Best server setup scenario for sme

[cableguy2003]

The rough criteria

1. 50 ish users
2. In house exchange 2007 ( need some kind of failover cluster or HA option on this )
3. Domain controller ( windows 2008 r2 ) need failover here, and also dfs-r
4. SQL server 2005, HA not needed but reliability is key

Initial ideas are two identical servers connected to a iscsi target. Run DC1 and DC2 on seperate machines on top of esxi, clustered together. That covers my log ons and data.

Two exchange servers in CRR, again one on each server on esxi, which should cover mail in the event of one server outage.

SQL server plan was to store the vm data on the iscsi target and run two identical machines on each server, one powered off. In the event that SQL1 fails, boot SQL2 to read the machine data from the iscsi target and hopefully get back online within a few minutes.

Last but not least iscsi failover to protect all of the above ( although im considering no actual failover due to disc and psu redundancy ) but if worst comes to worst, 2 x iscsi with low level block replication.

The only one thing which i have never entertained before is all of this is virtual. Something makes me feel a little weird not having at least one physical DC or Exchange server. Any reasons why not to have them all on top of esxi ?

Cheers

 

[a1ex2001]

For a userbase that size I would seriously consider a hosted exchange environment, your looking at a significant outlay in hardware etc to get a redundant system onsite with all the headaches that come with it!

I wouldn't bother virtualising your two DC's for a setup this size just get the cheapest 1U servers you can lay your hands on.

 

[Nikumba]

While our site is a lot large, we have our primary DC in the VM but a secondary as a physical machine, this allows should our VM environment be unavailable users can still be authenticated on the systems that we use.

What sort of budget are you looking at?