MRmr

Thanks for the reply Achandler. Thanks thats good to know, yeah we'll probably only have about 40 concurrent users on the system at any one time. I'll take your advice re: the 24GB Ram and 4 x hard drives. Cheers

Hi you knowledgeable people, I'm hoping you can give me some advice on how to setup a new virtualised infrastructure in the charity I work for. We currently have 2 sites (details below), approx 200 staff, which work on shifts (we operate 24/7). Current setup: 2 sites (HQ & Branch) connected via 20Mb leased line. HQ setup: Dell 2900 Server - running Win Server 2003, DC, Exchange 2003, file (DFS) and print server, Sage Line 50, Eset AV (so its a bit crowded) Small HP microserver - running Win 2008 R2 - SQL server express Approx 40 desktop PCs running XP A couple of desktops running Win 7 Branch: Desktop PC - running Win 2003, DC, file and print Approx 12 desktop PCs running XP Hardware available for new setup: 2 x HP DL380G6 (2 cpu, 18GB RAM, 2 x 146GB 10k SAS, 3 x 300Gb 10k SAS) - initially purchased for Hyper-V hosts 2 x HP DL180G6 (don't have the spec on hand) - initially purchased for storing DPM backups This hardware was purchased about 1 year ago with the plan being 1 of each type of server used as each site, but due to various different reasons I couldn't do anything with them until now. I'd also like to keep any new purchases down to an absolute minimum. We already have some enterprise 2008 R2 licences and due to use being a charity MS licences are very cheap. My thoughts / plans are: At HQ: HyperV host using HP DL380G6 - will call it HyperV1 Maybe take a hard drive and some RAM from other DL380 ? So it could have 24Gb RAM, 2 x 146GB for host OS, 4 x 300GB RAID5 for virtual machines. Use it to host: VM1 -Exchange 2010 (approx 200 users, half of these are very light users, most of the rest would be medium, with a few heavy users) VM2 - Sage VM3 - DC with file and print server VM4 - SQL server (or express) Use a DL180 with DPM to backup these servers Keep Dell 2900, keep as Physical DC & file server, Eset AV At Branch: Use a DL380G6 setup as Hyper-V host - call it HyperV2 Use it to host: VM1 - DC with File and print Have capacity to setup another VM to use as backup exchange server incase anything happens Exchange server in HQ Use a DL180 to keep backups using DPM of the DL180 in HQ Any thoughts on this ? What I'm trying to achieve is all data (Exchange, network files, sage backups etc) sufficiently backed up e.g. backups from HQ stores in branch site If anything was to happen to HyperV1 it wouldn't cripple the company. Further down the line I'd like to move all PCs to Win 7 Is RAID 5 going to be OK with Exchange 2010 for the relatively small number of users ? I'd like to use RAID 10 but that would mean purchasing more harddrives which I'd like to try and avoid if possible. Anything else I've forgotten about ? I'd really appreciate any help / advice you can give me. Mark

What would you recommend for a cheap-ish SAN for around that price ? Thanks MR

Hi Folks Have been lurking here for a bit but took the plunge and decided to register as I'm looking for some advice. Before I start I should mention I don't actually work in the Education sector ( I used to), I work for a charity now. I'm also not sure what forum this should be in, so a mod might want to move it. I currently have the following setup: Site A: Approx 60 users with approx 40 PCs (all running Win XP) 1 Win 2003 DC (Dell 2900 2Ghz 4Gb RAM) This pretty much runs everything, DNS, File and Print (using DFS), Exchange 2003 (80 users over both sites). Site B: Approx 20 users with approx 10 PCs (running Win XP) This has only recently opened and is currently connected to Site A via VPN over an ADSL connection. It has a temporary PC running Win 2003 R2 acting as a local DC, along with File server (using DFS) and print server. I'm planning to have a 20Mb connection between sites, for use with VOIP, video conferencing, general network connection. I'm looking to be able to run Site B as a Disaster Recovery site, so if anything was to happen to the server at site A it doesn't have as big an impact on everyone as it would currently. I'd also like to upgrade to Win 2008 R2 and Exchange 2010 ( and further down the line Windows 7) My plans are something like the following: - Purchase a new server for Site A and install Win 2008 R2, setup multiple Virtual Machines on it e.g. VM1 - DC (also keep a physical server as a DC, possible a HP ML115 which I have) VM2 - Exchange 2010 (not sure if standard or enterprise, but may make use of the Unified Comms stuff) VM3 - File server (DFS), print server, WSUS, Antivirus VM4 - inhouse database accessed via IIS, which will probably move from Access to SQLserver - Purchase a new server for Site B with Win 2008 R2 VM1 - DC VM2 - File server (DFS), eventually setting up branch cache Other VMs - ??? What would be the best way of being able to switch over to running Exchange from Site B incase something happened server at Site A. Could I setup DPM 2007 or 2010 in Site A to backup the VMs and then also setup DPM in Site B, with Site B backing up the VMs from the DPM in Site A This way in an emergency I would just need to setup a VM on site B with the image of the Exchange VM from Site A ? Would this work ? I had thought about the possibility of getting 2 servers for site A with shared storage to store the VMs, to add extra redundancy, but budgets might prohibit this. The Sun 7000 series SANs get recommended here but might well be too expensive. Also not sure how to replicate the data to Site B. Had also thought about possible using a HP Lefthand multi-site Virtual SAN. Again costs might prohibit this. I have been thinking of going with Hyper-V for the VMs due to the fact that as a charity we can get cheap Microsoft products. I have approx £13k ish of a budget for this, any thoughts on my plans, recommendations on hardware etc. Many thanks Mark