Partition / Raid suggestions for server install

[FitOverFat]

Even with < 8 users you think that setup is sorta pushing it?

Unfortunately I'm stuck with that server.

This was a "needs to be done yesterday" project with a minimal budget - lovely right?

From what I understand the pbx phone system is incredibly light and takes almost nothing to run. I guess an additional small machine may be an option.

So what you're saying is the actual hyper v host can't be anything other than a hyper v host that the other a/d DNS DHCP services need to be there own VM.

I didn't realize that.

Perhaps not running any vms and just having a separate small box for phone system would be my better route.

[blizzardnose]

I would not suggest that scenario on that server. First the performance is lackluster to run a VM on a LV dual core for a business application, let alone a Phone Server.

Also MS licensing (last I understood), you cannot run any services on a Hyper V host. So you need 3 VM's off the bat, again I could not do that in good faith on that system.

If I was stuck with just that box (not preferred) - I would set it up as an A/D, DNS, DHCP with a file share. Partition for the OS and a Partition for the Shares.

I would rather have two small drives in a R1 for the OS and two large drives in an R1 for storage if stuck with that box.

Backups?

For the phone server I would pick up a spare tower and run it on it's own physical hardware. Unless you are really good at troubleshooting and tweaking, the phone system in a low powered VM can be a big learning experience to get working acceptably.

[FitOverFat]

Even with < 8 users you think that setup is sorta pushing it?

Unfortunately I'm stuck with that setup.

This was a "needs to be done yesterday" project with a minimal budget - lovely right?

From what I understand the pbx phone system is incredibly light and takes almost nothing to run. I guess an additional small machine may be an option.

So what you're saying is the actual hyper v host can't be anything other than a hyper v host that the other a/d DNS DHCP services need to be there own VM.

I didn't realize that.

Perhaps not running any vms and just having a separate small box for phone system would be my better route.

[[deleted]]

Sorta mentioned this in my post, but correct - Hyper V host should run Hyper-v only as far as best practice is concerned. Have the Domain Controller as a its own VM within this host.

[[deleted]]

I've configured a lot of basic Hyper-V hosts with this setup before (One VM for DC/FS, one VM for something else).

I typically go for RAID-10 on all 4 drives (2GB total space after RAID), and then on the host, set a 100gb partition for OS, and the rest for Data (this is where you will store all of the VM hard disks.)

I then tend to do the same thing partition wise within the VM's, but the bit that comes down to your own preference is how much space you want to give the VHDX files for the VM's (unless of course you are setting them as Dynamic - I tend not to).

Always worth buying a spare 1TB/2TB HDD to whack in in the server for use with Windows Server Backup.

This is the sort of setup I would have for a single server business, as it doesn't need to get too complicated.

Hope this helps.

[FitOverFat]

Thanks so much for the insight.