Which server for SIMS?

Hi all

Our School is finally looking to get a new server for hosting Capita Sims Software. We have around 250 teachers which will be using this for lesson monitor, and eventually connecting to the net for parents to view the children's grades. What sort of hardware are schools using for this application and what problems have you had in the implementing this?

I've had a talk with another school that are using VMware to host there SIMS, they say that this works really well, what are your thoughts?

Thanks in advance.
:)

We currently have SIMS.net running as a Virtual Machine, The HOST is pretty beefy nothing to special as it is quite old now we just brought some RAM for it and it does the job, as it is running out of warrenty now (infact may even be out) we are looking to get a new HOST for the service to run on as it also runs along side Exchange and 2 Front End SharePoint Servers.

We have allocated 4gb RAM to the SIMS.net Front End Server, we have the SQL Server Physically Running on a Blade from our Blade Center, which also has 4gb RAM.

Processors i believe are 3.2 Xeon Processors, but i would have to check that as i am not 100%.

There is nothing wrong with running SIMS as a virtual server, infact if i was you i would consider it.. buying a nice HOST and then also running other servers as VMs.

There are a number of threads already on here with the similar question being asked, might be worth you doing a quick search to see if that also gets you some answers to your question.

James.

we have ours on a Dl380 G5 4gb ram dual quad xeon and 146 sas hard disks (i think) but will be looking to virtualise once we get round it it with the virtual disks on our fibre channel San - most probly when we upgrade to SQL 2008 but if anything will being putting it on x64 and more ram - probly on the dl380 again but the one with 64gb ram in :D

Edit: it won't have all 64gb ram in - just to make it clear

;) oh yeah and with regards to network, our host as a 10gb Fibre Link back to the Core.. :D and yes like above we will be considering having ours on the SAN rather than on the local host so we can do more in the Virtual World i.e. Live Migration etc easier.. plus makes replication/backing up easier i see anyhow.

J

Thanks for the advice :), in the end i purchased a HP Proliant ML350 G6, with 12gig of RAM, 2 x 2.4gig E5530 quad core SFF processors and 4 x 500gig HDD. All i need to do now is decide on whether or not run Sims on this as a standalone service or a within a Virtual Server.:confused:

In the end, I went down the virtual route using Hyper V on 2008 R2. which, touch wood works well.

Thank you all for your advise