In the last few months i saw a couple of questions regarding virtualization, so i though about creating a thread showing how I do it, of course there are other ways, probably better since I don’t hold any certs. or study whatsoever, so it would be nice if anyone who has another method, recommendations, etc. joins in.
So, what do I do for Virtualization,
1) Choose the Hypervisor
Depending on the clients needs, it’s not the same having a 24hs business that having a Monday to Friday Business for example.
My choices are:
ESXI Free: it’s robust, I don’t remember having any big issue with it, and mostly I use the free version, but again... it depends on the client, maybe one big issue it has, it’s that it’s not compatible with Veeam Backup & Replication (Backup Software) unless you have a paid license, an option to this is to just use the Veeam Agent Backup for each server, not ideal.. but it’s a workaround to use Veeam.
Windows Server Core: When you pay for a license of Windows Server, it allows you to install the SO in a physical Server and create two VMs using Hyper-V with the same license.
But why Core? Because it has a lot less reboots when applying updates, less resource consumption and when a “friend” of the owner or any pizza tech tries to access the server, they get immediately stopped (happened a couple of times).
Both options have a web administration interface, ESXI comes with the web interface and you can use to configure the VMs, Datastore and everything without vCenter and Windows Server now has WAC (windows admin center) which is a few steps back of ESXI but works quite well.
2) Installation
When I do ANY server installation, I divide the partitions, it’s not optional for me... it’s a must... like having a RAID configuration, no raid? Ok no server simple as that.
How and why:
C:/ for the OS (80Gb)
D:/ for the VMs (200Gb max)
P:/ for PageFile (only for Windows) (double of what’s in RAM)
In Windows i manually set the PageFile to a different partition, this is because I am a control freak and I want to be sure that Windows uses what i want and where i want of Virtual Memory.
In ESXI you get to create the SWAP when you are installing the OS.
Regarding RAID, the minimum for the it’s a RAID1 (mirror disk), normally I use this RAID for small server that don’t need to work 24x7 or that can stay a few days with the server down, again it depends on the client.
RAID6 I use it for Mid-Level clients, it allows for 2 drive fails and the R/W it’s not bad for most applications
RAID10 I use for Top Level Business, when they need the best of the best (and they can afford it) I go with this configuration, mirroring and stripe.
I no longer use spinners, all this is with SSD, if someone wants a server with spinner I explain to them why it’s not good to use them for the central equipment of his entire business and they normally understand it, not always, but mostly.
The minimum RAM i use nowadays it's 32Gb, less it's just not enough for anything.
A BIG thing to have in mind is iLO (for HP Servers) and iDRAC (for DELLs), why are these things so important? Simple, when the main SO fails, you can connect to the hardware “imbedded SO” and check what is doing, if it’s giving you a boot error, a RAID failure etc.
3) Roles Separation
Just like Microsoft recommends, separate your roles all you can, if you have ADDS, FPS, RDS, DHCP, DNS... you are bound to have a problem 5 minutes after you bring that thing online to production, how I do it?
If I got 1 Windows License:
A) ADDS, DNS, DHCP, Backup Soft
B) FPS, Business Apps, BBDDs
This way if I need to restart the DC they can still work with their files or apps
2 Windows Licenses (it is my standard)
A) “ADDS, DNS, DHCP”
B) “FPS”
C) “APPS-BBDD” Business Apps, BBDDs
D) “MNT” Backup Software
This way if I need to restart the DC they can still work with their files or apps, or if I need to launch the Backup software it will not slow down the app server that much.
As a standard I use the following configuration for the VMs:
DC, FPS, MNT - 2 processors, 8Gb RAM
APPS-BBDD – 4 processors 16Gb RAM
This ensures me that the VM’s will have enough resources to pull the wagon.
This is my base line, it all starts from this “template”
If I need an RDS i add another server if it is only a small business, if it’s a medium size business I play with a gateway also.
But as always... “IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE CLIENT”
Hope it helps and any other ways to do it are more than welcome!
So, what do I do for Virtualization,
1) Choose the Hypervisor
Depending on the clients needs, it’s not the same having a 24hs business that having a Monday to Friday Business for example.
My choices are:
ESXI Free: it’s robust, I don’t remember having any big issue with it, and mostly I use the free version, but again... it depends on the client, maybe one big issue it has, it’s that it’s not compatible with Veeam Backup & Replication (Backup Software) unless you have a paid license, an option to this is to just use the Veeam Agent Backup for each server, not ideal.. but it’s a workaround to use Veeam.
Windows Server Core: When you pay for a license of Windows Server, it allows you to install the SO in a physical Server and create two VMs using Hyper-V with the same license.
But why Core? Because it has a lot less reboots when applying updates, less resource consumption and when a “friend” of the owner or any pizza tech tries to access the server, they get immediately stopped (happened a couple of times).
Both options have a web administration interface, ESXI comes with the web interface and you can use to configure the VMs, Datastore and everything without vCenter and Windows Server now has WAC (windows admin center) which is a few steps back of ESXI but works quite well.
2) Installation
When I do ANY server installation, I divide the partitions, it’s not optional for me... it’s a must... like having a RAID configuration, no raid? Ok no server simple as that.
How and why:
C:/ for the OS (80Gb)
D:/ for the VMs (200Gb max)
P:/ for PageFile (only for Windows) (double of what’s in RAM)
In Windows i manually set the PageFile to a different partition, this is because I am a control freak and I want to be sure that Windows uses what i want and where i want of Virtual Memory.
In ESXI you get to create the SWAP when you are installing the OS.
Regarding RAID, the minimum for the it’s a RAID1 (mirror disk), normally I use this RAID for small server that don’t need to work 24x7 or that can stay a few days with the server down, again it depends on the client.
RAID6 I use it for Mid-Level clients, it allows for 2 drive fails and the R/W it’s not bad for most applications
RAID10 I use for Top Level Business, when they need the best of the best (and they can afford it) I go with this configuration, mirroring and stripe.
I no longer use spinners, all this is with SSD, if someone wants a server with spinner I explain to them why it’s not good to use them for the central equipment of his entire business and they normally understand it, not always, but mostly.
The minimum RAM i use nowadays it's 32Gb, less it's just not enough for anything.
A BIG thing to have in mind is iLO (for HP Servers) and iDRAC (for DELLs), why are these things so important? Simple, when the main SO fails, you can connect to the hardware “imbedded SO” and check what is doing, if it’s giving you a boot error, a RAID failure etc.
3) Roles Separation
Just like Microsoft recommends, separate your roles all you can, if you have ADDS, FPS, RDS, DHCP, DNS... you are bound to have a problem 5 minutes after you bring that thing online to production, how I do it?
If I got 1 Windows License:
A) ADDS, DNS, DHCP, Backup Soft
B) FPS, Business Apps, BBDDs
This way if I need to restart the DC they can still work with their files or apps
2 Windows Licenses (it is my standard)
A) “ADDS, DNS, DHCP”
B) “FPS”
C) “APPS-BBDD” Business Apps, BBDDs
D) “MNT” Backup Software
This way if I need to restart the DC they can still work with their files or apps, or if I need to launch the Backup software it will not slow down the app server that much.
As a standard I use the following configuration for the VMs:
DC, FPS, MNT - 2 processors, 8Gb RAM
APPS-BBDD – 4 processors 16Gb RAM
This ensures me that the VM’s will have enough resources to pull the wagon.
This is my base line, it all starts from this “template”
If I need an RDS i add another server if it is only a small business, if it’s a medium size business I play with a gateway also.
But as always... “IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE CLIENT”
Hope it helps and any other ways to do it are more than welcome!
