adneprov
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Virtualization design questions for newbies
Hello. We are considering virtualization for our production infrastructure. The idea is to create a server cluster (private cloud) that will host all Virtual Machines. I have some design questions and looking for opinions.
- Do we need redundant copies of servers if they are running on a cluster? For instance we now have two web servers on a webfarm in order to provide fault tolerance against server failures. If the VM is running on a server cluster, would you recommend to have redundant copies (ie two web servers) or would just one copy be sufficient?
- Can Windows 2008 R2 be used to create a server cluster? Do we need a special edition (ie Enterprise or Datacenter) or can Standard be used?
- If we are hosting web/application servers (not Database Servers) do we need some special storage solution?
thanks!
- Do we need redundant copies of servers if they are running on a cluster? For instance we now have two web servers on a webfarm in order to provide fault tolerance against server failures. If the VM is running on a server cluster, would you recommend to have redundant copies (ie two web servers) or would just one copy be sufficient?
- Can Windows 2008 R2 be used to create a server cluster? Do we need a special edition (ie Enterprise or Datacenter) or can Standard be used?
- If we are hosting web/application servers (not Database Servers) do we need some special storage solution?
thanks!
ASKER
hi and thanks for the prompt reply. I will look into VMWare.
Per your comments...
We currently have redundant web servers strictly for fault tolerance. Neither the traffic nor the power are so high as to require extra resources. So i suppose in this case we can have a single VM instance (?)
In regards to storage, I had read that DBs require SAN/NAS/etc. Is this because of amount of date, throughput or both? Our SQL DBs total circa 25GB.
If not using SAN/NAS/etc... is data replicated amongst the local HDs of the cluster servers? So if i have ie 5 VMs and each VM has a 10GB System Partition and a 20GB Data Partition, does it mean that each physical server in the cluster needs 5 x (10+20) = 150 GB of HD space?
Per your comments...
We currently have redundant web servers strictly for fault tolerance. Neither the traffic nor the power are so high as to require extra resources. So i suppose in this case we can have a single VM instance (?)
In regards to storage, I had read that DBs require SAN/NAS/etc. Is this because of amount of date, throughput or both? Our SQL DBs total circa 25GB.
If not using SAN/NAS/etc... is data replicated amongst the local HDs of the cluster servers? So if i have ie 5 VMs and each VM has a 10GB System Partition and a 20GB Data Partition, does it mean that each physical server in the cluster needs 5 x (10+20) = 150 GB of HD space?
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ASKER
- why do I need a physical DC? Can't the DC(s) run as VMs?
- can i use Win2008 R2 Standard for clustering? Our physical servers already have Win2008 Std so we would like to reuse these licenses if/when we virtualize.
- can i please get more info about storage and how it is configured/used/etc? If using "local" HD space, is data from each VM replicated on all cluster servers? If using shared storage does this mean I need less HD space on the physical servers because things are stored on the shared space? Does this also apply to Virtual OS's or only to data? Can I use a NAS for storage, why does it have to be iSCSI?
much thanks!
- can i use Win2008 R2 Standard for clustering? Our physical servers already have Win2008 Std so we would like to reuse these licenses if/when we virtualize.
- can i please get more info about storage and how it is configured/used/etc? If using "local" HD space, is data from each VM replicated on all cluster servers? If using shared storage does this mean I need less HD space on the physical servers because things are stored on the shared space? Does this also apply to Virtual OS's or only to data? Can I use a NAS for storage, why does it have to be iSCSI?
much thanks!
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A Server Cluster is a good way to go for virtual servers. You don't want 4 or more servers down because you have some kind of hardware issue. But as far as having redundant web servers within the Virtual server may be a waste. I guess it all depends on why you have redundant servers. If it is for load balancing for power, then just give one server more resources. If it is for load balancing for traffic, then make sure each redundant web server has its own Internet gateway.
You don't need a special storage solution technically. How are you going to setup the server cluster?
It may be beneficial to have a SAN or NAS solution that can handle the throughput you require.
Check out VMware. they have cloud infrastructure solutions as well as the Virtual Machine management..