MCITP Server Admin hardware/

I got the Dual Core G6. I can upgrade the CPU later if I need. Although I don't think I will.

There's a good argument for building your own but I wanted a server that I could also use the remote management functions on. So in the end I think I spent maybe £100 to £150 more and tbh that's not worth worrying about.

Anyway, each to there own. If I wanted I could have used my Gaming PC.

*OVERCLOCKED* Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 4.00GHz / Gigabyte EX58-UD5 Intel X58 Motherboard / Corsair 6GB DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz DDR3 Bundle with 2 x OCZ 120Gb SSD and 2 x 2Tb Hdd, GTX580 etc etc. But I wanted 2 physical machines and the G6 is a reasonably cheap way of doing that.
 
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Yeah thats why I built a second machine purely for VMs, I didn't want to risk messing up my gaming rig. What's this remote management function?
 
Lights Out LO100i remote management - Allows greater access to the server, so if you need to do a hard shutdown and restart you don't need to go to site to push the button etc. So its interesting to play with and for me a worthwhile extra that comes with a 'proper' server :D
 
With a licence you can remote control and add media without it I think all you can do is power it off and on. Comes in useful though if you want temps, hardware status (i.e. disks degraded) if you aren't near the server.


M.
 
All media? Updated documentation as well as OS images etc? I looked at that but was going to wait a little for it.
 
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I've looked at the standard subscription, it's not much at around £150, I don't think I need the next level up. But as I got media with the books and I'm able to update online I was going to wait a month or so until I know a bit more then get the sub when I actually need it :D
 
OK so I need to decide on how to set the server up, for labs use. See what you think of my plan :D

I'm going for Windows Server 2K8R8 with Hyper-V to start with. I have ESXi on a flash drive on the internal USB and it can be booted from so I think I'll stick that on later on.

Ok so here's a thought, I've got 3 flavours of Server 2K8R2 that came with my MCITP Enterprise Exam Kit. I'm thinking Standard 2K8R2 64 bit with all the updates and Hyper-V as the default installation on my server. no point in sticking Enterprise or Datacenter on for the base OS lol.

That's on the 250Gb HDD. I've split that into 2. Is it worth Partitioning the 2 1Tb HDD's at this time? I plan on getting another 2 of the same HDD's in about a month and may decide to raid them at that time. Probably a split over 2 drives and mirror those. Performance and data backup.

I'm thinking split the 2 drives into 2 partitions each. but is that really necessary?

Split the VM's across the 2 drives and then use the other partitions for snapshots etc.

Or just run 2 1Tb drives? then raid and mirror whrn I add the other 2 drives?

I've got the spare 500Gb in there just now as well. I was thinking of using software backup to create an image of my C: drive when its all set up and storing it there .

Any thoughts would be appreciated, Just in case I'm missing something obvious :D
 
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If you're using Hyper V I'd either go with Mirrored (RAID 1) if you care about the data or RAID 0 and stripe them all. As you'll be assigning space to the operating system you don't really need to parition it as such.



M.
 
OK, so I'm now thinking of the following to maximise the performance of the server :-

Use the 250Gb for the Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper V bootable host.

Raid (0) the 2 1Tb HDD's for performance while running the VM's off them.

Use the 500Gb for Backup of the C: drive and the VM's, I'm thinking of just keeping the snapshots on the raided drives.

So as long as I have at least a backup of the main OS (from the 250Gb bootable HDD) and the initial VM files the data on the 2 1Tb drives is not that important if one fails. I will be getting another 1 or 2 1Tb drives so I can then look at raid 0 and mirror :D or maybe Raid 5.

Memory so far is looking like its ok. I can have the Hyper-V manager dynamically control the Memory to each VM and as they are only Lab VM's its looking like 8Gb RAM is enough in the short term, Although I'm still thinking RAM first to 16Gb then the additional HDD's.

So raiding the 2 1tb drives should hopefully give me a little performance increase for the VM's or am I better having the drives as single drives and alternate the VM's across them?

Icing on the cake? I blagged a free upgrade to the Virginmedia Superhub which has a Gigabit router built in so I now have an HDD speed network for free :D
 
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Sounds like a plan. I personally think that 1TB of storage will be enough for everything - you're only running basic OS and maybe some configuration, even chucking in exchange and a few clients takes you nowhere near.

