Proposed new server second opinion needed

[Guest Guest]

We're a small special school with roughly 150 pcs, one of our SAN nodes has just died and we're going to be replacing it with 2 standalone HyperV hosts due to the age and state of the rest of the server infrastructure.

 

We currently have 9 VMs 2 of which are going to be scrapped (print server is merging with file server and RDS gateway is merging with the session host)

 

I've been quoted £2600 inc vat per server for the below spec, i'd be greatful if anyone could give it a once over and give me any feedback.

 

It'd be hosting 2 DCs, 1 general purpose app server (Net2 etc), 1 file/print server running paper cut, SIMS, RDS gateway and host, SCCM and our Unifi controller

 

This would be split over the 2 hosts

 

The spec is:

Dell PowerEdge R730xd

Dual Intel Xeon E5-2630 V3 (8 core, hyper threading, 2.4GHZ)

64GB DDR4 RAM

Dual PSU

6x Dell Enterprise Grade 200GB SSD (In a RAID 6 array) - this would be used mainly for databases and boot drives

6x Dell 600GB 15k SAS drives (In a RAID 6 array) - this would be used for storing user data mainly

Dell PERC H730 with 1GB cache

 

Any help is greatly appreciated

[mrwoberts]

Fairly decent spec. My main query would be the RAM. Was that your choice, based on current VM usage? If it doesn't add a huge amount I'd go for 128

 

HV-Host      8 GB
DC1          6 GB
DC2          6 GB
APPSVR       8 GB
FILEPRNSVR  16 GB
SQLSVR      16 GB
RDS         16 GB
SCCM         8 GB
-----------------
           84 GB

 

Some folks would give the SQLSVR more than 16GB, but it depends on your usage.

Edited October 9, 2019 by mrwoberts

[Guest Guest]

Currently we have 60GB in one Host and 48 in the other. We have dynamic memory enabled on several but not all VMs and we're running pretty comfortably.

 

We weren't expecting to be replacing any Server gear anytime soon so I'm trying to keep costs down. The quote includes 4x 16GB DIMMS so theres plenty of room for future expansion if needed

[johnlevis]

I'd like to offer an alternative quote, do you have the full spec @kieran1990? Need to know:

 

Chassis type

Redundant PSU?

iDRAC?

LAN connectivity?

Rail kit needed?

Warranty needed

 

Probably worth a chat if you'd like to contact me

 

[email protected]

John Levis | Software and Solutions Specialist

Tel: 0114 321 8609

very-pc.co.uk

[bald_pig]

We're a small special school with roughly 150 pcs, one of our SAN nodes has just died and we're going to be replacing it with 2 standalone HyperV hosts due to the age and state of the rest of the server infrastructure.

 

We currently have 9 VMs 2 of which are going to be scrapped (print server is merging with file server and RDS gateway is merging with the session host)

 

I've been quoted £2600 inc vat per server for the below spec, i'd be greatful if anyone could give it a once over and give me any feedback.

 

It'd be hosting 2 DCs, 1 general purpose app server (Net2 etc), 1 file/print server running paper cut, SIMS, RDS gateway and host, SCCM and our Unifi controller

 

This would be split over the 2 hosts

 

The spec is:

Dell PowerEdge R730xd

Dual Intel Xeon E5-2630 V3 (8 core, hyper threading, 2.4GHZ)

64GB DDR4 RAM

Dual PSU

6x Dell Enterprise Grade 200GB SSD (In a RAID 6 array) - this would be used mainly for databases and boot drives

6x Dell 600GB 15k SAS drives (In a RAID 6 array) - this would be used for storing user data mainly

Dell PERC H730 with 1GB cache

 

Any help is greatly appreciated

 

Speak to ICTDirect_Dave, he should be able to outspec that with 1 generation older hardware for half the price!

[Lonix]

Shop around, shop around and shop around. I love this game. Cream every penny you can.

 

For RAM, surprised people are looking at 6GB for a DC, especially with a small network. We have around 1000 and our memory are set to 4GB. Our file/print servers only have a tad more.

 

Still, over doing it on RAM isn't a bad thing.

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Speak to ICTDirect_Dave, he should be able to outspec that with 1 generation older hardware for half the price!

 

I believe I'm already in for this one, however my only having New 800GB enterprise SSD drives has pushed our price up some.

 

Still it's a beast of a machine!

[HPlum78]

Number of users is only part of the equation when talking RAM in a DC. The DIT files can grow in size for a number of reasons and you should be sizing based on that as well as number of users aoung other things.

[Guest Guest]

I walked in this morning to find the network was down. All VMs running on the SAN were shutdown, luckily everything started fine.

 

We've ordered using the quote above, thanks for everyone's input