Hardware concerns for a virtual host

RoyalTech

I'm planning on building a machine and I want it to be able to run all the virtual machines required in a test lab guide. I suspect that the number of virtual machines could be somewhere between 5 and 10 based on the TLGs I have read. Other than RAM and an i7, what hardware components are the ones to pay attn to?

I am currently using a machine powered by 2 quad core Xeon 5472 processors, 8GB of RAM, and a Nvidia FX1700 Quadro but I plan on using that machine as a server for my network. It is about 5 years old. Any opinions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

JDMurray

Check the hardware requirements of whatever virtualization package you want to use (VMware, Hyper-V, Xen, etc.). If you already have a server, make sure its CPU and BIOS supports virtualization technology (VT-x for Intel and AMD-V for AMD). This especially necessary if you want to use an older mobo/CPU for your VM server. You might need to upgrade the CPU or only update the BIOS.

I really recommend running a VM OS as the server's primary OS (such as VMware ESXi). However, if you really need a multipurpose server, you can run a VM OS (such as VMware Workstation) on top of a host OS (usually Windows or Linux) .

RoyalTech

I think you misinterpretted my question. My concern was not the server but the multiple number of VMs I will be running and what they require other than a lot of RAM. My Xeon has VT-x. I have already set up a 2008R2 VM on the current machine(which is using Win7Pro) using VirtualBox.

MentholMoose

RoyalTech wrote: »

Other than RAM and an i7, what hardware components are the ones to pay attn to?

Besides RAM and CPU you need to care about storage space and performance. Personally I would downgrade the CPU and spend more on the storage, since a CPU bottleneck is much more tolerable to me than a disk bottleneck. The easy solution is to buy an SSD big enough to store all the VM disks. SSD prices have dropped dramatically and even a budget SSD will give fantastic performance for running VMs. To get the most out of the SSD, it is good to install the hypervisor on a USB flash drive, or an old hard disk drive if you have one (and you can also store ISOs and other miscellaneous files there). As for RAM, 8 GB DDR3 DIMMs have dropped in price lately, so pick up at least two. For 5-10 lab VMs, 16 GB RAM should be enough unless you are running something with strict RAM requirements.

The lab machine I've been using lately has a Asus C60M1-I CPU/mobo combo ($80) with 16 GB RAM ($60) and it is performing quite well with 10 Windows VMs on ESXi 5u1 and a 240 GB SSD ($150). I bought this CPU/mobo combo to build a low-power NAS, but since it is really working well for a XenApp lab while only using 30 watts, I've repurposed it for the time being it to save on electricity (I've had some expensive bills lately since I've had to run the A/C a lot due to hot weather).

sratakhin

Why do you need another server if you already have 2 X5472? We have similar CPUs where I work and they each run about 10-15 production servers plus VDI desktops. The performance is fine, although we have a lot more RAM.

I would just put at least 32GB of RAM and a couple of SSD drives in it. Will be much cheaper than spending more than a grand for a new workstation.

2 MentholMoose: 10 VMs on a netbook class CPU? Wow

JDMurray

What guest OS(es) will you be running in the VMs and what will they be doing? That's also a big factor in RAM vs. storage vs. CPU considerations. I've used dual-CPU Dell 1950's with ESXi 4 to run 30-40 VMs with minimal installs of Linux for network simulations.

RoyalTech

MentholMoose, My plans for disk space was to use multiple SSDs of 80 or 120GB. My plans for RAM was somewhere between 16-32GB. One of my main concerns was how much GDDR5 was needed on a video card to run that many VMs.

I've got older 250GB HDDs on my current machine which I plan on making the server. It is this new machine that I plan to build that I will run the VMs on. My question is what you mean by running the Hypervisor on a USB flash drive? I plan to get a standard edition 2008R2 and running Hyper-V on the on that? I'm new to this virtualization thing so I'm not familiar with running a hypervisor on a USB flash drive

RoyalTech

sratakhin, I am not looking to run a second server. The current machine with the Xeons is my personal PC and that will become the server. The new machine will become my new personal PC as well as the machine I will run the VMs on.

BTW, I'm building the new machine just for the hell of it as much of anything. I know that I could run it all on the server as well as use the server for my personal machine as well. I'm just choosing not to do it that way.

RoyalTech

The guest OSes I will run are the ones specified in the TLG base configurations as well as ones that are needed for any other TLGs. These can be found in Microsoft's Technet Wiki. For the most part it is a number of servers and client machine or two. Other VMs that are used in TLGs are System Center, Sharepoint, and Forefront. There are others as well. Here is a link to the TLGs currently offered

Test Lab Guides - TechNet Articles - United States (English) - TechNet Wiki

sratakhin

RoyalTech, no need to be concerned about the videocard. Many servers only have 4 or 8 MB videocards, yet they can run several VMs

You can definitely run ESXi off a USB drive. I didn't try it with Hyper-V, but here is something that may help you.
http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/BootHVSR2FromUSB

RoyalTech

Thanks sratakhin!

My main reason for setting all this up is that after getting my CompTIA certs, I realized I knew a bunch of concepts and not much else. The TLGs that Microsoft offers seems like a good way to get a little experience with some of these products. Like everyone else, I need to practice this stuff to actually learn using it. Concepts are great but as I'm sure you know, they only go so far.

joehalford01

Hard-drives are your real bottleneck, it sounds like you're going SSD so you're right on there. I just built myself a new server to run my vm's on and it is super snappy with the 256GB SSD I put in. They are only $200 give or take now, that's fantastic! I was running VMware workstation on my Windows 7 computer with an i7 and a 500GB hard drive for the Virtual Machines, that actually worked very well, but I got tired of fighting with the networking aspect of vmware workstation, granted, it's for workstations, so it won't have quite the same capabilities as a server grade hypervisor. Hyper-V handles multiple Virtual networks much better.

RoyalTech

Thanks for the input Joe. The only real difference in the way I plan on setting things up is that I will have the server on one machine and the VMs on a separate machine that will run Win7Pro. Also, instead of getting one really big SSD like you have, I'll probably get a couple of smaller ones. I do that because I like to run Win7 on a separate drive all on its own. I'll then use the extra one or two for the VMs while I do the test labs and then use them for my own data after that. I'm going with Hyper-V as opposed to VMWare because part of the point of this is to get more comfortable with MS stuff.

pumbaa_g

If you are running ESX you will require a storage solution to play with. The cheapest option will be a Openfiler setup however, you may want to invest in a decent NAS devices which are available pretty cheap nowdays and a few Gb LAN NIC Cards.
Other then that your setup sounds pretty good, a lot of people have been running with a lot less (including me)
For VMWare advanced features you will have to check the HCL as FT/HA/DRS can be a little picky about hardware