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Virtual Server 2005

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* Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Configuration Guide
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Add Solution

Hardware for Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V

Source: microsoft.public.virtualserver
Sent: 11/16/2009
From: Henri Fournier
Message:

I'm new to this platform and haven't been able to find a great source for
hardware recommendations, so hopefully someone here can shed some light.

I'm looking at replacing a few old whitebox PC (P3 dual proc and p4) being
used as servers with one machine running VMs. The machines are old and tired
and draw a lot of power. I'd like consolidate, get better performance and
save energy. However, the budget is pretty tight, so I'm not looking for the
ideal server. I need something I can afford that'll get the job done
(software is through partner program, so I'm only concerned about hardware
costs). I'm running a SOHO office, so the servers are not under a heavy load.
I'd like to setup the following VMs:
* SBS 2008 (upgrading from SBS 2003)
* WS2008 Std with SQL Server 2008
* WS 2008 Web Edition
* W7 (for remote access through SBS 2008 RWW)

I was looking at the new Dell PowerEdge T110 (bottom end), which comes with
a quad-core Xeon processor and 8 GB of RAM. I thought I could assign a core
to each VM (can you do this?), 1 GB to the host, 1 Gb to the Web and 2 GB to
each of the others. Let me know if I'm already out-to-lunch.

When it comes to drives, I'm kinda lost. Should I have 1 drive per VM? If
so, which VM should share with the host? Am I OK with onboard SATA controller
(no RAID) or should I go with RAID 0? Something else? Would prefer SATA over
SCSI due to price, unless it's the wrong way to go.

As for NICs, how many do I need? 1 for the host and 1 for the VMs, or 1 for
each of the VMs? Can they be any GB NIC, or do they need to be special
virtualization-ready NICs?

Anything else I should know/do?

Thanks.

Post Reply | This is Spam! | Mark as Spam

Related Messages

Re: Hardware for Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V

Sent: 11/17/2009
From: "Charlie Russel - MVP" <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

You aren't even close at 8GB. SBS 2008 will require a minimum of 6GB to be
useable, even in a small SOHO office. For the others, you can probably get
away with 2GB each, though it's pretty tight if you're actually doing
anything with the SQL Server box. 12 GB would be tight, but acceptable, and
16 GB would be a better choice. If you do go with 12, make sure you have an
option to increase beyond that if you don't want to be boxed in.

I'd give SBS it's own physical NIC, plus one for management, and one or two
for sharing with other VMs.

For a smallish office like this, you're probably all right with a SATA RAID
(though SAS is always a better choice). But not ever RAID0 - you not only
don't have redundancy, you've actually increased your risk of failure. But a
decent PERC card in there, and a RAID 10 or 0+1 with 4 disks should give you
acceptable throughput.

One of the biggest problems with virtualizing workloads is providing
adequate I/O to handle the load. It's easy to calculate what you need for
processor or RAM, since those translate directly from what you're replacing.
But keep in mind that you're now putting all the I/O load from all your VMs
onto your disk and network subsystems and if you don't provide a good base
here the entire workload will grind to a halt.

--
Charlie.
http://msmvps.com/blogs/russel

"Henri Fournier" <Henri (email address - cut out)> wrote in message
news:(email address - cut out)...

Show quoted text

> I'm new to this platform and haven't been able to find a great source for
> hardware recommendations, so hopefully someone here can shed some light.
>
> I'm looking at replacing a few old whitebox PC (P3 dual proc and p4) being
> used as servers with one machine running VMs. The machines are old and
> tired
> and draw a lot of power. I'd like consolidate, get better performance and
> save energy. However, the budget is pretty tight, so I'm not looking for
> the
> ideal server. I need something I can afford that'll get the job done
> (software is through partner program, so I'm only concerned about hardware
> costs). I'm running a SOHO office, so the servers are not under a heavy
> load.
> I'd like to setup the following VMs:
> * SBS 2008 (upgrading from SBS 2003)
> * WS2008 Std with SQL Server 2008
> * WS 2008 Web Edition
> * W7 (for remote access through SBS 2008 RWW)
>
> I was looking at the new Dell PowerEdge T110 (bottom end), which comes
> with
> a quad-core Xeon processor and 8 GB of RAM. I thought I could assign a
> core
> to each VM (can you do this?), 1 GB to the host, 1 Gb to the Web and 2 GB
> to
> each of the others. Let me know if I'm already out-to-lunch.
>
> When it comes to drives, I'm kinda lost. Should I have 1 drive per VM? If
> so, which VM should share with the host? Am I OK with onboard SATA
> controller
> (no RAID) or should I go with RAID 0? Something else? Would prefer SATA
> over
> SCSI due to price, unless it's the wrong way to go.
>
> As for NICs, how many do I need? 1 for the host and 1 for the VMs, or 1
> for
> each of the VMs? Can they be any GB NIC, or do they need to be special
> virtualization-ready NICs?
>
> Anything else I should know/do?
>
> Thanks.

