Replacing physical servers with a virtualized solution

[Guest Guest]

We've currently got two physical servers and a workstation that acts as a server and I'm looking at moving to a virtualized solution. We're a primary with 470 pupils, 50 staff, 150 Windows machines, 32 Chromebooks and 50 iPads. The two servers are DCs and host file and print services, DHCP, WSUS, PaperCut MF and Sage. The workstation hosts network management software, door access software, Sophos Endpoint Security and SafeGuard.

 

I'm thinking of going down the Hyper-V route and in terms of hardware a Dell VRTX with 2 nodes or a 2U server with lots of memory etc have been suggested. The Dell VRTX seems brilliant and offers redundancy and expandability but it's got quite a price tag. The 2U server has a great spec but there's no 2nd node as it were to fallback on. I'd like there to be a bit of room for expansion but the last thing I want is to go above and beyond what we need.

[BKGarry]

Sounds like you don't need to go crazy, you can create replication between two physical hosts on HyperV but you don't get a true failover IIRC. What I would say is get 4 SSDs in your quotes on the servers, two for Mirroring for the Host OS and the other two can be mirrored and used in a storage pool with classic HDDs (in raid 5), this will increase your performance like anything. Over the course of about the first week, windows analyses what files (at bit level) are used and accessed the most and then moves those onto the SSDs, this means that those specific files get a much greater response time.

[Oaktech]

If you are desperate to do 2 nodes, and shared storage then look at the fujitsu cluster in a box, it's seriously good value for money.

 

I've just done a similar project, in a similar sized school although we are exclusively windows devices.

 

I took the heavy handed approach as there is discussion about us being the lead school in a new MAT. I've got 2x Lenovo System x3650 (2.4ghz, 64gb ram 300gb 10k sas raid1) with fibre cards, 2x HP 2920 switches with 10gb modules and a 17tb 10k sas Lenovo 2200 enclosure.

 

The whole project including cables, racks, sfps etc has come out just shy of £16k+vat including a new UPS and rack. I've done all the legwork on it so it's essentially just been a box-shift to me from the suppliers which have been Millgate and Transact TS and ICT Direct for the rack.

[MYK-IT]

Perhaps checkout the following: 2 Nodes for Virtualisation for £1895! 3Y Warranty (You can always get a SAN, if required, later/too)

 

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[Guest Guest]

Thanks for the info and advice so far guys. Any more out there?

 

Anyone using a VRTX?

@BKGarry I've had a host with that exact setup recommended to me by a company. They specced up going for RAID 10 as well. You say not true failover, do you mean I'd have to do a bit of tweaking rather than it just taking over seamlessly?

[BKGarry]

you can do if you want to go that setup, but its personal preference I feel.

 

More information on storage spaces/pools is available here - https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831739%28v=ws.11%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

[zag]

I'd say keep it simple, if its for a primary school like that, a couple of servers with local SSD storage and a backup server is easily enough.

[Guest Guest]

@zag A backup server? A few users on here have said have a physical DC then make the virtual hosts member servers?

[zag]

@zag A backup server? A few users on here have said have a physical DC then make the virtual hosts member servers?

 

Yes I would always have a backup server (running veeam) as a physical box in another location. Even in a small organization like a primary school its incredibly important.

[DavR]

We're using a VRTX, with two PowerEdge M520 nodes. VMware based, and the whole thing runs 10 virtual servers, with a DC on each node that also does DHCP/DNS etc for redundancy. I didn't choose or set it up though, it was here when I got here.

 

It's very nice and I like it, but I can't help but think it's a bit overkill for a primary school, even a four form entry like us!

[supawat1]

How about using Supermicro server, if you can do it yourself, the price is a lot cheaper and you can select your own parts and they have motherboard with Intel Xeon D processor series embedded, which would be good enough for primary school.

[Guest Guest]

@DaveAshworth If you were there when it was, what would you of gone for?

@supawat1 Would Hyper-V alone do everything we need? Would you say 1 or 2 servers?

