ESXi Server

[Danlewis3]

Just looking for a server so i can get esxi running so print,web,mail can go on to it.

Intel S5000VSA dual Xeon processor SAS board (capable of supporting up to 16Gb RAM)
2 x Xeon E5430 (2GHz, 2 x 6Mb cache)
2 x Seagate SAS ST3300656SS drives 300Gb
16GB Kingston RAM
DVD rewriter

£2100

Will be running server 2008 with ESXI

Would this be a good spec server?

[Domino]

how many virtual machines are you thinking?

If you're gonna run a mail server on it I'd suggest more disk....

[Danlewis3]

It will be web,print and mail.

The mail server at present has a 90GB disk and we have 50GB free. So disc space isn't really an issue.

[ESXi_2008]

Go for more disk with 15000 RPM.

[ESXi_2008]

r u gonna put the disk in RAID 1 ? if so you will end up only with 300GB. Windows 2008 and updates takes loads of space in long run.

[Danlewis3]

Go for more disk with 15000 RPM.

they are 15k disc Seagate ST3300656SS

[Theblacksheep]

It will be web,print and mail.

The mail server at present has a 90GB disk and we have 50GB free. So disc space isn't really an issue.

Its not space thats the problem.

Its disk raid level, speed and hot swapping thats the problem with 2 disks. 5 disks with raid 5 and 1 hotswap will do nicely.

[Danlewis3]

What would be the best raid option?

Im thinking raid 1 would be best. with 2 x 300gb and 2 x 146gb discs.

[Domino]

Right, so is that 1 print, 1 mail, 1 web server, so 3, or 1 server for all 3 services?

If so, why are you putting ESXi on it?

[Danlewis3]

We have 3 hardware boxes atm

Web Server
Print Server
Mail Server

I am preposing to buy a server that can run esxi so i can virtualize these 3 servers.

[Domino]

Right, are they all windows boxes? if so you'll obviously need space for 3x OS + data I really think you're underestimating the amount of disk you'll need. And it'll be a pain to add or rebuild later.

EDIT:: sorry, I've just seen you say you're putting 2 146gb disks in too. might it be an idea to see if you can get 4 146gb disks and a decent RAID card - 4 disks in RAID 5 would give you just under 400gb of useable space

RAM seems fine though, there's really low overhead using ESXi.

Also are you thinking of P2V'ing the exisiting boxes or doing fresh builds? as you'll need new windows licences if they were OEM licenced

[Danlewis3]

Will be doing fresh builds but as we dont have licences for 2008, we were going to do that all at the same time new server, 2003 enterprise. and 400 cals.

[benaus]

If there is going to be a Mail server on the ESXi host, use RAID10 for better I/O. Startup cost will be greater but the VM's will run faster under load.

[sjl]

Do you not have the funds to use a SAN with your server? Maybe buy two servers so you can move the VMs across the two of them. We done that here and it is amazing. Being able to snap shot is great before updates and configuration changes.

[Danlewis3]

Do you not have the funds to use a SAN with your server? Maybe buy two servers so you can move the VMs across the two of them. We done that here and it is amazing. Being able to snap shot is great before updates and configuration changes.

Its the end of the financial year and fund are tight as they are! getting 4k out the pot was a push. 6months ago out file servers died so we replaced them with ReadyNAS 2100 Business Edition's and a terrabyte of storage on each. Which i have just noticed can support iSCSI SAN

In the end i went with this spec and it gets delivered on monday;
DL380 G6 2U Rack Server
2 x Intel E5500 series Quad Core Xeon CPU
3 x Hot Plug 300Gb SAS Slim HDD
16Gb RAM
P410i/256Mb RAID Controller
2 x Hot Plug Power Supplies for Redundancy
Dual Gigabit NIC
DVD-RW
3 Year Next Business Day Warranty
£3083.00

Then all our licenses for the servers & CALS at around £1400 to update to server 2008.