tmcd35

Load balancing - I suppose it's about getting optimal use out of the hardware and decreasing potential bottlenecks for end users. I could run all my VM's on one host maxed out, or I can split them between the three hosts with plenty of failover head room and present the increased bandwidth from the extra processors and NICs to the end user. Replication - Will hopefully allow me to get machines back up if a server fails quicker than it'd take the head to get to the top of the stairs and ask me what's going on. Hyper-V Replica is slightly quicker than veem in that you don't have to restore any backups and a preconfigured VM is already waiting to be manually started. Down time is measured in how long it takes to press the virtual power button. CSV's allow for instant failover - so no pressing of the virtual power button needed, the software will do it for you. The down side of CSV is it doesn't take into account storage failure, which Hyper-V Replica does (you replicate to different storage), so for full failover with CSV you need to look at mirroring SANs. At the end of the day is a Cost vs Risk analysis. How much risk is the school willing to take? How much are they willing to pay to mitigate that risk? For total paranoia go iSCSI mirrored SANs with dual NICs, redundant switching and CSV (or the VMWare equivalent) but don't expect much change out of high five figure sums. That said - I do want to re-look at VEEM in my solution, I'm sure it has a part to play in improving up times.

Certainly did, no body won. £150m on Friday. Is that a record?

You'll almost certainly need quotes from at least 3 suppliers all to the exact same specification. This last round went out to 5 suppliers - Insight, Misco, Stone, @VeryPC, and Novatech. With some very interesting results. Our last 3 servers (the virtual hosts) and our original storage box all came from Novatech. I understand the brand attraction to HP and Dell but you shouldn't overlook what bespoke suppliers like Novatech and @VeryPC can offer. As for your governors, are you employed as the schools IT expert? If so then they should listen - are they IT qualified and know the details of network storage better than you? Just write them a clear concise report that details all the different options, the merits and pitfalls or each, and your recommended option. Keep the language to something laymen could digest and technical detail to a minimum and you'd be surprised how well they'll listen (or at least should listen).

So, current set up - 1 storage box, 4Tb (450Gb 15k SAS drives in RAID-50), Windows Server 2008R2 (SMBv2), 3 virtual machine host servers running 2012. About 30 virtual servers in total (2 terminal servers, 2 SIMS servers, Exchange, several SQL and Internet servers, etc). About 250-300 client machines. 750 Pupils. 100 Teachers. The (current) plan is to move to 2 storage boxes of 8Tb each (combo of SSD, 900Gb 10k SAS, 450Gb 15k SAS) and Server 2012R2 for the storage. VM's will be manually load balanced between the two storage boxes with Hyper-V Replica copying the VM's to the non-live storage box for the respective VMs. DSF-R will allow us to load balance user file shares between the two storage boxes. The only great unknown at this stage is the bandwidth requirements for both Replica and DFS-R. I will say I'm not trying to promote this method as a better solution to iSCSI. It's just a good alternative that was the right fit for us. In many ways, if you can afford it, iSCSI and CSV may have some advantages. I suppose it depends on the size of the organisation. We're a small to medium sized rural high school, to dropping £50k on the SAN to end all SANs was never an option for us.

Indoor aerial? (plus signal booster if you're about to complain at local signal strength)

Myth TV will do what you want. Put the server on the laptop and frontend on the Pi?

Now you're just being fussy: TVCatchup - Never Miss A Show Again

Does Windows Media Center do DLNA streaming? Get the the USB dongle to record into a folder being monitored by a DLNA server. Install an app from the channel store for DLNA on the Roku and stream.

Here's a rough diagram of our current network topology: We actually only have one storage server at the moment, set up with SMB shares only. We are looking at purchasing the second now and reconfiguring around DFS-R for user shares and Replica for VHDs. You can, under this model - as @zag suggests, forget the storage servers completely and have the storage built in to the host servers - doing away with the need for a storage network. Since we're expending and not starting from scratch, we're going down the second SMB storage server route. Looked at iSCSI but couldn't make it work for us with our existing storage server which we don't really want to get rid off. Here's MS's guide to running Hyper-V over SMB shares: Deploy Hyper-V over SMB A good technet article on Replica: Hyper-V Replica Explained, Windows Server 2012 Style - Yung Chou on Hybrid Cloud - Site Home - TechNet Blogs And DFS Replication: DFS Namespaces and DFS Replication Overview I'm looking at no hardware RAID on the storage boxes and using Windows 2012R2 Storage Spaces to create the partitions needed to store each shared folder (VHD, Replica, Home, Staff, and Students): Step-by-step for Storage Spaces Tiering in Windows Server 2012 R2 - Jose Barreto's Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