Re: Hardware for Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V

Sent: 11/17/2009
From: Henri Fournier
Message:

OK, I just checked the System Rq. for SBS 2008 and see that the min is 4 GB,
which is usually not enough, so I see where your 6 comes in. I didn't realize
how much higher the req. are over sbs 2003 (min 512 MB - rec 1 GB).

Wow! Following all your recommendations just drove the price of the box up
by a factor of 3. Yikes. Not the bargain solution I was hoping for.

Thanks for the info.

Henri

"Charlie Russel - MVP" wrote:

Show quoted text

> You aren't even close at 8GB. SBS 2008 will require a minimum of 6GB to be
> useable, even in a small SOHO office. For the others, you can probably get
> away with 2GB each, though it's pretty tight if you're actually doing
> anything with the SQL Server box. 12 GB would be tight, but acceptable, and
> 16 GB would be a better choice. If you do go with 12, make sure you have an
> option to increase beyond that if you don't want to be boxed in.
>
> I'd give SBS it's own physical NIC, plus one for management, and one or two
> for sharing with other VMs.
>
> For a smallish office like this, you're probably all right with a SATA RAID
> (though SAS is always a better choice). But not ever RAID0 - you not only
> don't have redundancy, you've actually increased your risk of failure. But a
> decent PERC card in there, and a RAID 10 or 0+1 with 4 disks should give you
> acceptable throughput.
>
> One of the biggest problems with virtualizing workloads is providing
> adequate I/O to handle the load. It's easy to calculate what you need for
> processor or RAM, since those translate directly from what you're replacing.
> But keep in mind that you're now putting all the I/O load from all your VMs
> onto your disk and network subsystems and if you don't provide a good base
> here the entire workload will grind to a halt.
>
> --
> Charlie.
> http://msmvps.com/blogs/russel
>
>
>
>
> "Henri Fournier" <Henri (email address - cut out)> wrote in message
> news:(email address - cut out)...
> > I'm new to this platform and haven't been able to find a great source for
> > hardware recommendations, so hopefully someone here can shed some light.
> >
> > I'm looking at replacing a few old whitebox PC (P3 dual proc and p4) being
> > used as servers with one machine running VMs. The machines are old and
> > tired
> > and draw a lot of power. I'd like consolidate, get better performance and
> > save energy. However, the budget is pretty tight, so I'm not looking for
> > the
> > ideal server. I need something I can afford that'll get the job done
> > (software is through partner program, so I'm only concerned about hardware
> > costs). I'm running a SOHO office, so the servers are not under a heavy
> > load.
> > I'd like to setup the following VMs:
> > * SBS 2008 (upgrading from SBS 2003)
> > * WS2008 Std with SQL Server 2008
> > * WS 2008 Web Edition
> > * W7 (for remote access through SBS 2008 RWW)
> >
> > I was looking at the new Dell PowerEdge T110 (bottom end), which comes
> > with
> > a quad-core Xeon processor and 8 GB of RAM. I thought I could assign a
> > core
> > to each VM (can you do this?), 1 GB to the host, 1 Gb to the Web and 2 GB
> > to
> > each of the others. Let me know if I'm already out-to-lunch.
> >
> > When it comes to drives, I'm kinda lost. Should I have 1 drive per VM? If
> > so, which VM should share with the host? Am I OK with onboard SATA
> > controller
> > (no RAID) or should I go with RAID 0? Something else? Would prefer SATA
> > over
> > SCSI due to price, unless it's the wrong way to go.
> >
> > As for NICs, how many do I need? 1 for the host and 1 for the VMs, or 1
> > for
> > each of the VMs? Can they be any GB NIC, or do they need to be special
> > virtualization-ready NICs?
> >
> > Anything else I should know/do?
> >
> > Thanks.
>
> .
>

Re: Hardware for Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V

Sent: 11/17/2009
From: "Charlie Russel - MVP" <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

Well, you could certainly build a box to do this for a fairly reasonable
price. I know I built one with 16 GB, a serious RAID card, 4x500 GB
Enterprise SATA drives, a pair of backup USB drives, and 3 NICs for roughly
$3k CAD, so you should be able to do it for under $2500 USD. Especially now
that Core i7 is out and supports 12 GB without any problem or expensive 4GB
DIMMs. (I had to build mine with 4GB DIMMs because it was pre-i7.)

--
Charlie.
http://msmvps.com/blogs/russel

"Henri Fournier" <(email address - cut out)> wrote in message
news:(email address - cut out)...

