Server proposal plan - Advice and recommendations!!

[mo_vigilante]

Hi guys,

 

I'm looking in the near future of proposing a plan to replace the existing servers on site. We have few HP ProLiant ML110, ML310, and one ML350 tower server. We have one rack server HP DL180 G6 that is our BlackBerry server which is virtualised. The other tower servers do specific roles (DC, Apps Server, Mail Server, File Server etc) and all of the tower servers are physical hosts.

 

I want to propose a server plan as the tower servers will be getting a bit old in the future. My first proposal plan was to buy a couple of really decent rack mounted servers with SAS drives (500gb each) and virtualiase them all (DC, Apps, File, Mail).....

 

The second proporsal was to invest a couple newer tower servers but not replace all of them, so less cost and replacing probabaly the oldest server and physical hosts. I do want to get away from physical hosts and the benfits and usefulness of virtualisation with the things I've read on here, but this will of course come down to cost as usual.

 

Has anyone propsed any plans of this kind to management? And if so, what arguments should I state on the plan to push my proposal through? I want to make sure I point all things that support my proposal but I haven't done one before since I've come to my new role.

 

Cheers

 

Mo

[Butuz]

Defiantly virtualise.

 

VmWare Essentials for 3 x Dual CPU servers is only a few hundred quid so Virtualising need not be expensive. Add a decent virtual backup system such as Veeam and you've got a surprisingly resiliant system for not much money.

 

Butuz

[mo_vigilante]

Defiantly virtualise.

 

VmWare Essentials for 3 x Dual CPU servers is only a few hundred quid so Virtualising need not be expensive. Add a decent virtual backup system such as Veeam and you've got a surprisingly resiliant system for not much money.

 

Butuz

 

Cheers for the response. Yeah I definitely want to virtualise so hopefully when I draw up my proposal - then management can see the full benefits and agree to it I hope :-D

 

Thanks.

Mo

[sukh]

1. Go for virtualisation but be aware of the caveats and what you can and cant virtualise.

2. In particular Exch...you can virtualise but remeber what to use DAG reple v Vmware.

[rbance]

If you are going to virtualize you need to consider how good your network is in the server room, and what type of shared storage you need...

I have designed and implented a lot of these types of solutions.....

 

If you want I can show you what I have put in recently.......

 

out of interest, what sort of budget are you looking at here? Virtualisation cannot be half done.....

[mo_vigilante]

Hi,

 

The network I've adopted here is pretty good. No bottlenecks, cabling, swtiches, VLAN, structure is good if that's what you mean? The company at the moment is good enough with the current physical hosts. It's just with the ever growing virtualisation being more common, I just felt it was a route to take up on on my next big project next year hopefully.

 

With regards to budget, I don't have any prices at the moment. I will have to wait until next April and see what's left in the pot for me to invest. We're a registered charity so we should be able to get prices pretty cheap (licenses and what not). In terms of virtualising all our servers (DC01, DC02, File01, Apps01, Mail01) - from your experience would it cost a lost?

 

Yeah PM me your plans if you don't mind of what you put in recently, so I can maybe get some tips or advice as if I do get the go ahead - it will be my first attempt.

 

Thanks.

Mo

 

If you are going to virtualize you need to consider how good your network is in the server room, and what type of shared storage you need...

I have designed and implented a lot of these types of solutions.....

 

If you want I can show you what I have put in recently.......

 

out of interest, what sort of budget are you looking at here? Virtualisation cannot be half done.....