On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 3:33 PM, Stephen Wimberly <[email protected]> wrote: > Please critique the following "budget" VDI Server purchase. I know there is > no "correct" hardware, but also want to hear what others think. > > USE: Approximately 50 workstations via Microsoft RDS that will run > Microsoft Office (Most will not use Outlook, but rather webmail). All will > have Adobe Reader, but not licensed Adobe products. These will be shared > computers, generally not used by full time staff personnel but part time > helpers so the login/logoff storm will be more random. > > SERVER: > > Dell PowerEdge R720 > CPU: Dual Xeon E5-2680 (8 Core) > Memory: 192 GB (12x16GB @ 1600 RDIMS > RAID 10 (H710 PERC) > HDD: 16 300GB 10K 2.5" > NIC: BCOM 5720 Daughter Card > OS: Microsoft Windows Server 2012 > Microsoft Hyper V > Remote Desktop Services > > (We may wait for Server 2012 R2 for the deduplication on the HyperV guests.) > > This will be our first step into VDI, so any advance thoughts would be > appreciated. > > Thank you in Advance!
I haven't played with VDI, but the following thoughts crossed my mind: Why so much disk? No file server? If there is a file server, I'd think seriously about a much smaller number of SSDs - and given that ~256gb SSDs just aren't that expensive any more, I'd think that 8 or even fewer of those would be more performant, eat less electricity and generate less heat.. Also, IIRC, the R720 comes with 4 NICs on the motherboard, or at least can be ordered that way. Given the workload you've described, I don't think you need to add in more ports, unless that's what that daughterboard provides. Kurt
