Some hardware for some fun projects came in this week

[YeOldeStonecat]

Dell PE R710 on the left..to go into a construction company in Hyper-V style to suck up some existing servers virtually so those physical boxes can be retired.

Dell tower 710 to go into a womens shelter client that's been running on a VERY old HP Proliant ML350 G2 or G3 running SBS03 inside of ESXi. This will have Hyper-V installed...I'll do a "V to V" converting from ESXi to Hyper-V in a small chunk of it, and then do a new TSGateway server in another chunk of it, and then put in SBS2011 in the remaining chunk and do a migration and retire SBS03 and kill that guest when it's done.

Two UTM apppliances on the table too...an NG-100 to run Untangle at a school, and a smaller NG-25 to run Untangle at a dentist office.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

That looks like a good time.

 

[angry_geek]

I'm loving hyper-v. For some reason, it still amazes me every time I use SCVMM to convert a live machine to virtual.

Like you, I've been doing a lot of virtualization lately. I reduced one client's data center from 9 machines down to 2 servers last year. Still in the process of converting my own data center. I've gotten rid of 20 physical machines down to 3 so far. I still have a ways to go, but my light bill has already dropped by $125/month. When I'm done, my data center will be about a dozen machines running 40 or so virtual servers and desktops.

 

['putertutor]

Dell PE R710 on the left..to go into a construction company in Hyper-V style to suck up some existing servers virtually so those physical boxes can be retired.

Dell tower 710 to go into a womens shelter client that's been running on a VERY old HP Proliant ML350 G2 or G3 running SBS03 inside of ESXi. This will have Hyper-V installed...I'll do a "V to V" converting from ESXi to Hyper-V in a small chunk of it, and then do a new TSGateway server in another chunk of it, and then put in SBS2011 in the remaining chunk and do a migration and retire SBS03 and kill that guest when it's done.

Two UTM apppliances on the table too...an NG-100 to run Untangle at a school, and a smaller NG-25 to run Untangle at a dentist office.

DAMMIT!!! I've got to get a ton more networking knowledge. Most of your post read like "Dell buzzbuzzbuzz box buzzbuzzbuzz chunk buzzbuzzbuzz kill." That's what I read, anyway. This summer I should have a bunch more free time on my hands and will have to start playing around.

 

[angry_geek]

DAMMIT!!! I've got to get a ton more networking knowledge. Most of your post read like "Dell buzzbuzzbuzz box buzzbuzzbuzz chunk buzzbuzzbuzz kill." That's what I read, anyway. This summer I should have a bunch more free time on my hands and will have to start playing around.

Lol

I've had great success with untangle and clearos. It's a great feeling when you can offer your client the equivalent of a $3,000 Cisco utm for a third of the cost that offers better functionality and much easier management. I urge you to grab an old computer, drop a second nic in it, and load up untangle or clearos. It won't cost you a dime, and you can learn some good skills.

 

[ZenTree]

thanks for the heads up, i've briefly looked into untangle before but clearos is looking like it agrees with me more

 

['putertutor]

Thanks for the idea. I'll get both of those going, maybe even this weekend, if the weather is crappy. If it's too nice out, my honey-do list grows exponentially.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

thanks for the heads up, i've briefly looked into untangle before but clearos is looking like it agrees with me more

2x totally different purposes...and both are excellent.
Untangle is a pure UTM...edge firewall.
ClearOS is an open sourced version of Microsoft Small Business Server Premium. So you get a server (samba..file/print services), a web server, an e-mail server, a database server, and a firewall (although not as feature rich of a firewall as Untangle..still waaaaay better than your off the shelf home grade router).

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

DAMMIT!!! I've got to get a ton more networking knowledge. Most of your post read like "Dell buzzbuzzbuzz box buzzbuzzbuzz chunk buzzbuzzbuzz kill." That's what I read, anyway. This summer I should have a bunch more free time on my hands and will have to start playing around.

Start dabbling with small business servers...get an action pack bundle from Microsoft..keeps it affordable to learn their server products (and equip your office with servers). Once you get a handle on SBS...start doing it for small businesses...that's where your bigger money begins.

