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Windows Server 2008 Enterprise System Requirements 2
- Thread starter GrimR
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You'd have to provide a LOT more information that what you have. Do you want those guests to just sit there and look nice, or do they need to run some application? You size them for the requirements that you need, and size the host around that.
Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.
Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.
- Thread starter
- #5
I dont want specifics, but something like running exch 2010 with 100 mailboxes, and sql 2005, and SCE with a couple of other apps that are not resource intensive, and one instance purely as backup for now.
I just want to know how much RAM per server and what sort of processing power would be a good place to start.
e.g. 8GB for Server 2008 R2 and for the 4 VM's 8GB for exch, 4GB SQL, 4GB each for instance 3 & 4 etc
MCITP:EA/SA, MCSE, MCSA, MCDBA, MCTS, MCP+I, MCP
I just want to know how much RAM per server and what sort of processing power would be a good place to start.
e.g. 8GB for Server 2008 R2 and for the 4 VM's 8GB for exch, 4GB SQL, 4GB each for instance 3 & 4 etc
MCITP:EA/SA, MCSE, MCSA, MCDBA, MCTS, MCP+I, MCP
Ok - no specifics, since you still haven't provided enough info to even come close. 4 quad processors and 128GB of RAM. Not what you were looking for? Fine - then figure out what's going on each guest, use the respective documentation and recommendations for each app to determine what is needed. Anything less and you're not planning properly, and almost certainly setting yourself up for disappointment. The fact that your virtualizing doesn't really change what each application needs in terms of resources. You'd have to provide them whether physical or virtual.
We can't possibly tell you ANYTHING if you're generalising everything.
Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.
We can't possibly tell you ANYTHING if you're generalising everything.
Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.
- Thread starter
- #7
I understand what you saying and why you annoyed with generalizing, but would the server hosting the VM's need an excessive [more because it's running the VM's] amount of RAM.
I have 4 servers none have more than 8GB memory with 2 x Quads in each. So 32GB would cover that, but surely this will put a bit more load/strain on the host?
MCITP:EA/SA, MCSE, MCSA, MCDBA, MCTS, MCP+I, MCP
I have 4 servers none have more than 8GB memory with 2 x Quads in each. So 32GB would cover that, but surely this will put a bit more load/strain on the host?
MCITP:EA/SA, MCSE, MCSA, MCDBA, MCTS, MCP+I, MCP
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- #8
Pat is absolutely correct. Just because it's virtual doesn't mean that proper sizing isn't important. And it really scares me to see someone as highly certified as you asking a newbie question like that.
Here are some general guidelines:
Memory:
Assume that the parent partition (the one that runs Hyper-V) will require 1GB of RAM. You may be able to get by with half that, but better safe than sorry. You will also want to size your VM's memory as if they were physical. So determine how much memory you would need on physical machines to accommodate your SQL, Exchange, and SCE installations and use those figures for your VM memory sizes.
Disk:
This will be entirely dependent on the sizes of your VMs, especially your Exchange and SQL databases. Not only that, you need to take into account the I/O profiles of your Exchange and SQL installations to determine how many IOPS you will generate and therefore what your array configuration should look like.
CPU:
Again, this is going to be highly dependent on what your utilization profiles look like. Since most servers today come with dual-core CPUs, I would think a 2-socket quad core server would be a good starting point. You will want at least one core per VM, and probably at least one core per SQL instance. Being a DBA you probably know the SQL sizing requirements better than I do.
Overall:
You may only be considering running those 4 servers today, but there's a fair chance that your virtualized environment will grow in the future. You may want to consider building in some additional headroom, especially in the CPU area.
There are also some specific recommendations for deploying Exchange and SQL in virtual environments that you should read. I know that with Exchange there are some important decisions to be made around HA, namely whether to use the Exchange capability or the Hyper-V capability.
And there are probably a lot more resources out there.
________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCTS:Windows 7
MCTS:Hyper-V
MCTS:System Center Virtual Machine Manager
MCTS:Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Server Administrator
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator
Certified Quest vWorkspace Administrator
Here are some general guidelines:
Memory:
Assume that the parent partition (the one that runs Hyper-V) will require 1GB of RAM. You may be able to get by with half that, but better safe than sorry. You will also want to size your VM's memory as if they were physical. So determine how much memory you would need on physical machines to accommodate your SQL, Exchange, and SCE installations and use those figures for your VM memory sizes.
