How much can virtualization really do? (So many questions. So little time. Part 8.)
In our Saint Louis TechNet Event last week, Kurt asked several questions relating to virtualization and Hyper-V:
“Any issues with running SBS, SQL, and application server on same machine?”
“How do I set up multiple drives within a virtual server?”
“What is the best base core for virtualization? (Enterprise, File Server, etc.)”
To your first question, Kurt, there is really no one correct answer. “It depends.”, is really qutie appropriate, here. If you have a pretty decent server with lots of memory and processors / cores, and you’re not supporting a huge enterprise (your mention of SBS makes me believe that there are no more than 75 users, so you’re fine there), you can do this. And in fact when you use Small Business Server, that is essentially what you are doing.
Your second question is more specific to Hyper-V. To add additional drives to a virtualized server in Hyper-V, you simply edit the settings of the virtual machine. You can create the new .VHD files before (using the New –> Hard disk.. utility in the Hyper-V management console), or during the addition of the disk to the machine. Note that you can also add or remove disks to/from a live, running machine; provided that the disk is being added to a virtual iSCSI adapter and not one of the IDE adapters.
Once a disk is added, you will have to go into the Storage Management (in Server Manager) within the virtual machine. If the disk is brand new and previously un-partitioned or unformatted, you will do that from the Storage Management tool.
For details on configuring virtual machines, CLICK HERE
Finally, you are asking for “the best base core” for virtualization. Forgive me if I didn’t interpret your handwriting correctly, but I believe what you’re asking is, “What is the best use of virtualization?” And again, a lot of this answer is going to depend upon your environment and the applications and services (and servers) you are supporting. Most companies try it out on a small-scale in production; perhaps virtualizing file servers or print servers, and move gradually to more complex or business-critical servers. Eventually, when they are convinced that they can safely do it, and can support the infrastructure (including management and monitoring) to efficiently support it, they move the bulk of their operations to virtualized machines. Go to https://www.microsoft.com/virtualization for a good starting point on researching what Microsoft has to offer. And visit https://www.microsoft.com/casestudies to search for examples of companies who are making good use of the solutions you’re investigating.
And as always, you can start out by evaluating Windows Server 2008 R2 w/SP1 for free, to start learning about and working with Hyper-V.