Hardware recommendation ESXi 4

[vwstdonauries]

Hi all,

i got a question about the hardware recommendation.

at the moment i´m running 2 physical Servers, 1 Fileserver with the AD, 1 Terminalserver with the Applications ( Word/Excel/ Outlook installed)

Now i want to virtualize the Fileserver and the Terminalserver on a new machine. At the moment the Terminalserver/AD has to manage 38 Users.

The Terminalserver has a CPU-Load of 14-20 %. It´s CPU is a Intel Xeon 5060 with 2x 3200 , 4 GB RAM and a RAID 10 146 GB

Now , i want to setup the new server ( which you have to tell me the hardware recommendation please ) with the AD and the terminalserver , on the old terminalserver i want to run an exchange server (just for a few months)

Also i got a Dell m1000 San up and running as a future storage for the VM´s.

So please give me some hardware settings i can work with , because i got no clue which setting would be the best.

Thank you very much.

[Gerrit_Lehr]

Well it really depends on your budget and needs. A singele ESXi can actually not be recommendend since you are creating a huge single point of failure for the VMs. A cluster would be a far better solution, especially since you already got a centralized storage. Then it also depends on the future development. You might want to calculate enough ressources for further systems. When calculating the ressources, keep in mind that ESXi is not a magical thing and need ressources for the VMs just as physical systems do and produces overhead, too. Further, Terminal Servers are a bit tricky to virtualize and need some planning. With 38 users, you might already want to have two Terminal Servers. From recommandations and experience, 30 should be a max per virtual TS.

I hope this gets you a bit further,

Kind Regards,

Gerrit Lehr

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[vwstdonauries]

what if i would migrate the server infrastructur on the 2 servers with vsphere ?

so that i got a fail-over server with load - balancing ?

[J1mbo]

You'd need to look at a licensed option. Essentials Plus give you three physical hosts (six CPUs), vCenter Server and High Availability (as well as Data Recovery ) - might be worth a look.

Of course the proposed Exchange box could then be run on the cluster as well.

However you might end up with more hosts - ideally vCentre Server would be a seperate physical host. Also if existing Windows licenses are OEM, they can't be re-used on new hardware.

Please award points to any useful answer.

[Gerrit_Lehr]

That would be a good approach. It will require two supported server (see the vmware hcl) and a vCenter Server (which can be virtual with some restrictions). These server need to be connected to the shared storage (make sure thats on the hcl, too) and of course you will need the aprroprirate vSphere Linceses. It will in the end cost more then a stand-alone esxi, but is definitely the better choice for a productive environment.

Kind Regards,

Gerrit Lehr

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[vwstdonauries]

so the software /licensing question is answered for me

. now i just need to know , how much RAM and CPU speed you would recommend ?

[Gerrit_Lehr]

As mentioned, that depends pretty much. But i wouldn't go with less then 16GB and 4 cores per server.

Kind Regards,

Gerrit Lehr

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