Server virtualisation project - hardware recommendations...?

[BJG]

I might have asked something similar before, but we're still in the planning stages for this, and any general thoughts/recommendations would be helpful.

 

We're currently running about seven servers, mixed specs and ages, with minimal virtualisation. It works OK, but it's time for a refresh.

 

Server 1 Dell PowerEdge 2900 4-core 1.6GHz Intel Xeon E5310 8GB Server 2008 R2 1TB

Server 2 Ergo 4 x 2.79GHz Intel Xeon 2GB Server 2003 R2 1TB

Server 3 Dell PowerEdge 2900 4-core 1.6GHz Intel Xeon E5310 2GB Server 2003 R2 1TB

Server 4 Dell PowerEdge 2900 4 x 2 GHz Intel Xeon E5405 4GB Server 2003 R2 1TB

Server 5 Dell PowerEdge T710 2 x 8-Core 2.39GHz Xeon E5620 8GB Server 2008 R2 2TB

Server 6 PowerEdge T620 2 x 12-Core 2GHz Xeon E5-2620 16GB Server 2008 R2 1TB

Server 7 PowerEdge T620 2 x 12-Core 2GHz Xeon E5-2620 16GB Server 2012 R2 Data 1TB

 

We want to replace this with a new virtualised setup (currently thinking Hyper-V) - maybe keep the T620s and add, what, a couple more boxes...?

 

Sizewise, we have about 1000 pupils, 160 staff, 500 PCs.

 

I'd be interested to know what schools of a similar size with a smooth-running infrastructure have put in place...in a nutshell, how many boxes, and what are they...?

 

Thanks!

Edited March 9, 2015 by BJG

[newpersn]

What are you running on these? (Just to give us some ideas of load?)

 

I would keep 6/7 also possably 5 aswell. (seems a newer spec) Just order load of ram for it.

[3s-gtech]

Agreed with above. Keep 5, 6 and 7 and load the RAM up. Up to you whether you go for DAS or iSCSI, depends on budget. You could do a lot here for not too much outlay. We are virtualised with lower specced boxes (more RAM though) and it works fine, with a larger school. With have more hosts due to our geographic layout, but plenty of power on tap.

[timbo343]

I would say as above... keep 5, 6, 7 and give them a load of RAM. You could use 6 and 7 as the main hosts and use 5 as a failover host or even the backup host. We have just had (summer 2014) 2 new HP DL380 G8s with 2x 12 core processor and 128Gb RAM put in with a DotHill San (12Tb). We had about 9 physical servers (ive not migrated them all over yet - still SIMS, Exchange, some file stores to do) but at the moment we have about 13 Virtual servers. Some are dedicated to only running one application - sophos, eclipse, veeam, home access plus - where as 2 virtual servers have multiple applications on ... one vm is running Impero, projector network utilities and userlock. The other is running Spiceworks and CRBS.

 

The hosts are ticking over at the moment using 5% of CPU power and about 13% (17Gb of RAM).

 

I have a few DCs, but these are only configured with 1gb Ram and 1 processor - this is the same with the virtual file servers i have.

 

I forgot to mention, we have about 750 students, 160 staff (105 have access to the network) and about 500 devices.

[BJG]

What are you running on these? (Just to give us some ideas of load?)

 

It's currently set up something like this - (not optimal by any means).

 

1 Active Directory, DNS, Print, PDQ Deploy, PDQ Inventory, WDS

2 File server (department folders), networked applications

3 Networked applications (finance, exams), DHCP

4 MIS (staff/student database – currently Serco, will be migrating to SIMS)

5 Active Directory, DNS, Home folders, IIS (Intranet)

6 Music Dept server (Music home folders); low utilisation

7 Hyper-V, Clickview (video delivery), Library database, EMCO (power management); low utilisation

[zag]

We have a 8 x Dell R320's with 600GB SSD drives in. A couple have extra 1tb SSD drives for the main storage.

 

6 of them are Hyper-V hosts running various virtual machines.

 

2 of them are physical domain controllers.

 

I'd recomend going for new hardware so you don't get different machines. If you have them all identical it makes it very easy to replace parts ect.