Hyper-V doesn't work with DFS-R namespaces so you have to use Hyper-V Replica instead on standard SMB shares (very, very easy to set up). 2012R2 allows replication between three Hyper-V servers, 2012 is just 2. The DFS-R shares are for our home drives, and other user shared folders. Users connect to the storage servers through on bonded network link, the VHD's are connected through a separate link to segregate traffic and reduce load/bottlenecks. All in all work quiet well for us and with SMBv3 provide the speed we need. Just another alternative to iSCSI and CSV.

^This, If I was to start 100% from scratch now I thin I'd look at local storage. A combination Hyper-V Replica and DFS-R shares seem to offer all the redundancy and failover support that I need in this environment. As per other threads, we are extending our network to two storage servers and using Hyper-V Replica and DFS-R to replicate between them. Our set up is essentially two Windows based NAS boxes in a SAN-like configuration (a separate "storage network" for SMB traffic between Virtual Hosts and the NAS). I've been getting quotes between £7k and £11k for a Windows Server with 8-10Tb of storage.

You know what, I think that's actually too much! I'd prefer a much more thought out, focused collection with games I like and will actually play.

I think I have city mentality - it works fine here

Last nights ending was a little...distasteful, IMHO.

I was a little disappointed towards the end. They did a good job of focusing on the beginnings and the 8-bit era, they then seemed to completely downplay if not ignore the importance of the Amiga/ST on the UK market and give far too much importance to consoles of the time. Almost feeding into the American world view that Nintendo saved video gaming. The whole 88-95 era seemed misrepresented and rushed. Still, good enjoyable documentary and great to hear the views of so many industry legends.

I'm pretty sure I can fill up endless days with (non-)productive activity and not get bored. I could give all my hobbies and interests the attention they deserve which I either can't afford now or don't have the time for.

I've no idea what that is! I pay VM £30pcm for 60mbps and keep thinking I should drop it to 30mbps. I know as soon as I do they'll go on one of their doubling everyones speed drives and I'll be back on 60mbps.

Retire. Travel. Complete my Retro gaming and guitar collections. Move to a nicer house/neighbourhood. Never worry about anything money related ever again. Eat more take outs and go to more restaurants. Yep, living the dream

Personally I find it's swings and roundabouts. What I don't spend on TV I now spend on Broadband instead (arguably more useful - but I'm sure I don't use anywhere near the bandwidth available). I pay about £30pcm on broadband and £10 on IPTV, throw in my mobile and a bundle deal with Sky/Virgin would probably save me money. But then I'd probably end up with more TV and less phone and broadband... NowTV is a very good deal considering the channels, price and delivery method.

I'll think I'll avoid until the processors that cause Windows 10 are released !?!

Error, error, out of cheese, redo from start

ExCeL London Invests Further to Offer Free Wi-fi

Network Manager: "I know I said we need air conditioning, but I think you're taking this piss!"

I'll refrain from asking how you end up with 3 unused SANs. Instead I'll ask - what sort of spec are they, what sort of price. Depending on the answer I might be interested in 1 or 2 since we're currently looking at our storage requirements. PM me the details. Thanks.

I cut the cable a number of years ago. Until recently I did have a (expensive) Humax Freesat DVR that replaced my old Virgin Cable connection. I've also toyed with Freeview via the PS3's TV tuner. Recording TV is great but I don't miss it at all. I'm now 95% IPTV. The odd 5% is mostly BBC Breakfast first thing in the morning or a very rare BBC program like Dr Who watched live. Most of my TV is YouTube and BBC iPlayer. I have both Netflix and Now TV subscriptions which I dip in and out off as and when (very useful now Walking Dead is back). I also have Plex set up with some old boxsets, etc but I don't tend to go near it too often. 4OD is a once in six months affair. Can't remember the last time I saw anything on ITV Player or Demand5, that said I watched a couple of good ITV series on Now TV as part of their new ITV Encore offering. All in all, I think I can get my TV consumption down to just BBC Breakfast, iPlayer and NowTV. Wouldn't really miss the rest at all. These days I'd sooner read a good book, or better still, play a decent video game.