Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
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I'm after some advice if poss as our server needs are rapidly expanding and moving into new territory for me. We have an IT contractor so I'm not 100% responsible this anyway, but just curious on other peoples opinions.
We have:
1x Dell poweredge server which is the domain controller with exchange 2010 installed
1x synology rack station as a file server
1x dell poweredge currently only running 3 or 4 sql (express) instances, which is starting to fail (this was also our file server until recently).
Im now looking to replace the failing server and am considering this 5 month old beast:
http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/400719379240
Now knowing nothing about virtualisation, would we be better considering virtualising 1 or 2 environments on this server or just sticking with a simple OS install and the instances?
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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If the DC is working fine and the synology is new I'd just leave them as is. Would install esxi on the new one so you have that capacity there in future.
Its only got 2 drives so without buying more of them I wouldn't put too much on it, raid1 won't be fast enough.
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Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
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Is is new ish (1.5yr old), and synology is brand new and running sweet.
We only have around 15-20 users that will use SQL, spread over the number of instances above.
I have also spoken to a friend who has suggested;
quote:
Install Hyper V (or VMWare essentials @ £400 ish) on new server
Install new SQL Server VM and migrate what you need from failing server
Perform a P2V (physical to virtual) conversion of the DC and run that on new Server
Reload the DC's old server to Hyper V
Migrate the DC VM back to that box.
At that point you're free to move VM's around and can work on removing some services from the DC if/when desired.
Which raid would be best? Im thinking 3x 15K SAS drives with SSD caching (a feature of the H710 card I think).
[Edited on 03-09-2014 by Bart]
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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Don't need VMware essentials. Esxi on its own for free will do what you require.
Raid5 for 1 or 2 possible VM's, 10 above that.
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VrsTurbo
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Registered: 8th Jun 10
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Hyper-v id recommend as you'll have the Microsoft knowledge to support it.
I'm currently putting together a project with fibre 3par storage and 4 nodes.
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pow
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Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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DO NOT P2v a dc! Especially as it's the only one. Sure fire way to Fuck a domain up.
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willay
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Organiser: South East, National Events
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Registered: 10th Nov 02
Location: Roydon, Essex
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Nowt wrong with P2Ving a DC.
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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I've done that with loads pow, never broken anything.
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pow
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Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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I'm scared by an experience I'd rather not relive haha!
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Aaron
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Registered: 9th Aug 04
Location: Cottingham, East Riding
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I P2V'd many DC's covering various OS's over summer and all was fine 
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Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
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I think we've made a decision to go with the server mentioned above, Hyper-V and an virtual machine for our SQL Server.
The P2V can follow on at anytime but I think it will happen.
[Edited on 04-09-2014 by Bart]
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Andrew
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Registered: 5th May 04
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quote:
Originally posted by pow
DO NOT P2v a dc! Especially as it's the only one. Sure fire way to Fuck a domain up.
I have done this many of time and not had any issues. I have also done this with SBS2003 as well as SBS2008. I would not advise to do this with SBS, especially 2008 due to it being resource hungry.
If you want to upgrade the dc and not go virtual or you want to upgrade to 2012, upgrade the forest to a minimum of 2003 and add as a second domain controller. Will pull across your Active Directory as well as Group Policy. Decommission the old dc. Works a treat! I've just done this for a 60 user college as there is nothing wrong with there current build but the hardware on the old Dell 1950 is starting to fail.
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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Wtf does that have to do with the price of cheese? If SBS is resource hungry you spec the machine higher, how is that any different from a physical box?
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VrsTurbo
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Registered: 8th Jun 10
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Andrew is just dick cheese anyway.
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Andrew
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Registered: 5th May 04
Location: Skoda Octavia Estate, Ford Puma
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You would spec the machine better, correct. However, Small Business Server was not designed to be used on a virtual platform.
Small Business Server was a pile of shite anyway.
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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What a lot of bollocks, SBS is a good product to start with, its just limited server + exchange really. For the purposes of this discussion, it has no idea whether its running on physical or virtual hardware.
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VrsTurbo
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Registered: 8th Jun 10
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quote:
Originally posted by John
What a lot of bollocks, SBS is a good product to start with, its just limited server + exchange really. For the purposes of this discussion, it has no idea whether its running on physical or virtual hardware.
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pow
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Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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SBS is brilliant for the environment that it's designed for.
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Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
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just reading this article which explains Hyper-V in detail and I didn't realise some of the nitty details.
So Hyper-V standalone doesn't come with a proper UI, they recommend System Center Virtual Machine Manager which isn't free.
What are people using themselves?
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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Hyper-V is just like a program inside windows. You don't need anything else. You get a full normal windows GUI.
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Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
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John, am I right in saying;
Hyper-V Server is the non GUI (and free) version.
Hyper-V is an addon installation to windows server.
Therefore, If I wanted the GUI, I would have to install windows 2012 as the host OS?
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Richie
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Registered: 3rd Dec 02
Location: Newport, Wales
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You can use the Hyper-V management tools on any other system to manage it , it's available in Windows 7 and 8, and 2008/2012 ect.
Why aren't you looking at ESXi to be honest?
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Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
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No reason in particular... A few more people suggested hyper V over exsi, that is all.
I have zero experience of either...
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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I use ESXi, it's good, and easy.
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