Advice on server hardware specification

[Carl_H]

Hi All,

Can I ask for a bit of advice.  I am looking at a HPE Server (ML350 Gen10) for a client (accounting firm) and wondered what specification you would use for the following scenario.

1 x VM - Windows Server 2019 / DC and network services / SQL Express running 2 server apps (IRIS and Virtual Cabinet)

- Note: SQL Express has a max database size limit of 10GB

- IRIS Server - Requirements 2 GHZ Processor / 16GB RAM / 300GB disk space

- Virtual Cabinet Server - Requirements 3Ghz Processor / 4GB RAM / 300GB disk space

1 x VM - Windows Server 2019 / RDS / 9 users running:

- Sage - Requirements 2Ghz Processor / 8GB RAM / Min 5GB disk space

- IRIS Client - Requirements 3Ghz Processor / 4GB RAM / Min 15GB disk space

- Virtual Cabinet Client - Requirements 2Ghz Processor / 4GB RAM / 150GB disk space

The current server is as follows:

- 1 x HP ML350p Gen8 with 24GB RAM / Raid 10 SAS drives

- Vmware ESXi 5.0 (Yes, this definitely should be upgraded)

- Services: DC running the server software detailed above.

The current Windows PC's are as follows:

- i5 or i7 Processor with a minimum 8GB of RAM.  They are never maxed.

Any advice on the right specification hardware and the correct VMware licensing would be greatly appreciated.

[a_p_]

Not that easy to answer without knowing anything about the current resource usage.

In case the 3GHz is a hard requirement your options regarding CPUs is limited anyway. For the remaining hardware, make sure that it's supported (e.g. the RAID controller, ...), and sufficient (for RDS you should calculate virtual RAM = physical RAM).

Regarding the licensing, it depends on your needs. In case that you want to be able to run VM based backups, you need to have a paid license. With a single host, an Essentials Kit should do.

André