Need help getting a server

[lolsmurfzs]

So I have this project for a school assignment in which, among other things, I have to get a server for a small business.

 

Except there's one small problem.... I don't know anything about server hardware.

 

The server is going to be a virtualization host that has to run 2 VM's. One is a domain controller/File server and the other is an exchange server.

The budget for this server is around €4.000,-

 

What kind of hardware do i need for this and is this even achievable?

 

(Note: I don't need to buy the server, I only need the specs/model)

[Crunchy Dragon]

That is achievable.

 

As far as hardware, you'd probably be looking at LGA 2011-2 or 3 to get the best bang for your buck. Probably want two 8 core Xeons and in the region of 24GB memory.

 

For storage, I'd aim for maybe a 120GB SSD with Linux and VMWare installed as your host system, maybe another 120GB SSD for each virtual machine, and then hard drives for their various needs. So maybe like 4-5 WD Reds in RAID 5 for the file server, however much you feel is necessary for the other one.

 

One of the other things you'll probably want to consider is rackmount servers vs tower servers. Both have their pros and cons.

[NunoLava1998]

https://www.newegg.com/hp-prodesk-6300-business-desktops-workstations/p/1VK-001E-2CXN8?Description=refurbished desktop&cm_re=refurbished_desktop-_-1VK-001E-2CXN8-_-Product (nah jk)

 

 

[Acedia]

2 hours ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Probably want two 8 core Xeons and in the region of 24GB memory.

Hyper-V host needs about 4GB RAM.

DC+File Share can be run with 4GB RAM aswell.

Exchange 2019 has a 128GB RAM as minimum requirement.

[Crunchy Dragon]

38 minutes ago, Acedia said:

Hyper-V host needs about 4GB RAM.

DC+File Share can be run with 4GB RAM aswell.

Exchange 2019 has a 128GB RAM as minimum requirement.

I was taking a guess, looks like I overestimated just a little bit.

 

Thanks for clarifying

[MajesticCo]

Do you actually need to buy it or just rent for the project? Renting would definitely be possible on that budget but the price of a rented server kinda changes by where you go, which continent are you on?

[Jarsky]

How many users are we talking?

[NelizMastr]

13 hours ago, Acedia said:

Hyper-V host needs about 4GB RAM.

DC+File Share can be run with 4GB RAM aswell.

Exchange 2019 has a 128GB RAM as minimum requirement.

Hyper-V and DC/FS don't need a lot of memory, that is correct. However, EX2019 will run with 16GB and up. You probably meant 128GB of storage.

We have customers with ~100 users that don't even need 32GB for Exchange.

 

I'd say 48 or 64GB RAM would be more than plenty. Storage should be 15K SAS for Exchange or SSDs.

[Acedia]

7 hours ago, NelizMastr said:

However, EX2019 will run with 16GB and up. You probably meant 128GB of storage.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/plan-and-deploy/system-requirements?view=exchserver-2019

I know Exchange 2013 runs with less, I haven't checked our own Exchange 2016 and so far we don't have an Exchange 2019 under support, but at least the docs require it.

[Sir Asvald]

On 5/31/2019 at 8:33 PM, Acedia said:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/plan-and-deploy/system-requirements?view=exchserver-2019

I know Exchange 2013 runs with less, I haven't checked our own Exchange 2016 and so far we don't have an Exchange 2019 under support, but at least the docs require it.

Oh wow. 128G!?! Good thing that Exchange online is a thing. I've got a hybrid setup myself. 

[NelizMastr]

On 5/31/2019 at 9:33 PM, Acedia said:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/plan-and-deploy/system-requirements?view=exchserver-2019

I know Exchange 2013 runs with less, I haven't checked our own Exchange 2016 and so far we don't have an Exchange 2019 under support, but at least the docs require it.

Lmao, that's retarded. EX2019 runs fine with 24GB.

[Sir Asvald]

23 hours ago, NelizMastr said:

Lmao, that's retarded. EX2019 runs fine with 24GB.

But how many mailboxes and databases?

[NelizMastr]

On 6/26/2019 at 2:28 PM, Abdul201588 said:

But how many mailboxes and databases?

1 database, 100 mailboxes. That's the kind of deployment I deal with. To be honest, when you start going above a certain amount of mailboxes, you want to build up a complete DAG anyway, which makes the requirements a moot point.

[Sir Asvald]

6 hours ago, NelizMastr said:

1 database, 100 mailboxes. That's the kind of deployment I deal with. To be honest, when you start going above a certain amount of mailboxes, you want to build up a complete DAG anyway, which makes the requirements a moot point.

