Going Virtual (Hyper-V) at a primary school - Advice needed.

[mikkydoos]

Are there any primary schools that are already visualized? If so I would really like to ask a few questions about your specific setup.

 

I'm a big primary. Backend all VM's. Ask away

[edutech4schools]

As a note virtual domain controllers should also be set in hyperv as do not save state - always shutdown

Thanks that is very handy to know.

 

 

Server1 (1.2tb RAID10)

host-01

-VM-DC-01

-VM-data = User Data, Sims etc

-vm-rds = Remote Desktop Service + Gateway

 

Server2 (700gb RAID5)

DC-01

 

Server3 (1TB RAID1)

???? = Backup, WSUS, Images etc.

 

With my physical DC (Server 2 - DC-01), which is the old server, can I run any other services on this such remote desktop services, as it does seem a waste of space to be using this server just for DC+DNS, or is it best to keep it separate from other roles / software.

[bshingler]

you can install wsus and wds on on your DC if you want? i like to keep things as simple incase disaster strikes - but then again loosing wds or wds isnt a big deal to be fair.

 

Key here is your server 1 - decent cpu / mem and raid

[Steve21]

Thanks that is very handy to know.

 

 

Server1 (1.2tb RAID10)

host-01

-VM-DC-01

-VM-data = User Data, Sims etc

-vm-rds = Remote Desktop Service + Gateway

 

As soon as you do that you'll be spending the extra few hundred on datacenter license.

 

Steve

[bshingler]

no need datacenter just buy two licenses for server 2012 r2 and your good with will cover your server 1

 

on another note mate go have a look at microsoftvirtualacademy.com and virtualisation will probably explain alot for you and give you a better understanding of that can be achived.

Edited February 12, 2015 by bshingler

[edutech4schools]

Key here is your server 1 - decent cpu / mem and raid

Hope this is enough.

 

CPU = Intel Xeon E5-2430 v2 2.50GHz, 15M Cache, 7.2GT/s QPI, Turbo, 6 Core

Memory = 16gb

HDD = 5x 600gb 15K SAS (1 drive will be spare)

RAID card = DELL H710 recommended on Spiceworks as being very good.

 

Thanks for all the very helpful advice. I have managed to blag the HP Microserver for testing. I'll install 2012r2 hyper-V over the next few days and have a play / test.

[sparker]

Hi

I just left my primary school and we were fully VMware which is good but expensive.

Personally I would make both servers 2012r2. Make the new one your production server and just use the other one as a VM backup target ( we used Veeam) and as a second DC. Try and locate it far away from the main box and you potentially have a BC/DR solution. If the primary dies you can spin up something from the VM backups and you already have a DC so just need to size FMSO (but probably onto a new server)

[edutech4schools]

Had a play with the HP microserver and I have gleaned lots of knowledge while testing.

 

The schools new server still has not arrived but I have a couple of questions.

 

1. IS it OK to snapshot a server with Sims, FMS + SQL?

 

2. The new server (host-01) was going to be setup as follows,

host-01

-VM-DC-01

-VM-data = User Data, Sims etc

-vm-rds = Remote Desktop Service + Gateway

 

Server2 (700gb RAID5)

DC-01

 

But is there a reason why the DC (VM-DC-01) is a virtual machine and not just running on host-01?

[Steve21]

Had a play with the HP microserver and I have gleaned lots of knowledge while testing.

 

The schools new server still has not arrived but I have a couple of questions.

 

1. IS it OK to snapshot a server with Sims, FMS + SQL?

 

2. The new server (host-01) was going to be setup as follows,

host-01

-VM-DC-01

-VM-data = User Data, Sims etc

-vm-rds = Remote Desktop Service + Gateway

 

Server2 (700gb RAID5)

DC-01

 

But is there a reason why the DC (VM-DC-01) is a virtual machine and not just running on host-01?

 

Generally any of the built-in shots, like VSS etc are fine on them, but in reality you'll probably want a SQL backup for them as well if not using external backup software.

 

And generally you put nothing at all on the HOST as it can cause problems if something goes wrong with it and can crash all VMs etc Cleaner the better

 

Steve

[sparker]

Personally I would keep SIMS and my file server apart so that when SIMS has its annual catastrophes it can be rebooted without having to get everyone to stop what they are doing.

