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I've recently completed a VMM course and as a result I found out that most of my servers have been configured wrong. Don't worry it's not as bad as it sounds just a few tweaks required here and there. However, I'm finding it increasingly difficult to find the time to make the changes and migrate the VM's to new homes.(This has to be done as the cluster is set up incorrectly). So what I'm after is someone who can come in and do a Hyper-V tidy up and get all my hosts under VMM. Suggestions anyone?

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

Hey all, We started running 1 Ubuntu server for an open-source SIMS-like project for some special data collection - and we're now up to 3 with the addition of 2 mail gateways that provide email filtering. Being the only Ubuntu guy here, I'm starting to wonder if I can do this better, as opposed to having 3 separate boxes currently. Granted, I feel safer having 2 separate mail gateways, but expect I can get the redundancy in a different way. That all being said - what's the best way to do this? Virtual servers? Cluster? I've read through this post here: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/networks/29889-server-virtualization-not-server-virtualization.html And it makes it sound like virtual servers is the way to go. My only requirements would be: ease of use, redunancy / failover. Thanks for any suggestions. I've only been running Ubuntu for about a year now, so I'm pretty new - I know it has some virtual pieces in it but haven't really looked at it yet (KVM?). Thanks. Damian