Requient said:
2Be_or_Not2Be said:
3) Create a 2nd physical host to run two other virtualized servers - Exchange and your Domain Controller. Exchange 2010 runs well virtualized as Microsoft engineered it to have less disk I/O. A domain controller is needed for your user authentication (also used by Dynamics), and it can run DHCP/DNS as well. A single virtual server would easily handle those roles as the DC, and another virtual server can host Exchange.
4) Get a UPS (either one big one or two separate ones for your servers) and some type of backup system. Backup is VERY important - don't neglect it!
Thank you for the detailed response.
I have some follow-up questions.
1) I know this is kind of a silly point since I am only relying on a router for this but suppose I do employ two physical servers, would a single instance of DNS/DHCP be safely sufficient? Due to the small scale of our operations, I believe we can still tolerate about 1-2 hours of downtime but strictly no more than that.
2) Regarding backup, do you mean cloning images of the VMs as well as the data in both servers? If so, would this essentially mean a secondary means of storing data that can be used to restore the entire system (assuming no hardware failure). Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was thinking of something along the lines of an NAS (e.g.: from Synology etc)
3) Lastly, would it be possible if I were to go ahead online with setting up of the first physical server (hosting virtualized Dynamics and Exchange) without the second physical server? I would rely on my router for DNS/DHCP and understand that I have to manually configure my computers one at a time. I might then use the NAS mentioned above to provide some form of central file storage.
1) DHCP/DNS have very low overhead. For your size, one source for DHCP/DNS is sufficient. For small operations, that can easily be handled by your firewall/router.
2) Backup - I mean that you should have backups of your data, first and foremost. That means you want to cover not only your main file storage, but you also want to have your mail backed up as well. After that is answered, then you could worry about backups/snapshots of VMs and the like. A NAS, like the Synology you mentioned, can store your onsite backups; however, you also should maintain offsite backups as well. If you bought two of the same NAS units, one could be your main file storage and your onsite backups; the 2nd could be used for offsite replication. That is one type of backup scenario; other setups could work for you as well.
3) With a good enough physical server host, you could run all 3 servers (Dynamics, Exchange, and a new domain controller) as virtual guests. I would just make sure it had a decent storage subsystem and a good RAID controller. To keep costs down, I would recommend that you use the local storage on the server itself. For your main file storage, the NAS can serve your 5-6 clients. Later on, if/when you want to add a 2nd server (as a backup or whatever), you could so pretty easily.
Note: Don't use a regular NAS as the storage for your virtual guests, though. Most of the smaller NAS units don't have decent enough throughput to handle larger demands. I personally would rather have the bigger NAS units with full Intel x86 CPUs (not Atom); they almost always have better performance than the lower-end units utilize ARM or Atom-based CPUs. For just file storage, it doesn't matter than much with only 5 clients; for larger networks, it makes more of a diference.
Edit: In regards to #2, there are several vendors that offer "bare-metal" recovery products. However, investigate that only when you have a backup solution in place. Backup Exec might be a good place to start as it has both (regular backup & bare-metal options). Sadly, at this time, they still don't have good Windows Server 2012 R2 support (yet).