x3.5" - so no expansion avaiable.

Don't cheap out on the hardware as down the road, you might not upgrade again.. and things might change so will your needs.

I'd look at, if I was you at a Dell machine and look at deals where they give a second processor for free... and like dashpuppy says, the more ram the better, especially for your DB server...

Nice point. Current servers are at least 3 years old, and they're not willing to upgrade anytime soon.

You are so right about that, i just looked in my manual again at the R210 II and i wouldent buy it if i were him.

Id start at a 310 and go from there, but as usual it depends on budget. The R210 II woulden't really be that good. 310 supports better raid levels..

R310 dont have any Sandybridge Xeons yet, but do suport PERC H700 with BBU - whats great. Isnt there a way to get both newer CPUs and better controllers ?

At first i was quoting the individual hardwares on a normal rack chassis to save on brand names and get a better configuration, but tought having a Dell hardware would be a good idea.

Im also quoting a ProLiant HP DL120 G7, wich is also a Xeon Quad E3-1240 with similar specifications, but i couldnt figure out the controller used yet - could be a differencial. Any clues ?

Thank you very much for all the feedback.

It would help if you listed the specs of the current tower machines so we can tell if you will be getting better or worse performance then what you currently have.

Its a shame but ...

Server 1 is really slow after a software upgrade, its running on a Athlon X2 5000+ with 4Gb ram and Raid 1 2x250Gb 5400rpm Sata II.
Servers 2 and 3 are virtualized on a Core2Duo 4300 with 4Gb ram. Raid 1+0 with 4x500Gb 7200rpm Sata II.

The IT department was abandoned, im part of the new administration. Server 1 and 2 are critical and sholudnt have that kind of old hardware. Anyway, they've been doing the job without much maintence.

 

[dashpuppy]

Thanks for the feedback mates !

where are you located ?

RAM really is cheap, you don;t have to buy it from dell, try newegg . com .ca

 

[Lipe]

where are you located ?

RAM really is cheap, you don;t have to buy it from dell, try newegg . com .ca

Im at Brazil

I can get loads of Kingston ECC ram for a bargain, but not the "Dell Certified" memories - these are not avaiable on the normal market Not sure if i can mix or even use them, its my first time on a low budget project.

 

[dashpuppy]

Im at Brazil

I can get loads of Kingston ECC ram for a bargain, but not the "Dell Certified" memories - these are not avaiable on the normal market Not sure if i can mix or even use them, its my first time on a low budget project.

research it, I bet you can get the ram cheaper than dell will install & sell to you for..

IF not, then at least get 8gigs ram in that server 4 gigs with what you want to run is very low..

 

[Lipe]

research it, I bet you can get the ram cheaper than dell will install & sell to you for..

IF not, then at least get 8gigs ram in that server 4 gigs with what you want to run is very low..

Thanks dashpussy. Researching i could find affordable original HP memories ($150/4gb), nothing to DELL so far.
The HP Proliant DL120 seems to be a good option too, it has the same base configurando and itsalmost half the price of the Dell - but comes with a single SATA disk and no vendor knows the damn controller.

 

[Wrench00]

Get a NAS NFS if Vmware. Anyone that has DAS is asking for trouble. Get a shared storage. Get some cheaper server with no drives, spend money on NAS. Get some reduntant switching.

 

[Vader]

I think, in your case, you need to ask yourself what the benefit is to going Virtual with 3 Guest machines. Really, you're throwing your eggs into one basket if you're going with one host. That host goes down, you're SOL.

Don't Virtualize for the sake of just Virtualizing. If you plan to grow..etc, then yeah..it makes sense. Since the hardware is a bit older, you may be in an upgrade cycle.

I always, always recommend at least 2 hosts w/HA for any business environment...but unless your boss is willing to invest a bit, I just don't see the benefit with one host other than ease of management..but the risk, too me, outways that with one host.