Disk:
This will be entirely dependent on the sizes of your VMs, especially your Exchange and SQL databases. Not only that, you need to take into account the I/O profiles of your Exchange and SQL installations to determine how many IOPS you will generate and therefore what your array configuration should look like.
CPU:
Again, this is going to be highly dependent on what your utilization profiles look like. Since most servers today come with dual-core CPUs, I would think a 2-socket quad core server would be a good starting point. You will want at least one core per VM, and probably at least one core per SQL instance. Being a DBA you probably know the SQL sizing requirements better than I do.
Overall:
You may only be considering running those 4 servers today, but there's a fair chance that your virtualized environment will grow in the future. You may want to consider building in some additional headroom, especially in the CPU area.
There are also some specific recommendations for deploying Exchange and SQL in virtual environments that you should read. I know that with Exchange there are some important decisions to be made around HA, namely whether to use the Exchange capability or the Hyper-V capability.
And there are probably a lot more resources out there.
________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCTS:Windows 7
MCTS:Hyper-V
MCTS:System Center Virtual Machine Manager
MCTS:Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Server Administrator
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator
Certified Quest vWorkspace Administrator
kmcferrin is spot on. Plus - how are you accessing the storage? iSCSI? If so, how are you equipped for network cards?
In all of my Hyper-V installs that use iSCSI, I have the two embedded NICs that are teamed (used only for Hyper-V management via SCVMM), then (at least) a quad port NIC for iSCSI, and at least one quad port NIC for guest access. That's 10 network cables coming out of the back (excluding KVM, DRAC, etc).
Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.
In all of my Hyper-V installs that use iSCSI, I have the two embedded NICs that are teamed (used only for Hyper-V management via SCVMM), then (at least) a quad port NIC for iSCSI, and at least one quad port NIC for guest access. That's 10 network cables coming out of the back (excluding KVM, DRAC, etc).
Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.
Hey Pat, since you mentioned teaming and Hyper-V, you wouldn't happen to know anything about the issue linked below, would you?
I can't help but think I did something funky with the teaming on this setup (or that the drivers were bad?).
________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCTS:Windows 7
MCTS:Hyper-V
MCTS:System Center Virtual Machine Manager
MCTS:Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Server Administrator
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator
Certified Quest vWorkspace Administrator
I can't help but think I did something funky with the teaming on this setup (or that the drivers were bad?).
________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCTS:Windows 7
MCTS:Hyper-V
MCTS:System Center Virtual Machine Manager
MCTS:Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Server Administrator
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator
Certified Quest vWorkspace Administrator
- Thread starter
- #11
58sniper & kmcferrin thanks for the information it will surely help in determining the server I need to purchase to accomplish my goal. kmcferrin "highly certified"? I think you have a few more especially in the VM field.
BTW even though I am certified and run mainly MS products I am the only IT person looking after my network, so I don't have colleagues to ask on what they think would be good hardware to purchase for a Hyper-V installation, therefore this site is the best place to get good advice, and I know some of the people here also do CBT's.
MCITP:EA/SA, MCSE, MCSA, MCDBA, MCTS, MCP+I, MCP
BTW even though I am certified and run mainly MS products I am the only IT person looking after my network, so I don't have colleagues to ask on what they think would be good hardware to purchase for a Hyper-V installation, therefore this site is the best place to get good advice, and I know some of the people here also do CBT's.
MCITP:EA/SA, MCSE, MCSA, MCDBA, MCTS, MCP+I, MCP
kmcferrin - I've only seen that issue once, and it was while I was doing an emergency rebuild of a server that only needed to be online for a couple of weeks. So I killed the team and just left it that way. Since it was an emergency, I didn't have the time to really troubleshoot further.
Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.
Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.
Thanks anyway, Pat.
________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCTS:Windows 7
MCTS:Hyper-V
MCTS:System Center Virtual Machine Manager
MCTS:Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Server Administrator
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator
Certified Quest vWorkspace Administrator
________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCTS:Windows 7
MCTS:Hyper-V
MCTS:System Center Virtual Machine Manager
MCTS:Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Server Administrator
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator
Certified Quest vWorkspace Administrator
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