Window server hardware question

[tjlee2]

Hello,

I'm looking to upgrade to window server 2008 r2, so I need to update the hardware. I am looking to purhcase the x3550 M3. What specific specs would be sufficient for ~60 users? There will be three terminal servers (JDE, office, citrix, etc) and two domain servers (ADs, DNS, etc).

Apologies if I'm asking in the wrong place.

 

[Nothinman]

AD and all that it requires, i.e. DNS, LDAP, etc, doesn't require much hardware at all. You could probably re-purpose whatever you have now as long as it still has hardware support from the manufacturer.

Terminal Services is another beast altogether and if you mean Java Development Environment when you say JDE, you'll probably need a pretty big machine in order to get 60 people developing and debugging Java apps on TS. And you should evaluate if you really need Citrix, IMO you normally don't these days since MS has incorporated practically all of it's useful features back into TS.

 

[tjlee2]

I meant Oracle JD Edwards. I'm sorry for the confusion. As far as software programming goes, there are only two users doing web development through Lotus Dominos. May i ask for more specific specs for TS?

I will keep your suggestion regarding citrix in mind. Thank you very much for your help.

 

[Nothinman]

I'm pretty sure MS and Citrix both have whitepapers on how to size servers, but you still have to profile the resource usage of the apps involved.

 

[tjlee2]

Understood, I will try again to find some detailed documents.

 

[Emulex]

esxi, two machines vcenter essentials, and DAS or SAN. VEEAM backup. 1 physical for power/vcenter.

gobs of ram (144gb or 72gb), some local storage(sas), 4 - 6 gigabit or 4 gigabit and 2 10gbe (esp if nas/san).

databases (SQL) should be isolated to their own boxen. you'll run out of disk i/o before anything else

 

[power_hour]

DUAL CPU for DCs. Quads for rest. Don't skimp on memory. I hope for your sake all are 64bit OS.

 

[Emulex]

virtualize the AD servers or else. you will regret putting them on bare metal - and you will seriously regret stuffing other roles (sql,etc) on them.

 

[Nothinman]

DUAL CPU for DCs. Quads for rest. Don't skimp on memory. I hope for your sake all are 64bit OS.

DCs don't need dual CPUs and you can't even begin to speculate on the requirements for the TS boxes if you don't know how the apps operate.

virtualize the AD servers or else. you will regret putting them on bare metal - and you will seriously regret stuffing other roles (sql,etc) on them.

Unless things have changed recently MS recommends having at least 1 physical DC because time keeping in VMs still isn't perfect and having a DNS server up before the ESX hosts is a good idea IMO anyway.

 

[Genx87]

Time keeping in my experience can get really messed up within virtual environments. The only thing at this point I wont virtualize are AD controllers.

 

[imagoon]

Time keeping in my experience can get really messed up within virtual environments. The only thing at this point I wont virtualize are AD controllers.

Not had that issue here, at least once I actually configured time correctly on the hosts.

 

[Genx87]

I virtualized a dev envrionment including their AD controller. It worked fine for about 6 months then went crazy. The clock was advancing about 1.5:1 rate.