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Need advice on the configuration of a new server before purchasing it. I prefer Dell.

need some advice on building Hyper-V host. I think my biggest concern is the Processor. Type of drives I do not believe is critical because they are VM's.

VM's will be
A Microsoft Access database server
File Server
Citrix server
Backup server
SQL server
Print server

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Mal Osborne

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Philip Elder

Baseline the current configuration for IOPS and throughput needed. The storage subsystem is almost always the weakest link in standalone virtualization solutions.

User count is also important. How many?
Is the Citrix standalone or farm?
File and print can be set up on one VM.
AD, DNS, and DHCP on another.
Both of the above do not require a lot of resources. 2x vCPUs and 2GB vRAM.

The rest really depends.

I have two very thorough EE articles on all things Hyper-V:

Some Hyper-V Hardware and Software Best Practices
Practical Hyper-V Performance Expectations

Some PowerShell Guides:
PowerShell Guide - Standalone Hyper-V Server
PowerShell Guide - New VM PowerShell
PowerShell Guide - New-VM Template: Single VHDX File
PowerShell Guide - New-VM Template: Dual VHDX Files

Here are some focused articles:
Slipstream Updates Using DISM and OSCDImg

Protecting a Backup Repository from Malware and Ransomware

Disaster Preparedness: KVM/IP + USB Flash = Recovery. Here’s a Guide

J.R. Sitman

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How would I get this info.? "Baseline the current configuration for IOPS and throughput"

Philip Elder

If the current host is Hyper-V on Windows Server then Performance Monitor (PerfMon) is one way to get a detailed look at both the host and guest resource utilization.

Resource Monitor (ResMon) can give you a quick at-a-glance view of disk usage.

Things to look for:
+ Disk Queue Depth
+ Latency
+ Requests per second (IOPS)
+ Throughput (MiB/Second or GiB/Second)
+ Current host CPU setup
+ Current guest vCPU setup and counts
+ Current host Memory setup
+ Current guest vRAM usage

J.R. Sitman

ASKER

The cost difference between Raid 5 and 10 could be significant. Based on the VM's I have listed do you think it is worth it?

J.R. Sitman

ASKER

Watching Resmon the average CPU and disk response times are very low.

Philip Elder

We only do RAID 6. Modern RAID controllers with 1GB or more flash-backed cache do not suffer the parity calculation performance hits their predecessors did.

RAID 6 does have a small hit for a failed disk.

But, in our testing of eight (8) 10K SAS in RAID 6 we would get 250 to 450 IOPS per disk depending on storage stack setup and up to 800MiB/Second again depending on storage stack setup.

The Intel SSD S4510 or S4610 series SATA SSDs are quite inexpensive today. It's quite possible that eight Intel SSD S4510 series SSDs in RAID 6 would more than meet most needs.

J.R. Sitman

ASKER

got it

J.R. Sitman

ASKER

thanks