Quick Virtualization Question

[AndyCan]

I'm looking to implement the following setup. 1 physical host running Server 2008 Enterprise with Hyper-V role so that i can run 4 Virtual Servers on it. 1) Domain Controller, DHCP, DNS 2) File Server, Print Server 3) Anti-Virus, WSUS, WDS 4) Spare for testing and development. I'm also going to run a standalone second domain controller on a very old Dell PowerEdge 1650.

 

I'm going to use Hyper-V and hopefully DPM for my backup solution. So where do i run DPM from? Do i install it on the physical host which has the Hyper-V role installed, what is best practice usually for this? I'm thinking of having a NAS attached for local file storage and then to also store my backups as well as implementing a cheap cloud backup solution as we don't have a great deal of data and the powers at be are very keen to use 'The Cloud'. Are there any other things to consider when implementing a backup solution for this structure?

[glennda]

Personally I would but the DPM on a seperate physical host - otherwise if the main host goes down hardware wise and takes your Vm's (say a total raid failure) you would then loose DPM software install. You could then actually spec a half decent server for your DPM and run that as the DC rather then your old server (saves having to restore AD as this is a pita!).

 

However having playing with Veeam in the last few days that seems to be brilliant and also has Hyper-V support to restore entire VM's and file level.

[AndyCan]

Ok so i should be keeping my backup software install on a separate machine to my VM's? that makes sense. I was under the impression DPM came with Server 2008, is this not the case as i've heard of Veeam but expected it to be expensive in comparison. If money is tight, what do you think the likelihood is of being able to run a DC and a backup solution on that old Dell do you think? I know i could run it as a DC to just sit there but i imagine i'd need something a bit more beefy to install backup software on?

[glennda]

Ok so i should be keeping my backup software install on a separate machine to my VM's? that makes sense. I was under the impression DPM came with Server 2008, is this not the case as i've heard of Veeam but expected it to be expensive in comparison. If money is tight, what do you think the likelihood is of being able to run a DC and a backup solution on that old Dell do you think? I know i could run it as a DC to just sit there but i imagine i'd need something a bit more beefy to install backup software on?

 

I don't think DPM is free although I could be wrong (never used it). Not sure pricing on Veeam (I just set it up for clients!) But in comparison to others I beleive its good value.

 

What specs the dell got? If using that I would buy new disks - the most likely thing to fail in an old machine IMHO.

[AndyCan]

Hardware Details:

Manufacturer: Dell

Model: PowerEdge 1650

Hard Drive: 36G 15K SCSI

Tested RAM: 1024 MB

Processor Information: Intel Pentium III

Number: Dual

Clock Speed & Cache: (2) Intel Pentium III 1.4 GHz L2 Cache 512 KB

SCSI Controller Info: Adaptec AIC-7892 Ultra160/m PCI SCSI Card

SCSI Firmware Revision: BIOS V2.7-0

Video Controller: ATI Rage XL PCI

Network Card: 2 x Intel Pro 1000 XT Gigabit Ethernet Adapters

[sonofsanta]

DPM isn't free but it is cheap to schools, it's part of the whole system center thing I believe (although that has probably changed with 2012).

 

I've set mine up on a separate physical machine - mostly related to cabling/available ports to connect to the tape autoloader via SAS, which is a port that cannot be passed to a Hyper-V VM,, and also because DPM can't co-exist with SCOM on a server.

 

It really doesn't need much in the way of spec, though - just lots of hard drive space for disk backups (top tip: it just wants RAW space, so initialize the disk but don't format it)