Winterpool
Senior member
As I barely earn five figures (in depreciating US dollars!), I tend to inherit much of my computer kit. Of the six computers in my flat, I built three and received the other three when they were deemed 'redundant' by previous owners. I've also collected quite a few hard drives over the years in this fashion. This has left me with a mob of obsolete systems and a mess of mostly undersized hard drives. Let's just say one of them is a WD200BB -- and it's hosting a web server! 😱
Right now I'm running three servers 24/7 and have another switched on periodically to backup files. The three primary servers are:
1. Dell OptiPlex GX110: Pentium III 866 MHz, 512 MB
...runs SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9
2. another GX110 as above
3. Athlon XP 2500+, 512 MB
...runs Windows XP Professional
I've also my previous workstation, another Athlon XP 2500+ with 512 MB memory (running Windows 2000 Professional!). As it's being relieved by my new Wolfdale, this too may be recast as a server. Through a TechNet subscription, I may instal Windows Server 2003 and other MS server software on these systems (though I'd like to keep at least one Linux server up).
I want to run the following server roles and apps:
- web and blog server (Apache, Movable Type)
- p2p file-sharing (eMule / eDonkey)
- SharePoint Services 3.0
- SQL Server 2005
- Active Directory (domain controller)
- ISA Server (test)
- loads of file serving (Windows and Samba SMB)!
I'd like to consolidate to no more than two 24-7 servers, partly to lower power usage (and heat -- I've no air conditioning!), mostly to reduce sprawl and confusion. One machine would be ideal, but that would require multiple VMs and a lot of memory, maybe even a new machine with virtualisation hardware. If I had a few hundred bucks, I'd buy a low-power AMD system, oodles of memory, and run three or four VMs under Windows Hyper-V. But $300 is a lot of money to me right now, and I should probably mind every dollar I spend.
If I bought, say, two GB of PC3200 memory for the Athlon XP, how many VMs could I realistically run? The conventional wisdom suggests you'd want a ton of RAM for virtualisation, but especially if load will be light, perhaps a modern VT-capable cpu isn't essential (I don't ever anticipate more than 3 or 4 clients concurrently). But with an Athlon XP, I expect I won't be able to run Hyper-V. Virtual Server, on the other hand, suffers considerable memory overhead above the VMs themselves.
Should I just bite the bullet and owe JPMorgan Chase another $300 for a new Athlon X2 4850e system? Or could I feasibly run all the server apps above on one Athlon XP and maybe a Pentium III?
Right now I'm running three servers 24/7 and have another switched on periodically to backup files. The three primary servers are:
1. Dell OptiPlex GX110: Pentium III 866 MHz, 512 MB
...runs SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9
2. another GX110 as above
3. Athlon XP 2500+, 512 MB
...runs Windows XP Professional
I've also my previous workstation, another Athlon XP 2500+ with 512 MB memory (running Windows 2000 Professional!). As it's being relieved by my new Wolfdale, this too may be recast as a server. Through a TechNet subscription, I may instal Windows Server 2003 and other MS server software on these systems (though I'd like to keep at least one Linux server up).
I want to run the following server roles and apps:
- web and blog server (Apache, Movable Type)
- p2p file-sharing (eMule / eDonkey)
- SharePoint Services 3.0
- SQL Server 2005
- Active Directory (domain controller)
- ISA Server (test)
- loads of file serving (Windows and Samba SMB)!
I'd like to consolidate to no more than two 24-7 servers, partly to lower power usage (and heat -- I've no air conditioning!), mostly to reduce sprawl and confusion. One machine would be ideal, but that would require multiple VMs and a lot of memory, maybe even a new machine with virtualisation hardware. If I had a few hundred bucks, I'd buy a low-power AMD system, oodles of memory, and run three or four VMs under Windows Hyper-V. But $300 is a lot of money to me right now, and I should probably mind every dollar I spend.
If I bought, say, two GB of PC3200 memory for the Athlon XP, how many VMs could I realistically run? The conventional wisdom suggests you'd want a ton of RAM for virtualisation, but especially if load will be light, perhaps a modern VT-capable cpu isn't essential (I don't ever anticipate more than 3 or 4 clients concurrently). But with an Athlon XP, I expect I won't be able to run Hyper-V. Virtual Server, on the other hand, suffers considerable memory overhead above the VMs themselves.
Should I just bite the bullet and owe JPMorgan Chase another $300 for a new Athlon X2 4850e system? Or could I feasibly run all the server apps above on one Athlon XP and maybe a Pentium III?
