16 Windows Machines on a Box

[Mayoor]

Hi there, not sure if this is being posted in the right section but here goes. I am in need of a solution which will allow me to run 16 windows installations on a box all connected to a different ip address.

I will be purchasing a business broadband connection which comes with 16 static ips and each installation will need to browse from its own separate ip. First question is, is it easy to set each installation up to use a different static ip?

Also in terms of usage each install will be used purely to browse the internet and access some of our company accounts via a browser. Daily use will involve logging into the install, checking a few things via a browser and that's it so no huge requirement for processing or crazy graphics cards.

What kind of server would I need to achieve this?

 

[Mayoor]

doesnt really make sense , in that unsure what your trying to achieve?

What don't you understand? I need a box that can handle 16 different windows installations and all browse the internet from different ip addresses provided to me by my broadband providers. Browsing the internet is all they will be used for.

 

[Mayoor]

A very big virtual box and VMware products and a big budget.

Yeah I'm aware I will need to use VM ware products. Can you be specific on HW?

 

[Mayoor]

I don't think I fully understand what these machines are for, though it seems something like Terminal Services or Citrix might be better suited for what you describe.

16 different windows installations and all browse the internet from different ip addresses

 

[Mayoor]

What is the requirement driving 16 individually addressed machines?

When we know that, I think we'll be able to give you a better answer.

Also, what sort of network setup have you got? What's your edge router?

Browsing the internet

 

[Mayoor]

Is, what you're trying to achieve, anything to do with betting or tickets..?

No. Although pretty sure if I was doing something like that I wouldn't be installing a business broadband line at my home?

 

[Mayoor]

Three words isn't a requirement! If you want people to help you and offer you proper advice and solutions then you're going to need to elaborate on 'browsing the internet' otherwise you'll continue to get "how long is a piece of string" answers

We don't know how the VM's are to be used, so to get the ball rolling - Is it multi-user or single user? How do you plan to access the VM's, locally or remotely (RDP/VNC)? If remotely, how? What are you planning to use for the host OS? Do you need to use MS Window guests or could you use open-source (*nix variant etc)? Will you been using the guests simultaneously or when required? What's the planned network (/edge router as mentioned)?

But to answer your questions -

Depends.


One with the correct hardware and 'power' for the requirements.

Is it multi-user or single user? - I will be accessing the server from my home PC and there will be my business partner accessing the server from the USA. Each windows install will be accessed 2-3 times a day for about 5-10 mins. We will require minimal bandwidth per access, we'll be logging into a website, checking a few statistics and logging out. The key thing here is we need to be using residential ips. The website that we are working with and dong business with will not allow access from ips that look like they are from a data center because of the amount of fraudulent people who use dedicated boxes from hosting companies to defraud them. By using residential ips we are saying that we are able to be tracked via our broadband provider and they have it on record where we are, who we are and who we say we are.

What are you planning to use for the host OS? - We dont mind what this is, cheapest possible solution that allows us to browse the internet via a browser would be great. I assumed windows but i'm sure there are better solutions out there.

Will you been using the guests simultaneously or when required? - Good question, yes and no, I will be accessing the hosts in the UK time but then my USA counterpart will be accessing them whilst I am asleep, there will be some overlap and there will be times where we will both need to access the same host at the same time so he can show me on screen things that are going on, rather like a screen share. At the moment we have a few laptops all on different connections which we access via team viewer and team viewer can be accessed by multiple people at the same time and works really well for us. However as our business expands we need more guest hosts and more ip addresses.

What's the planned network (/edge router as mentioned)? - We will be obtaining a virgin media business broadband line which comes with 14 static ips and will need to tie each guest so that it only accesses the internet from that ip address.

Feel free to ask any questions that doesn't compromise the details of my business model.

 

[Mayoor]

Why do you need 16 individual IP addresses?

Who are you trying to fool? IPs would be assigned in a block, so anyone reading a log file would suss it in no time.

Feel free to ask any questions that don't compromise the details of my business model.

 

[Mayoor]

How are the clients connecting to the host ?



What is the backbone like ? A core switch ? any vlans ?



For home use 16VM on one host is easy. But in a enterprise environment you will need 2 hosts and a SAN.

Each VM say 2-4GB dynamic memory, and 40GB hard drive.

Over all you be looking at needing about 40GB memory per host , you may get away with a single xeon cpu. SAN will need at least 1TB in some kind of Raid.


And why hell do you need 16 external IPs ?

How are the clients connecting to the host ? - At the moment we have 3 laptops around the home and we are using each of them to connect to 3 static ips, each laptop has team viewer built into it and allows anyone with a teamviewer client to log into it and remotely control it.