[DavR]

@DaveAshworth If you were there when it was, what would you of gone for?

 

I would probably have just gone with two good Dell rack servers, and maybe an attached storage unit for extra space. Just my gut feeling though, I've not done any cost comparisons.

[supawat1]

One server can be good enough for what you want to do, but considering Hyper-V VM replica or fail-over, you probably want to have two servers at least.

Also do not forget where to want to store all those VMs, I am using storage spaces technology and this has been good to me.

[Guest Guest]

One server can be good enough for what you want to do, but considering Hyper-V VM replica or fail-over, you probably want to have two servers at least.

Also do not forget where to want to store all those VMs, I am using storage spaces technology and this has been good to me.

 

What setup have you got then?

[zag]

One server can be good enough for what you want to do, but considering Hyper-V VM replica or fail-over, you probably want to have two servers at least.

Also do not forget where to want to store all those VMs, I am using storage spaces technology and this has been good to me.

 

Replicas are overkill in my opinion in a primary school. A good nightly virtual backup using veeam or similar is enough to provide the uptime a primary needs.

[supawat1]

Very simple.

 

1 x Physical DC server runs on HP Micro server N40L 8GB RAM £150

2 x Supermicro X10DRL-iT with Intel E5-2620 v3 processor, 32GB RAM and RAID1 64GB SuperDOM for OS and Hyper- Role £2,000

1 x HP DL320e E3 processor 8GB RAM and have Lenovo SA120 to hold 4 x 1TB SAS 7200rpm and 2 x 120GB SSD for Storage Spaces. £1,500

1 x HP ML0v2 Pentium processor 8GB RAM with 4 x 2TB SATA HDD as a DPM backup server - £500

 

All licensed under 2 x Core Infrastructure Server Data center edition - £600 and 3 x Core Infrastructure Server Standard Edition - £225

[Guest Guest]

Very simple.

 

1 x Physical DC server runs on HP Micro server N40L 8GB RAM £150

2 x Supermicro X10DRL-iT with Intel E5-2620 v3 processor, 32GB RAM and RAID1 64GB SuperDOM for OS and Hyper- Role £2,000

1 x HP DL320e E3 processor 8GB RAM and have Lenovo SA120 to hold 4 x 1TB SAS 7200rpm and 2 x 120GB SSD for Storage Spaces. £1,500

1 x HP ML0v2 Pentium processor 8GB RAM with 4 x 2TB SATA HDD as a DPM backup server - £500

 

All licensed under 2 x Core Infrastructure Server Data center edition - £600 and 3 x Core Infrastructure Server Standard Edition - £225

 

Is a physical DC best practice?

[Oaktech]

Is a physical DC best practice?

 

Last time I heard best practice was 2 DCs, one physical, one virtual and to not run all kinds of other services on either of them. I run an HP microserver with 2012r2 for my physical DC, it's got a single 120gb SSD split into 2 partitions and 2gb ram. It's fine because it doesn't do anything else!

[supawat1]

I am sure, it is the best practice from what I have been reading in many forums including Edugeek here.

[PotNoodleTech]

Well I'll be quick here as it's breaktime.

 

IMHO a VRTX is waaaay overkill for a primary school. The good points about the VRTX is that it's expandable. This level of expandability is not really needed for a primary school IMHO. The bad points about the VRTX is that despite the expense, no matter what you slot into it is still a single point of failure. Something goes wrong with the power supply section, mainboard, chassis - you're entire network goes down.

 

I would be looking at keeping it simple, getting a bog standard single, good server with all SSD drives and a 5 year warranty and a second much less powerful single CPU server filled with 4TB HDDs as a Veeam backup server (preferably in a different building) and sufficient uninterruptable power supplies for both. Dell are my Favourite for servers and Eaton for UPS. Still a single point of failure, but you pay ~£3k for this ,unlike the VRTX which cost you £10k+ to still have a single point of failure.

 

Buying second hand from Serversouce is a good idea, they've got some amazing kit there at amazing prices.

Edited May 27, 2016 by PotNoodleTech