 

I have only used VMware for virtualisations and always snapshotted before applying SIMS upgrades without problems (well not VM problems anyway)

If you are running 2012 you cannot put RDS on a DC so definitely keeps those separate. I like to keep my DC virtual so I can back up with Veeam easily but a good idea to have one DC on a physical box or at least a different physical host. As i mentioned, you could use your old server as a second DC and a target for VM backups.

 

Where abouts in the country are you ? I am in Berkshire but happy to help if I can.

[edutech4schools]

Where abouts in the country are you ? I am in Berkshire but happy to help if I can.

 

I am down in East Sussex. I have got a few months to do this so no panic just yet.

[sparker]

Well I would suggest setting your new server up and experimenting before joining it to the domain. Build a few VMs and et familiar with them. Back one up and restore it etc.

Is it just you plus google or do you have some support you can get involved - worth getting their input especially if they need to look after the finished product!

[edutech4schools]

Just thought of another question,

 

With the new server (host-01) how much HDD space should I keep aside for it when assigning disk space for the VM's?

[sparker]

Depends on what it is doing but I usually assign 40gb disk space and 4Gb ram. That is enough for a DC but as soon as you add more roles you obviously need to add more space.

You probably have most of your data on shares elsewhere though. Smaller VMs are easier to back up and move and are easy to make bigger so I would keep as small as possible.

[edutech4schools]

The new server arrived today. YAY.

 

Going to get RAID and Windows 2012r2 installed today + Windows updates.

 

What is best practice when setting up the partitions on the host. Do you leave as one large C drive and let Hyper-V create the VMs in the default locations or as I suspect is it better to create a separate partition for the VM'v to get created in?

[mikkydoos]

The new server arrived today. YAY.

 

Going to get RAID and Windows 2012r2 installed today + Windows updates.

 

What is best practice when setting up the partitions on the host. Do you leave as one large C drive and let Hyper-V create the VMs in the default locations or as I suspect is it better to create a separate partition for the VM'v to get created in?

 

 

Not sure how Hyper-V does it but VMWare wouldnt install on a RAID array. It wanted to create its own and kept wiping the array.

[sparker]

For my Fujitsu servers I just went to the web site where there were images to download specifically for my machine and intended OS(VMware). If your machine (HP?) is from a major manufacturer I would imagine that they have the same. I just burned the ISO and off it went and left me with a perfect install . If that is available for your new box I would recommend using it.

After that I would keep the base machine as a host and install all of you roles and applications on VMs. Not sure if you are doing this but FYI you cannot install RDS on a DC in Server 2012. Also be aware of you domain level before you install and domain join as I think 2012 requires at least 2008.

[Patrick]

Curious as to why, in a primary school, you want your curric server hosting sims? We just leave the admin network alone and let county deal with it.

[edutech4schools]

Curious as to why, in a primary school, you want your curric server hosting sims? We just leave the admin network alone and let county deal with it.

 

LOL LOL It's the **** LA that require all primary schools to be setup like this.

[Patrick]

I'm sorry, I'm not with you. Are you saying your county tell you to host Sims on the curric server?

[pbainbridge]

We use VMware Esxi forPrimarys ...its free and easy set up

[edutech4schools]

Are you saying your county tell you to host Sims on the curric server?

They don't tell us, that's the way they will set up any schools they look after or have any services with. I have been trying to move my schools away from the LA provided services but it has not been easy. for example they look after the backups at a few schools but will only do this for one server at each school so if I want to back up any other servers I have to either find an alternative backup method or copy relevant files from one server to the one LA allocated server that has their backup software. That is just one example of many.

[ITGuyWestMidlands]

Id mirror the os over two disks and place the vms on separate disks (possibly raided also). If yiu have enough drives id put sims on its iwn also (and mirror that one if possible)

[edutech4schools]

Almost done. Just about to install the Hyper-v role and wondered about NIC Teaming. The server has two NIC's. Taking into account this is a very small primary school should I look at NIC teaming which is not something I have done in the past. For my test Hyper-V server I renamed NIC 2 to VM and used this for the Hyper-V VM's, should I do this again?

 

If you suggest NIC Teaming are their any issues I should consider based on this server being a Host Server.

[sparker]

I made a RAID 1 array for my VM's and a RAID5 for data and just put Iscsi target on the RAID 5 . Are you using internal storage on the server or do you have external storage?