So the money you save on hard-drives put a little bit into the memory. You'll run out of memory far before you get anywhere near using all of the space up. Although Hyper V will dynamically control it - it's only to a degree. When you build the VM's you still specify how much memory you want allocated to a machine.

Get it up and running and then see what you need is my advice.



M.
 
Cheers. It is up and running :D It's just I did not raid the 2 1Tb drives. So before I get too far down the line I think I'll reconfigure the drives for speed :D So raid 0 it shall be :D

Also it will be an interesting test of moving the few .vhd files off and back on and see if that works as advertised and I can just remount the VM's from the .vhd's which of course you should...... :D

While I'm on. If I add the additional 8Gb ram as 2 installs of 4Gb Dimms will I lose performance from them not being interleaved? I.e go from 8Gb > 12Gb > 16Gb in another 2 moves. It is recommended that you install the Dimms in pairs but I was just wondering...

Also I currently have a spare 1Gb Dimm kicking around that was supplied with the machine. I'm just wondering if I can chuck it back in and run at 9Gb for a bit......
 
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OK well the additional 1Gb memory seems to be ok, the Raid though is a non-starter. Seems its raid all the drives or none, You can't have drive 0 as standalone, drives 1 & 2 Raid 0 and drive 3 standalone. So It will have to wait until I get around to deciding on what to do. If I want a raid with a few stand alone drives I think it will involve an additional raid controller. No big deal I'll cope :P
 
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Well seeing as I can add Dimms one at a time I think thats the plan :D I'll get another 4Gb Dimm this week and chuck it in for 13Gb (with the 1gb that came with the server) and then I'll get the last one in a week or so.

I think the Hard drive space at 2Tb for the VM's and the 250Gb for the OS with the 500Gb for backup should be plenty. Ill leave getting the additional Ddrives until last as there cheap enough that I might as well later on.

Also I might just spring for a technet sub earlier rather than later. It would be nice not to have activation issues with 2K8R2.

I think I'll go with the standard version and download the 180 day trials of the enterprise editions if I need those.
 
elrasho said:
I dont know why you just dont build your own. I built my "VM Lab" rig and cost me £220. Athlon II Quad Core 3.2GHz , 4GB DDR 1600 ram, 1TB HD... this is more than enough to do all the MCITP exams.
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Apologies for thread bumpage but I'd rather not create a new thread when this one seems to be on the same topic I want to discuss.

I'd like to start studying for an MCITP and whilst I could use my current PC I'd rather build a server specifically for my MCITP studies. I plan to subscribe to a Technet package in early 2012 so I can get some experience with Windows Server 2008 and perhaps also Exchange.

elrasho - Would the Athlon II Quad Core 3.2GHz, 4 GB RAM etc still be a decent MCITP server rig or could I find something with a bit more power? Is 4GB enough to run Windows Server 2008 and all the other software I'd use for my MCITP? I have a spare monitor and mouse/keyboard so all I need is a case and the components.
 
MarcLister said:
Apologies for thread bumpage but I'd rather not create a new thread when this one seems to be on the same topic I want to discuss.

I'd like to start studying for an MCITP and whilst I could use my current PC I'd rather build a server specifically for my MCITP studies. I plan to subscribe to a Technet package in early 2012 so I can get some experience with Windows Server 2008 and perhaps also Exchange.

elrasho - Would the Athlon II Quad Core 3.2GHz, 4 GB RAM etc still be a decent MCITP server rig or could I find something with a bit more power? Is 4GB enough to run Windows Server 2008 and all the other software I'd use for my MCITP? I have a spare monitor and mouse/keyboard so all I need is a case and the components.
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I would also be interested in the answer to this as well. Just read through the whole thread and there is lots of helpful information!

Does anyone use or recommend using a laptop for labs? Sure I saw someone mention they had a laptop with 16 gig ram in it? Any information on what that laptop is? Haven't seen many that can hold that much ram?
 
Memory is going to be the killer. 4GB RAM isn't enough mainly because:

Base OS is going to easily be using 2GB
Server on is going to be anough 1 to 2GB depending if it's doing much
SQL server if required is going to eat up any amount of RAM available
Exchange depends on mailboxes but say 2GB assuming all roles on one box
Clients 1GB minimum

12 to 16GB memory should get you there or there abouts especially for multiple clients, etc.

It really depends on which exam you're prepping for (for example the Windows 7 one you would probably only need a Domain Controller running DHCP and DNS and a client).



M.
 
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