3 Years is up now, the fact is that i've enjoyed 2003 R2 immensely but
it's near it's EOL. Okay i bought the spare server which finally got
used to house an SQL Enterprise database as opposed to a recovery
server.

Anyway i'm planning my 2008 release and thinking of which route to
take Virtual or not.

I've read a few posts, blogs.

Here's my thought so far.
We have 35 users, more to happen.
We use public folders but that will change.
We also use  RWW+RWWGaurd
Got a TS box also.
Three SQL boxes.
2 400/800GB LTO 3 backup units 8/4 weekly rotation tapes.

One server with 78GB windows 2008 x64
A decent sized CPU.
IBM System Storage DS3300
All my host.
Windows 7 desktops
ISA 2006 somewhere in there...

I'm i on the right track??

Some advice/help would be appreciated to achieve my goal.

Thank you

Hi April,

>3 Years is up now, the fact is that i've enjoyed 2003 R2 immensely but
> it's near it's EOL. Okay i bought the spare server which finally got
> used to house an SQL Enterprise database as opposed to a recovery
> server.
>
> Anyway i'm planning my 2008 release and thinking of which route to
> take Virtual or not.
>
> I've read a few posts, blogs.
>
> Here's my thought so far.
> We have 35 users, more to happen.
> We use public folders but that will change.
> We also use  RWW+RWWGaurd
> Got a TS box also.
> Three SQL boxes.
> 2 400/800GB LTO 3 backup units 8/4 weekly rotation tapes.
>
> One server with 78GB windows 2008 x64
> A decent sized CPU.
> IBM System Storage DS3300
> All my host.
> Windows 7 desktops
> ISA 2006 somewhere in there...

Why only one server but an DS3300?

If you want to stuck to one Server, Direcrt Attached Storage (internal) like 
HPs ML370 with max. 24x Internal HHDs would be a good choice.

But my recommendation would be a redundant Host-Configuration (with optional 
3. Host for Testing) and a central storage, so:

2(3)x IBM x3550
   2x Intel Xeon L5640 (Six-Core)
   78GB RAM
   VMware ESXi 4.0 embedded hypervisor
   6x 10/100/1000 MBit/s Ethernet-Adapter
   2x FC-Adapter
   3 Year Onsite Repair 24x7 4 Hour Response

1x DS3300
  12x 146GB 15k SAS
  3 Year Onsite Repair 24x7 4 Hour Response

1x VMware vSphere Midsize Acceleration Kit for 6 processors + Production 
(24x7) 3 Year Support

1x Dedicated physical Backup-Server with 2TB Disk Array, LTO 4 
Drive/Autoloader and Backup-Software plus Agents for a Disk2Disk2Tape 
Strategy


And keep in mind for virtualization:

pCore:vCPU ~ 1:4
Sum(vRAM) < Max(pRAM-1GB)
Sum(vIOPS) < Max(pIOPS)
max. 5..8 VMs per LUN

-- 
Tobias Redelberger
StarNET Services (HomeOffice)
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