Show quoted text

> OK, I just checked the System Rq. for SBS 2008 and see that the min is 4
> GB,
> which is usually not enough, so I see where your 6 comes in. I didn't
> realize
> how much higher the req. are over sbs 2003 (min 512 MB - rec 1 GB).
>
> Wow! Following all your recommendations just drove the price of the box up
> by a factor of 3. Yikes. Not the bargain solution I was hoping for.
>
> Thanks for the info.
>
> Henri
>
> "Charlie Russel - MVP" wrote:
>
>> You aren't even close at 8GB. SBS 2008 will require a minimum of 6GB to
>> be
>> useable, even in a small SOHO office. For the others, you can probably
>> get
>> away with 2GB each, though it's pretty tight if you're actually doing
>> anything with the SQL Server box. 12 GB would be tight, but acceptable,
>> and
>> 16 GB would be a better choice. If you do go with 12, make sure you have
>> an
>> option to increase beyond that if you don't want to be boxed in.
>>
>> I'd give SBS it's own physical NIC, plus one for management, and one or
>> two
>> for sharing with other VMs.
>>
>> For a smallish office like this, you're probably all right with a SATA
>> RAID
>> (though SAS is always a better choice). But not ever RAID0 - you not only
>> don't have redundancy, you've actually increased your risk of failure.
>> But a
>> decent PERC card in there, and a RAID 10 or 0+1 with 4 disks should give
>> you
>> acceptable throughput.
>>
>> One of the biggest problems with virtualizing workloads is providing
>> adequate I/O to handle the load. It's easy to calculate what you need for
>> processor or RAM, since those translate directly from what you're
>> replacing.
>> But keep in mind that you're now putting all the I/O load from all your
>> VMs
>> onto your disk and network subsystems and if you don't provide a good
>> base
>> here the entire workload will grind to a halt.
>>
>> --
>> Charlie.
>> http://msmvps.com/blogs/russel
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> "Henri Fournier" <Henri (email address - cut out)> wrote in
>> message
>> news:(email address - cut out)...
>> > I'm new to this platform and haven't been able to find a great source
>> > for
>> > hardware recommendations, so hopefully someone here can shed some
>> > light.
>> >
>> > I'm looking at replacing a few old whitebox PC (P3 dual proc and p4)
>> > being
>> > used as servers with one machine running VMs. The machines are old and
>> > tired
>> > and draw a lot of power. I'd like consolidate, get better performance
>> > and
>> > save energy. However, the budget is pretty tight, so I'm not looking
>> > for
>> > the
>> > ideal server. I need something I can afford that'll get the job done
>> > (software is through partner program, so I'm only concerned about
>> > hardware
>> > costs). I'm running a SOHO office, so the servers are not under a heavy
>> > load.
>> > I'd like to setup the following VMs:
>> > * SBS 2008 (upgrading from SBS 2003)
>> > * WS2008 Std with SQL Server 2008
>> > * WS 2008 Web Edition
>> > * W7 (for remote access through SBS 2008 RWW)
>> >
>> > I was looking at the new Dell PowerEdge T110 (bottom end), which comes
>> > with
>> > a quad-core Xeon processor and 8 GB of RAM. I thought I could assign a
>> > core
>> > to each VM (can you do this?), 1 GB to the host, 1 Gb to the Web and 2
>> > GB
>> > to
>> > each of the others. Let me know if I'm already out-to-lunch.
>> >
>> > When it comes to drives, I'm kinda lost. Should I have 1 drive per VM?
>> > If
>> > so, which VM should share with the host? Am I OK with onboard SATA
>> > controller
>> > (no RAID) or should I go with RAID 0? Something else? Would prefer SATA
>> > over
>> > SCSI due to price, unless it's the wrong way to go.
>> >
>> > As for NICs, how many do I need? 1 for the host and 1 for the VMs, or 1
>> > for
>> > each of the VMs? Can they be any GB NIC, or do they need to be special
>> > virtualization-ready NICs?
>> >
>> > Anything else I should know/do?
>> >
>> > Thanks.
>>
>> .
>>

Re: Hardware for Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V

Sent: 11/18/2009
From: Henri Fournier
Message:

Are you taking about your HP ML350 G5 on your blog? Now that you've had it
for a while and i7 is out, what would you do differently? You mentioned the
G6...

I'm guessing you're not running Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V on that box,
since it hasn't been available for that long. So what's your software setup,
if you don't mind? Thanks.

PS: Mine would be $ CAD too.

