Sharepoint 2010 Server virtualized

1. We have projects that will be starting soon that will include several departments and external contractors working together and to be able to share and retrieve information.This sounds like the solution we are looking for.

3. When virtualizing, do I still need to build with the same specs as if it was a physical machine?

4. I am estimating about 25 users to start off using  sharepoint the eventually bringing it online for everyone in our cooperative, about 150 users.  How many servers would you recommend?

5. Do I need to purchase SQL 2008 server software or would I be able to SQL express 2008? Would I need Microsoft office on the server or was this for the end users?

I am currently ilooking to purchase some Microsoft Project licenses. How does Project work with Sharepoint?

1. very good.

3. Same specification should be applied to build.

4. This could be considered a small deployment of 25 users, but I've not idea, how you users work. I would suggest consulting the following design guide. Certainly 1 server at first, minimum 8GB RAM, Server 2008 R2 64 bit.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc298801.aspx

5. Again SQL Express 2008 is limited to a max of 4GB db, you need to think about scales, whether to install SQL database on the sharepoint server or a seprate server with the SQL database recommendedd, see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc298801.aspx for design.

6. Project, integrates very well - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project-help/use-project-with-sharepoint-HA101805393.aspx (and so does Microsoft Project Server)

Is there a how to for this process?

For the OS can you use Win 2008 SP2 or do you need R2?

What do you mean by 32+40(program)+200(SQLDB)+50(SQLlog), is this the size of the HDs?

You can use Win2k8 just make sure its 64bit so you can take advantage of above 4gb RAM.

Those are sizes of virtual disks.

here is a step by step guide including setting up the virtual machine

http://mosshowto.blogspot.com/2009/11/installing-sharepoint-2010-windows-2008.html

But you may want to consider an Office365 solution from Microsoft! hosted in the cloud.

No servers to setup, no os or sharepoint to purchase, scale up and down, and just pay per user!

30 day trials available!

The FE Server will that reside inside the network or in a DMZ.

If I am going to have external users it should probably be in the DMZ.

Would Sharepoint work within this environment?
 

its a bit vague. but that current snapshot seems to have enough resource.

but before you do anything you need a plan.

1. Proof of Concept
2. Implementation and Test
3. Production with 5 users, and scale up over a number of weeks.

otherwise you will have issues, and your users expectations and respect of the project will be hampered.

Yes front end servers can be in the DMZ, see the following links for design guides

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/sharepointadmin/thread/1b32de44-681c-4496-bd63-c894cf591cc8

both F/E and SQL can be in DMZ, if you want them to be in a separated domain, you may need to have a domain controller server in DMZ as well,

Thank you for the advice.