Server 'type' 1u vs 2u
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@Dashrender said:
Looks like one modern server could replace this whole lot, VMs baby!
Not only that but I am beginning to think that the T620 you currently have could make for an excellent virtual host. Maybe sell your other servers and max out the RAM in that bad boy... Providing you aren't struggling with disk space or IOPS that would probably work fairly well..
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It is pretty rare that an SMB cannot squeeze into a single physical host when set up correctly. Modern processors are so massively powerful and you can put so much memory and disk IO into a single chassis that it is really astounding what you can do in one chassis.
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@coliver said:
@Dashrender said:
Looks like one modern server could replace this whole lot, VMs baby!
Not only that but I am beginning to think that the T620 you currently have could make for an excellent virtual host. Maybe sell your other servers and max out the RAM in that bad boy... Providing you aren't struggling with disk space or IOPS that would probably work fairly well..
I have the report showing my IOPS around here in email. I'm happy to post it, most of what we have is files,.. which may be getting smaller since the drive failure (still in the clean room for eval).
ALL of the servers / boxes need to be scrubbed and rebuilt IMO - total fubar in my opinion.. which since I'm not MCSE CCNA or any of the other alphabets,.. doesn't mean much to some.
I'm leaning towards 2 Physical (1 for AD) and going VM. However the software we use isn't supported in a VM environment...
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why two servers? AD lives just fine on VMs. how big is your business?
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@Hubtech said:
why two servers? AD lives just fine on VMs. how big is your business?
Large enough - We technically have two 'business' units. Over all we have about 300 employees. As for AD playing well with others, if Small Business Server could handle the 300 users AND was still production, I'd go that route. SBS worked very well for me in the past, and I had very little issues with it.
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all i'm saying is...you could get 1 hot dog server and virtualize. but you do you boo boo!
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@g.jacobse said:
SBS worked very well for me in the past, and I had very little issues with it.
Why would you use SBS? You don't have inhouse Exchange/email - you mentioned it's Gmail now. There would be little or no gain there. That said, SBS capped out at 75 users so it's off the table.
AD should be in a VM all by itself.
@g.jacobse said:
However the software we use isn't supported in a VM environment...
What do you have that doesn't support virtualization?
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@Dashrender said:
@g.jacobse said:
However the software we use isn't supported in a VM environment...
What do you have that doesn't support virtualization?
There are a few vendors that I have encountered that don't support their software in a VM. Thankfully they are all remote support and to the software it doesn't really care. I think it is more along the lines of, "This isn't a tested configuration."
@Hubtech said:
Large enough - We technically have two 'business' units. Over all we have about 300 employees. As for AD playing well with others, if Small Business Server could handle the 300 users AND was still production, I'd go that route. SBS worked very well for me in the past, and I had very little issues with it.
Don't go with SBS, it really isn't necessary and if I remember correctly is being phased out.
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In my previous employment we had no more than 60 staff across four locations within a mile of each other. SBS was perfect for what they needed.
In this role there are about 300 - so SBS is off the table. Not to mention that SBS has been retired by MS. SBS was a good albeit compromised product - it served my (then) small organizations needs.
Here, SBS is just simply not an option - well past the limitations based upon users alone. We aren't using Exchange since it WAS POP3/IMAP. Still a bit left to transition out of, but we are moving to Office 365 - nice thing about being a NPO - 90% of my users in O365 are free.
We run Sage MIP, AbiliaSuite and Routematch (transportation software), As @coliver stated, they don't support the software in a VM environment.
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@g.jacobse said:
We run Sage MIP, AbiliaSuite and Routematch (transportation software), As @coliver stated, they don't support the software in a VM environment.
In cases like this I'll usually do it anyway and lie - unless you find yourself calling support that much? Now if when you're running it during transition and you have problems you just can't seem to solve - then maybe leave VMs behind, but until then.. I'd definitely try with VMs first.
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@Dashrender I agree. Just don't tell them that it is a VM, none of their business.
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@scottalanmiller yeah, don't volunteer that kind of information. Just keep it to yourself.
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@Dashrender since the vendor should have little to no way to identify an OS installation as being virtual or physical, it works out well. Don't ask, don't tell.
