How do you spec servers?

[MattDLEA]

I have been asked to look at installing a network from fresh.

So new curriculum servers, etc.

Is there a dummies guide to of how to do this?

I Know the number of users. I know the number of clients Pc and I know the number of devices that could connect via wifi.

 

I will be wanting to go the hyper-v route.

Im thinking 2 or 3 physical servers.

1 for Sims

then the other 2 to do all the curriculum stuff

 

What do I need to know and think about before going back?

[Shadow_Walker]

I have been asked to look at installing a network from fresh.

So new curriculum servers, etc.

Is there a dummies guide to of how to do this?

I Know the number of users. I know the number of clients Pc and I know the number of devices that could connect via wifi.

 

I will be wanting to go the hyper-v route.

Im thinking 2 or 3 physical servers.

1 for Sims

then the other 2 to do all the curriculum stuff

 

What do I need to know and think about before going back?

 

Why don't you virtualize your sims server?

[JRowley]

If you are looking to virtualise your domain controllers you will want to have a physical domain controller in the (unlikely) event of both hyper-v hosts collapsing.

[MattDLEA]

Sims could be visualized but the LEA do that so it would be me provisining a server and letting them get on with it.

 

Its more of how many servers do i need how do i spec cpu's and Ram etc

[Norphy]

How much money do you have to spend? What applications are you going to run? What are you going to use to manage your clients? The spec that we choose for servers depends on what they're going to be expected to do, there is no over-reaching answer like you're asking for here.

[Sagima]

These days I spec a virtual server (hyper-v) once every three* years to replace an older virtual server. I spec a core per always on machine and buy RAM up to the point I think that that's more than I'll ever need (currently 128GB). RAID 10 (or RAID 1 + 0 if you prefer) 10k HDD. We have two servers with their VMs set to auto fail to the other one if necessary.

For file servers and backup servers I buy the cheapest xeon processor and 8Gb ram and lots of disks (also in RAID10).

I buy a backup server and a fileserver the year* after the virtual ones. We have a replica of each.

I have two physical DCS which are specced much the same as the fileservers but with 2 smallish RAID1 disks. They are bout the year* after the Virtual servers.

Always rack mounted. I don't tend to bother with a redundant PSU but I usually have an intel network card rather than the built in mobo one(s).

We have 1500 users, about 500 school owned devices and another 400 staff/student owned devices. Our fileservers are 7TB (80% full) each and the backup servers are 23TB (90% full). The virtual servers have 2TB of disk space - about 70% full)

*the other three years are switches or nothing depending on what needs doing. Then the cycle starts over (or at least that's the plan)

[tmcd35]

The first thing to do is compile a list of virtual servers you want to run. I tend to go for a 1 server 1 service policy, so I have about 30 VMs in total.

 

Domain Controllers - 1,2, more?

DNS Servers - on DCs?

DHCP

Printer Server

File Server

MIS Server

Library Database

Accounts Software

Application Servers

Web Servers

Mail Servers

etc.

 

Once you know what servers you're supporting, spec them up as if they were real machines. How many Cores, how much RAM, How much HDD do you need for each of those VM's?

 

Split the load between the two host servers. Double all the Cores, RAM, and HDD space you've calculated so far (for failover), then had 50% (for future expansion).

[localzuk]

I concur with @tmcd35 - that's pretty much identical to how I'd do it also.

[pirran]

Around a year ago we went with a Dell VRTX Chassis (2 hosts), this contains 25 disks that present themselves locally to the hosts (kind of like an inbuilt SAN). It's fairly new tech. This is married up to a VmWare & VEEAM backup solution hitting a powerful Dell server and additional SAN in another part of the building. We've also a Synology NAS setup as a target elsewhere. With this kind of setup there's no need to a physical DC, we have a lot of servers including SIMS.

 

Dell PowerEdge VRTX review | PC Pro

 

The system has replaced a lot of physical servers and i've estimated around 5k saving in electric a year including A/C !

 

The dell dpack tool is free to use. Basically you want to look at your current network usage, RAM, CPU, HDD iops etc. If someone is going for a new setup why not get a large supplier to spec up and quote for a new system? We used NexusOS and have been thoroughly impressed with their professionalism and knowledgeable team (HQ in Exeter).

DPACK: Dell Performance Analysis Collection Kit | Dell