 

[tankman1989]

2x totally different purposes...and both are excellent.
Untangle is a pure UTM...edge firewall.
ClearOS is an open sourced version of Microsoft Small Business Server Premium. So you get a server (samba..file/print services), a web server, an e-mail server, a database server, and a firewall (although not as feature rich of a firewall as Untangle..still waaaaay better than your off the shelf home grade router).

In another forum I was talking about a router/firewall combo Linux/untangle for a small business and was told that anything but Cisco and Juniper were pretty much worthless. I didn't get the feeling there was sarcasm in the post but I can't see needing something like that for a small business 5-15 people when the solutions you mention will handle it perfectly well. I wonder why people get so stuck in their thinking like that, unless they are Juniper/Cisco resellers or live in a large enterprise inventor.

 

[angry_geek]

Those 710's are a lot of fun. What did you decide to populate the storage with?

Also, I found a great source for after-market drive caddies if you're interested.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

In another forum I was talking about a router/firewall combo Linux/untangle for a small business and was told that anything but Cisco and Juniper were pretty much worthless.

Let me guess...HardOCP forums?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Those 710's are a lot of fun. What did you decide to populate the storage with?

Also, I found a great source for after-market drive caddies if you're interested.

146 gig pairs of 15k SAS for the Server host for hyper-V...plenty of leftover space to mount shares for files to be used to juggle virtual guest spare stuff (my own junk folders, virgin files, etc) (and I might stick a swap file share on there for a 3rd swap volume for SBS guest)
4x 300 gig 15k SASers doing a RAID 5 dance for the big storage for Hyper-V to use for the production guests.

 

[angry_geek]

Very nice. I just placed another order for a new t710 last week. My Dell rep said the warehouse was out of 146 GB drives, but he would bump me to 450's for nothing. Sometimes it pays to call the rep instead of configuring online I have discovered.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Very nice. I just placed another order for a new t710 last week. My Dell rep said the warehouse was out of 146 GB drives, but he would bump me to 450's for nothing. Sometimes it pays to call the rep instead of configuring online I have discovered.

That's a sweet little upgrade for free!

On another note...the client I'm onsite at right now....non profit, just came to me and said "Your whole list of upgrades you wanted to do for 2012...we want to do them all now..money no object, write a list, send an invoice, we'll cut a check right now!

At least 15x new workstations..will be Dell Opti 790's with i5 and 8 gigs
About 50x licenses of MS Office 2010 biz edition
Various server upgrades, including spare fiber switch and controller for their HP MSA 1000 drive array
Ubiquity Unify AP's across their office
~8 laptops.

Gotta love non-profits sometimes and their last minute shopping binges towards end of the year.

 

[angry_geek]

That's a sweet little upgrade for free!

On another note...the client I'm onsite at right now....non profit, just came to me and said "Your whole list of upgrades you wanted to do for 2012...we want to do them all now..money no object, write a list, send an invoice, we'll cut a check right now!

At least 15x new workstations..will be Dell Opti 790's with i5 and 8 gigs
About 50x licenses of MS Office 2010 biz edition
Various server upgrades, including spare fiber switch and controller for their HP MSA 1000 drive array
Ubiquity Unify AP's across their office
~8 laptops.

Gotta love non-profits sometimes and their last minute shopping binges towards end of the year.

Jeez! What kind of non-profit is this? That's some serious hardware!

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

A Hospice. Actually my largest clients....the server room I'm sitting in now has 8x servers in a full APC cabinet. Approx 90 staff and growing fast.

 

[angry_geek]

A Hospice. Actually my largest clients....the server room I'm sitting in now has 8x servers in a full APC cabinet. Approx 90 staff and growing fast.

Wow! Our local hospice only has an in-house staff of about 12, 2 servers on a Sam's Club shelf.

 

[anglian]

DAMMIT!!! I've got to get a ton more networking knowledge. Most of your post read like "Dell buzzbuzzbuzz box buzzbuzzbuzz chunk buzzbuzzbuzz kill." That's what I read, anyway. This summer I should have a bunch more free time on my hands and will have to start playing around.

I know the feeling, anyone want to translate into English what hyoer-v does and why it is better / worse than other options?

 

[angry_geek]

I know the feeling, anyone want to translate into English what hyoer-v does and why it is better / worse than other options?

Lol. That's another thread entirely. I'll start one up with a case study after while.