Henri

"Charlie Russel - MVP" wrote:

Show quoted text

> Well, you could certainly build a box to do this for a fairly reasonable
> price. I know I built one with 16 GB, a serious RAID card, 4x500 GB
> Enterprise SATA drives, a pair of backup USB drives, and 3 NICs for roughly
> $3k CAD, so you should be able to do it for under $2500 USD. Especially now
> that Core i7 is out and supports 12 GB without any problem or expensive 4GB
> DIMMs. (I had to build mine with 4GB DIMMs because it was pre-i7.)
>
> --
> Charlie.
> http://msmvps.com/blogs/russel
>
>
>
>
> "Henri Fournier" <(email address - cut out)> wrote in message
> news:(email address - cut out)...
> > OK, I just checked the System Rq. for SBS 2008 and see that the min is 4
> > GB,
> > which is usually not enough, so I see where your 6 comes in. I didn't
> > realize
> > how much higher the req. are over sbs 2003 (min 512 MB - rec 1 GB).
> >
> > Wow! Following all your recommendations just drove the price of the box up
> > by a factor of 3. Yikes. Not the bargain solution I was hoping for.
> >
> > Thanks for the info.
> >
> > Henri
> >
> > "Charlie Russel - MVP" wrote:
> >
> >> You aren't even close at 8GB. SBS 2008 will require a minimum of 6GB to
> >> be
> >> useable, even in a small SOHO office. For the others, you can probably
> >> get
> >> away with 2GB each, though it's pretty tight if you're actually doing
> >> anything with the SQL Server box. 12 GB would be tight, but acceptable,
> >> and
> >> 16 GB would be a better choice. If you do go with 12, make sure you have
> >> an
> >> option to increase beyond that if you don't want to be boxed in.
> >>
> >> I'd give SBS it's own physical NIC, plus one for management, and one or
> >> two
> >> for sharing with other VMs.
> >>
> >> For a smallish office like this, you're probably all right with a SATA
> >> RAID
> >> (though SAS is always a better choice). But not ever RAID0 - you not only
> >> don't have redundancy, you've actually increased your risk of failure.
> >> But a
> >> decent PERC card in there, and a RAID 10 or 0+1 with 4 disks should give
> >> you
> >> acceptable throughput.
> >>
> >> One of the biggest problems with virtualizing workloads is providing
> >> adequate I/O to handle the load. It's easy to calculate what you need for
> >> processor or RAM, since those translate directly from what you're
> >> replacing.
> >> But keep in mind that you're now putting all the I/O load from all your
> >> VMs
> >> onto your disk and network subsystems and if you don't provide a good
> >> base
> >> here the entire workload will grind to a halt.
> >>
> >> --
> >> Charlie.
> >> http://msmvps.com/blogs/russel
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> "Henri Fournier" <Henri (email address - cut out)> wrote in
> >> message
> >> news:(email address - cut out)...
> >> > I'm new to this platform and haven't been able to find a great source
> >> > for
> >> > hardware recommendations, so hopefully someone here can shed some
> >> > light.
> >> >
> >> > I'm looking at replacing a few old whitebox PC (P3 dual proc and p4)
> >> > being
> >> > used as servers with one machine running VMs. The machines are old and
> >> > tired
> >> > and draw a lot of power. I'd like consolidate, get better performance
> >> > and
> >> > save energy. However, the budget is pretty tight, so I'm not looking
> >> > for
> >> > the
> >> > ideal server. I need something I can afford that'll get the job done
> >> > (software is through partner program, so I'm only concerned about
> >> > hardware
> >> > costs). I'm running a SOHO office, so the servers are not under a heavy
> >> > load.
> >> > I'd like to setup the following VMs:
> >> > * SBS 2008 (upgrading from SBS 2003)
> >> > * WS2008 Std with SQL Server 2008
> >> > * WS 2008 Web Edition
> >> > * W7 (for remote access through SBS 2008 RWW)
> >> >
> >> > I was looking at the new Dell PowerEdge T110 (bottom end), which comes
> >> > with
> >> > a quad-core Xeon processor and 8 GB of RAM. I thought I could assign a
> >> > core
> >> > to each VM (can you do this?), 1 GB to the host, 1 Gb to the Web and 2
> >> > GB
> >> > to
> >> > each of the others. Let me know if I'm already out-to-lunch.
> >> >
> >> > When it comes to drives, I'm kinda lost. Should I have 1 drive per VM?
> >> > If
> >> > so, which VM should share with the host? Am I OK with onboard SATA
> >> > controller
> >> > (no RAID) or should I go with RAID 0? Something else? Would prefer SATA
> >> > over
> >> > SCSI due to price, unless it's the wrong way to go.
> >> >
> >> > As for NICs, how many do I need? 1 for the host and 1 for the VMs, or 1
> >> > for
> >> > each of the VMs? Can they be any GB NIC, or do they need to be special
> >> > virtualization-ready NICs?
> >> >
> >> > Anything else I should know/do?
> >> >
> >> > Thanks.
> >>
> >> .
> >>
>
> .
>

Post Reply | This is Spam! | Mark as Spam

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