guitar_333
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Virtualize first server....Hardware/consolidation questions...
I have an environment with about 50 users and 10 servers.
I want to start consolidating servers (with no budget) by turning one of the machines into a virtual host using the free ESXi as the hypervisor.
The machine is a HP ProLiant DL380 G5:
-4GB RAM
-1 Intel quad-core E5540/2.53GHz CPU
The server is currently an application server that is being way underutilized. I want to segment it into a couple of different VM's (how many though?)
I want to add a few VM's that I think would also have relatively low utilization with the number of users I am working with (<50).
-Win2003 w/ WSS3.0 VM
-Linux/Squid Proxy
- a few other PC-based application servers (low P4/WinXP specs)
A few questions:
I have about 5 HP 7.2K SAS drives on the machine, whats the recommendations there? I do not have a SAN...
Do I need a dedicated NIC for each VM? Im pretty sure this HP has two integrated NIC's..
Whats the best or least complicated way to track CPU/memory/disk utilization...on the existing application servers that I want to consolidate? And any feedback on the requirements and who to segment resources for the Squid and WSS that I want to add?
Thanks for any input and guidance on this subject. Very excited to jump into virtualization and start learning....
I want to start consolidating servers (with no budget) by turning one of the machines into a virtual host using the free ESXi as the hypervisor.
The machine is a HP ProLiant DL380 G5:
-4GB RAM
-1 Intel quad-core E5540/2.53GHz CPU
The server is currently an application server that is being way underutilized. I want to segment it into a couple of different VM's (how many though?)
I want to add a few VM's that I think would also have relatively low utilization with the number of users I am working with (<50).
-Win2003 w/ WSS3.0 VM
-Linux/Squid Proxy
- a few other PC-based application servers (low P4/WinXP specs)
A few questions:
I have about 5 HP 7.2K SAS drives on the machine, whats the recommendations there? I do not have a SAN...
Do I need a dedicated NIC for each VM? Im pretty sure this HP has two integrated NIC's..
Whats the best or least complicated way to track CPU/memory/disk utilization...on the existing application servers that I want to consolidate? And any feedback on the requirements and who to segment resources for the Squid and WSS that I want to add?
Thanks for any input and guidance on this subject. Very excited to jump into virtualization and start learning....
I use a DL380 4GB ram, with Single Quad Core, and have two Win2k3 domain controllers, front and back end exchange 2k3 server, backup server, Win2k8/SQL Server 2008 R2, you just need to be careful with how much Memory you allocate per VM.
so check with perfmon, what real memory usage is used.
so check with perfmon, what real memory usage is used.
oh, and as this is your first attempt, at dipping your toes in the water, select a server for virtualisation, that won't me missed, if all goes wrong.
e.g. don't pick your corpoarte mail server fior test!
e.g. don't pick your corpoarte mail server fior test!
ASKER
Thanks!
Yes, the machine is currently hosting our "old" accounting application. MS Dynamics GP10/SQL, with only 2 users accessing it for historical info...so its a good candidate. It is much underutilized right now....I'll run perfmon, so see what its at over the course of this week, but with 2-3 users lightly accessing the SQL DB it is sure to be low.
From there, I want to add a few machines that currently don't exist....Squid Proxy, WSS 3.0 server, etc..
It is reassuring to see what you are running on the same machine...segmented with two DC's, Exchange, SQL, etc...? I should be fine for what I want this thing to do in that regard...how many users access those resources?
This will be my test, then later I can consolidate other machines. I have other machines with the same specs for a DC box, an Exchange 07 box, as well as some others.
Thanks for the feedback...I'd love to hear anything else you might think of and consider usefull info..
Yes, the machine is currently hosting our "old" accounting application. MS Dynamics GP10/SQL, with only 2 users accessing it for historical info...so its a good candidate. It is much underutilized right now....I'll run perfmon, so see what its at over the course of this week, but with 2-3 users lightly accessing the SQL DB it is sure to be low.
From there, I want to add a few machines that currently don't exist....Squid Proxy, WSS 3.0 server, etc..
It is reassuring to see what you are running on the same machine...segmented with two DC's, Exchange, SQL, etc...? I should be fine for what I want this thing to do in that regard...how many users access those resources?
This will be my test, then later I can consolidate other machines. I have other machines with the same specs for a DC box, an Exchange 07 box, as well as some others.
Thanks for the feedback...I'd love to hear anything else you might think of and consider usefull info..
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but, I'm sure you'll get you monies worth out of an under utilised server.
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I would use the embedded version of ESXi on a usb stick, which makes DR easier for you, install on a USB stick.
Create a RAID 5 single array, and later format as a VMFS datastore.
What application server is currently installed on this host, and what CPU and Memory requirements does it have.
I think you bottlenect will be memory, 4GB will not go very fair, unless you are careful with your allocation of memory per VM Guest.
No you don't need a dedicated NIC per VM, you create a virtual switch, all VMs use the virtual switch, and then you can allocate NICs per Virtual Switch.
depending on your network configuration, you could trunk/bond both NICS to give you 2GB, or just use 1 NIC and 1 NIC spare (depends on your Network Utilitzation).
Best tool is Perfmon on Windows.