And why hell do you need 16 external IPs ? - Each connection to our clients website has to be done on a separate ip address, don't ask me why, but this is what they have specified. They have said that if we want to run 16 different accounts with them we will need 16 different ip addresses.

 

[Mayoor]

I wonder if by 'box' @Mayoor means router and not PC? One router, 16 PCs. If so there are plenty of routers that will handle this for you. Do be aware that you will only get 14 usable IP addresses out of the 16.

No I do mean Box. I need effectively 16 PC's all accessing a business broadband service which provides 16 different ips.

 

[Mayoor]

Will these 16 windows machines be doing anything while you are not logged on ? If not, then you can cut the specs down hugely. Set up 16 vm's and just spin them up and down as needed.

If its just browsing, do you need windows at all ? A Linux with smaller footprint would do it cheaper too.

1. The only thing that will be happening whilst they are not being accessed by a user is the chrome browser will need to remain active and logged into the site. However it wont be loading anything or using any bandwidth.

2. Yeah there is also a small tool we need to run every now and again which only has support for windows. If there is a way of running windows tools on linux id be happy to do this. some kind of emulator or something.

 

[Mayoor]

As above I'd consider whether you have to have all 16 VM's running at once or whether you can spin them up when required. Can you use a Linux distro instead as you could cut down on hardware requirements.

Or do you really need 16 full machines at all? Could you still browse from your laptop but assign those IP's as required to your laptops (it would be worth discussing this with your broadband provider). e.g. I assume the external IP ould be routed to an internal IP in some way - well what happens if you simply change the IP of your laptop? Will it then be assigned a different external IP? If that works then you'd only need one spare machine for your US partner to remotely connect to in the UK.


But assuming all you really want is some big machines then...

As for hardware I'd suggest that if this is for a business then you should consider two machines. If your single machine fails then your business is dead in the water. So I'd consider two machines. There is no point in having a passive/active setup so I'd go active/active as follows:

Dedicated hardware router/firewall. Consider a spare in case of failure.
2 x X79 or X99 6 core systems with 32gb or 64gb (x79 means you can save on cost)
UPS
Consider a dedicated NAS with a backup solution.
Is there sufficient business value in considering a second boradcand connection for resiliance?

Regularly test failure scenarios including setting up current firewall rules on any spare hardware, rebuilding a server etc.

Yeah all the instances need to act like separate machines. I am open to the linux idea however, would need to get a small windows tool running which we use to run on linux, from asking around I hear this is possible by using something called WINE. So a linux solution is more than feasible.

 

[Mayoor]

I mean it doesn't even have to be a server it could even be a PC with enough hardware to acheive what I need.

 

[Mayoor]

Find a reseller that will rent you 16 Windows VPS' (Or however many customers you actually have). Enterprise licensing is required for all the good features of RDS so you'll be better off doing it like this until you're big enough (250+ nodes), not to mention access to a much larger, resilient internet connection and third party infrastructure support. Ideally you'd have a load balancing portal in front of your Windows instances to maximise VPS utilisation.

This turns a large Capex into a small marginal Opex which means you can manage your cashflow more easily as well as figure out the technical challenges you will have before you get larger. If the proposed business model isn't feasible you won't have dumped £30k+ into the venture.

As mentioned above the ip addresses I have to use need to be residential ips.

 

[Mayoor]

Redirect all non-management traffic (eg, everything but the ports you need to access the VPS') back through your residential connection with NAT over IPSEC VPNs. The NAT will obfuscate your 'internal' datacentre IP addresses from the end network and make it look like you're using the residential connection. The only outlay will be a decent router or firewall which will support this kind of configuration. I think this will scale up nicely as you can add more IP addresses to the NAT pool.

Any decent Junior / Midlevel network engineer will be able to set this up for you.

Interesting. Are you able to recommend a VPS reseller that might do this?

 

[Mayoor]

This. Take your 'business model' to an IT consultancy, sign an NDA and fork out for advice as someone has previously put. I don't think anyone on here really wants to steal your 'super money making secret' buddy.

No thanks. Think I'll pass on that but again, apologies you got annoyed by the fact I wouldn't out my business model despite the fact it wasn't necessary to provide an answer.

 

[Mayoor]

i7, 32GB RAM, 512GB SSD for 16x Linux Mint configured with 1.5GB RAM each? Sounds feasible given the description (one user/one VM accessed at a time). If they do nothing but access the internet then 25GB a VM for disk space is plenty. Just need to get some kit you know works on w/e hypervisor you're going with, personally i like ESXi.

Thanks, this is exactly the way we went in the end. Working like a dream.