Are you running the server as a VM or is it on bare metal?

[NelizMastr]

31 minutes ago, Abdul201588 said:

Are you running the server as a VM or is it on bare metal?

VM. We've deployed this kind of config to a few dozen servers. No issues whatsoever.

[Sir Asvald]

44 minutes ago, NelizMastr said:

VM. We've deployed this kind of config to a few dozen servers. No issues whatsoever.

Interesting. How much cores does it have?

[Jarsky]

The resources really depends on how you configure them. 

 

Some of the environments I manage have only 4-6 databases per server, with a lot of servers to make the DAG highly resilient but theyre more complex for configuration. These typically have around 24GB ram and 4 cores. 

Some of the environments only have 2 mailbox servers in a failover relationship which is far more simple but is less resilient and requires more processor/ram for each node. In these smaller environments, normally have around 48-64GB ram and 8 cores, assuming you have Edge Transport & Client Access roles on different servers. 

 

Generally you'd only have a single server Exchange environment if you're a small business, in which case you really don't need 128GB ram as NelizMastr pointed out. 

 

 

[NelizMastr]

15 hours ago, Abdul201588 said:

Interesting. How much cores does it have?

Typically 4. 

Our customer base is mostly small business, somewhere between 5-50 users on average, some exceptions in the 500-2000 range.

The smaller businesses are usually equipped with a single CPU ML350 G10 these days with a 8-10 core Xeon and 64-128GB RAM, SSDs for VMs, RAID1 cheapo SAS for OS. This config seems to suit them well enough. 

On prem Exchange is slowly disappearing though. Exchange Online being so cheap is a win for a lot of businesses. Takes a good while to get ROI on on-prem with the current pricing.

[leadeater]

On 5/31/2019 at 10:27 AM, Acedia said:

Exchange 2019 has a 128GB RAM as minimum requirement.

No small business should ever be running an onsite email server anymore, too many much cheaper cloud options by Microsoft, Google etc that have all the proper security and filtering setup. This is an area not to get in to without actually needing to.

 

On 5/31/2019 at 8:16 AM, lolsmurfzs said:

The server is going to be a virtualization host that has to run 2 VM's. One is a domain controller/File server and the other is an exchange server.

A Domain Controller that is also a File Server is very bad practice and is even worse when virtualization is already being considered. I'm assuming that this is a requirement of your assignment that you are doing so may be unavoidable but my feed back to the course coordinator is to adjust the material because this is just bad.

 

Similar deal for Microsoft Exchange Server, swap out for Microsoft SQL Server which is more likely to actually be a requirement and would equally fit the purpose of the assignment.

 

In light of this being an assignment I'm not going to directly give you an actual server model and hardware specification because that just feels like doing the assignment for you. Just know that Microsoft minimum specifications for Exchange Server are highly misleading so don't spec the server for that, make sure you justify why or you'll be marked down.

 

Personally I would include 2 Windows Server Standard license which allows for 4 VMs in total and have 1 Domain Controller, 1 File Server, 1 Exchange Server and 1 license free for future additional requirements. This also allows for another physical server to be purchased later if required and to be setup in HA without needing to purchase additional Windows Licenses unless you need to go over that 4 VM requirement.

 

Also damn it just realized how old this topic was so going to stop burning effort, OP hasn't checked back in yet.

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, NelizMastr said:

RAID1 cheapo SAS for OS.

We switched over to Read Intensive SSDs for OS because the price was very much the same. SAS is pretty expensive now considering their capacity and performance along with reliability.

[NelizMastr]

On 6/29/2019 at 8:37 AM, leadeater said:

We switched over to Read Intensive SSDs for OS because the price was very much the same. SAS is pretty expensive now considering their capacity and performance along with reliability.

We tend to use 300GB 10K disks as they are uber cheap. Why we’re not running the hypervisor from a SD card is beyond me, though, as 90% of new servers are ESXi.

[swoffmaster]

For this said project I would suggest renting as this is the cheapest option. There are many great services out there such as Softlayer which is an IBM company. The great part of renting a server is if any hardware failures happen most companies will replace the part for free.  As to your question about specs we need to know what core and memory count you are looking at for your VMs. For overall basic VM, I suggest dual Intel E5-2620v3 or 4110 if you are renting with 64GB of ECC ram, as to storage you will have to figure that out. Since this is for a company please configure this server with a raid card and at least raid 1 configuration.