WHS/Server Setup Suggestions Needed

[thobel]

I'm getting another free server and what a beast this one is.

 

Dell Pwer Edge T710

http://www.dell.com/us/enterprise/p/poweredge-t710/pd.aspx

 

Duel Xeon X5690's

32GB Ram

Perc H700 Raid Controller

8 2TB 7.2k Near-Line SAS Drives

Redundent 1100 Watt PSU's

4 Port Intel gig Nic (will team for a 4GB connection)

My Current Home Server is a custom built with the following

 

2600k

8GB Ram

Arc-1261 RAid Controller

15 2TB Sata Drives (2 in raid 1 for OS/1 Hot Standby/12 in Raid 6)

4 port Intel Gig Nic (Will team when new switch gets here)

I currently use about 8TB of Space that I replicate to my friends home server (took almost 2 weeks 24x7 to replicate) What I'm thinking about doing is

 

 

New Server setup with Server R2 With Hyper V (I get MS stuff for free)

Run WHS in a VM

Setup all 8 Disks in Raid 5 with one hot standby should give me 12TB of usable space

Use the new server for primary access of Media and replicate the data between my 2 servers for "onsite redundency" and replicate from the old server to my friends house for "offsite backup"

 

I was also thinking about running my stuff like ORB etc in its own VM I like to keep my WHS very lean

 

Anyways open to idea's I'm aware its crazy overkill and a waste of power and all that good stuff but Its free and no I can't just sell it

[jmwills]

All of a sudden I feel so inadequate. If that system doesn't do the job for you, you have serious issues

 

It would be a shame not to run all of your systems in a virtual state as you have enough horsepower. WHS 2011 shouldn't require more than 4 gigs of RAM but you could bump yours up to 8 if needed. The host OS will be able to run on 2 gigs very easily.

[ImTheTypeOfGuy]

I like your strategy with using s2008r2 and virtualize everything else. I also like that you will keep one vm of whs2011 clean and then do addins on other vm's. This is exactly what I am doing.

[thobel]

I like your strategy with using s2008r2 and virtualize everything else. I also like that you will keep one vm of whs2011 clean and then do addins on other vm's. This is exactly what I am doing.

 

 

Anything special with running it in a VM? Don't want to get it all setup and go ahh crap I should have done ...

[jmwills]

The one big thing that usually throws people is the ability/difficulty in understanding how to pass through external drives. That board may have a header on it for USB but you will need one for backups and offsite storage,

[thobel]

what I'm thinking about doing now is this.

 

Current WHS system -Keep as WHS with replication to offsite storage (my friends house)

New Server 2008R2 with Hyper V -VM with 2008R2 with Replication enabled to WHS (RSync for replication) and just use for Media Serving to my Media Center/Lan based devices

New Server VM for ORB Streaming for remote access

New Server VM for Exchange Email

New Server VM for Testing

 

Don't think it woul dhave been worth it to have 2 WHS system since the New Server is really just for replication but I figure it will provide a better platform for serving up pure media. This in turn would turn my WHS into pretty much a system that provides desktop backups and my "live" server for adding media content that would replicate to the New Server for consumption.

 

Thoughts?

 

Oh also the new server has a total of 8 Gig Network ports I was thinking of Using 4 for the "media VM" and 1 each for the other servers

Edited September 7, 2011 by thobel

[ImTheTypeOfGuy]

 

 

Anything special with running it in a VM? Don't want to get it all setup and go ahh crap I should have done ...

The one big thing that usually throws people is the ability/difficulty in understanding how to pass through external drives. That board may have a header on it for USB but you will need one for backups and offsite storage,

 

Other than what jmwills said, no.

[thobel]

Server running. The raid with Dell (hell the whole server setup) was/is very confusing. The drives are etup in Raid 5 (or It says it is) however when I go into Windows it showed 8 Drives/Volumes.. Do I just delete tem and create a spanned volume? I assumed I should see 1 giant Volume?

[jmwills]

Dell sends you a setup utility disc that you can boot from in which you can enter the product key, version, setup the RAID, etc, or you can just setup the RAID in the BIOS at POST. I've done it both ways and found that goin thru the BIOS is quicker when building the array. To answer your question, you should only see one volume for the RAID array.

 

Start over....no spanning. It sounds like the RAID was not built properly.

[thobel]

Dell sends you a setup utility disc that you can boot from in which you can enter the product key, version, setup the RAID, etc, or you can just setup the RAID in the BIOS at POST. I've done it both ways and found that goin thru the BIOS is quicker when building the array. To answer your question, you should only see one volume for the RAID array.

 

Start over....no spanning. It sounds like the RAID was not built properly.

 

 

Damn I was hoping I was just a dumb out of practice executive and it was all setup good :/