Xen VM server

[splinters]

Number of Employees: 12-15, need to support 15-20 VM
Purpose: Running VM's for up to 20 PC's
Data: VM images
Space Requirement: 1TB
Environment: 50% Win7, 50% Ubuntu, win7 for those who need MS Office, Ubuntu (e.g. web browsing) for everyone else
Price: <$5k
Prefer Supermicro, but will look at pre-built solutions if the cost is very similar (~3% price difference) for support reasons.

Looking to update my current setup of single domain server and 15 WinXP PC's to a VM environment. I'm not sure how to build a cost-effective machine for Xen Server, so I thought I'd ask the community for recommended builds. I'm looking for 15 VM's, but want a little flexibility to go up to 20.

I'm expect 1GB of RAM for each Linux VM and 4GB for the Win7, but again that's a guess without any formal knowledge other than internet research.

Thanks in Advance!

 

[wiinippongamer]

CPU: 2x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819105264
MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131643
RAM: 4x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139140
CPU COOLER: 2x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065 + 2x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103069&Tpk=blademaster%20120mm

HDD: 2x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148697 (for backup)

CASE: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163154

PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139014&Tpk=corsair%201200w

Also the mobo has no onboard sound, but I assume you won't really need that.

Did I miss anything?

TOTAL $3330 before shipping

 

[splinters]

Nice, covers quite a bit. I'm thinking of a rack-mounted case instead, a 1U or 2U would be ideal. Also I'm curious what the equivalent Intel option would look like.

No sound is fine!

 

[wiinippongamer]

The intel equivalent is six core Xeon X5670, is pricier ($1500), and doesn't sport THAT much of an advantage over 12-core opterons: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2978/amd-s-12-core-magny-cours-opteron-6174-vs-intel-s-6-core-xeon/7

Plus you'd want at least 1 core per VM, though the xeon has hyper - threading, but real cores are better than virtual ones.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2978/amd-s-12-core-magny-cours-opteron-6174-vs-intel-s-6-core-xeon/11

 

[wiinippongamer]

Also there are going to be some server CPU's to come from AMD based on Bulldozer, which should be interesting.

 

[splinters]

Thanks, for all the input. I'm looking to put this server into production by the end of of year. Think it's worth chancing the wait on Bulldozer?

 

[wiinippongamer]

Yep, bulldozer is coming out maybe late september or early october, the desktop versions are already on pre-order, though there are no benchmarks yet.

 

[splinters]

Just went looking around, seems like none of them are replacements for the 12 core Magny-Cours just 6 and 8 core variants. I see much higher clock speeds, but like your above statement, more cores are better for VM's than higher clocks. Hmm, choices, choices.

I think I'll need to upgrade to higher RPM hard drives as I imagine the I/O throughput is going to be heavier with VMs running windows.

One more question, any thoughts on how to provision real RAM vs VM RAM? If for instance I'm running 20 VM's, 10 win7's and 10 Ubuntu's for a total of 60GB of total VM RAM, will 32GB of server RAM be enough to go around?

edit: adding a question

 

[wiinippongamer]

Whoop http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/09/amds-bulldozer-processors-now-shipping-in-servers-by-end-of-month.ars , servers bulldozers have already shipped to retailers, 16-core opteron 6200. Socket G34 compatible, still can't see any on newegg though.

If you're gonna need 4gb per win7 machine, then you'll need more ram, add 4 more to the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139140 counter, and up the price another $400.

You could also RAID0 4 of them cheaper drivers and get similar performance instead of spending on overpriced high RPM's.

 

[splinters]

Raid 0 means no redundancy in case of drive failure which is a big problem for me even though I will have daily back-ups. My business can't be down because the server goes down for any reason. Hmm, wonder if these "16 cores" will work the same as the previous 12-core generation. Will have to see how the benchmarks look when they come out.

 

[splinters]

Best answer selected by splinters.