Planning for new server

The_Librarian

The_Librarian

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Hi Guys

We plan to migrate our data (>4Tb) over to a new server.

However, the current server have a monolithic data storage structure - one big RAID virtual drive, and that is partitioned into 5 partitions, the largest being for corporate data.

Now that we are going to move over to a virtualized server environment, I want to split off the corporate data from one partition into five (or more) virtual hard drives.

The idea of that is, should one virtual hard drive start to get full, we can just expand that single virtual HDD without impacting the others. With a monolithic storage layout, you have to shrink/enlarge partitions, and that is a bit iffy, especially if they contain data.

Server2k16 allow you to link virtual HDD's to folders instead of drive letters.

Also, versioning with backups should be easier regarding the different virtual HDD's - for example, software (installers etc) and database backups doesn't need versioning, but corporate data and development do need versioning, as well as have the ability to back up to different sized backup media instead of one large backup media.

Re-install/upgrade of the core OS should be a doddle as this will also be in a virtual HDD, you can just move the original HDD somewhere safe, create a new one, and link all the virtual HDD's to it. (If we want, we can unlink Server2016 and go over to Linux easily should we want to - just have to convert all NTFS volumes to something better :p).

Another thing is, you can then selectively enable data deduplication on one virtual HDD but not on another should you want to.

Want to drop a specific virtual HDD as you'll not need it anymore? No sweat - just back it up, unlink it and delete it. Try that with a partition.

Or am I missing something here? :confused:
 
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Sounds like you have everything planned out. Just some points from my side.

1. Your setup sounds complicated and might be difficult to "hand-over" if you ever leave.
2. Are you planning on going over to *nix, because I don't think there is an easy way to convert from NTFS to chosen FS?
3. In future, if you run out of space, you can always just create a new VHD and link it to chosen folder, instead of increasing partition.
4. Increasing partitions are a lot easier with Win Server 2k16 and doesn't require downtime.
5. Are you going to keep these "data" VHDs on a SAN?
6. Do you know the rate at which your data is growing/year?
 
SharkBait said:
Sounds like you have everything planned out. Just some points from my side.

1. Your setup sounds complicated and might be difficult to "hand-over" if you ever leave.
2. Are you planning on going over to *nix, because I don't think there is an easy way to convert from NTFS to chosen FS?
3. In future, if you run out of space, you can always just create a new VHD and link it to chosen folder, instead of increasing partition.
4. Increasing partitions are a lot easier with Win Server 2k16 and doesn't require downtime.
5. Are you going to keep these "data" VHDs on a SAN?
6. Do you know the rate at which your data is growing/year?
Click to expand...

1. Documentation - and trying to keep it simple and not doing funny stuff.
2. At this stage it does not look like we will migrate over to *nix - but you never know.
3. Complexity - you will then have lots of VHD's instead of the planned six, and need to document how they all fit and where they go to.
4. Will look at that, thanks.
5. Data VHD's are on a NAS
6. We have a lot of old data that we want to back up and discard, so the storage requirement will actually be smaller. Guesstimate is that it grows with 1Tb @ year.

Thanks for the feedback, really appreciated.
 
Is the NAS allocated for Data VHDs only or will the OS and other VHDs run on it as well?

What I did, at another company, keeping in mind, I had the budget for this... We used Dell servers and I bought a Dell SAN, connected via SAS to the file server. So, the R520 had it's own drives set up in RAID, e.g: 2x 300GB SAS 15k RAID 1 for Boot and then 4x 600GB RAID 5 for data. This would keep the non-backed up data like installs. On the SAN, 6x 1TB 7200 SATA in RAID 5 for Data and just added more drives, as it was needed and expanded the RAID set with OMSA.
 
SharkBait said:
I am curious as to why you asked here? Actually thought this was just a job opportunity question... :D
Click to expand...

It's called bouncing ideas around and see if it is a good idea :)

I've virtualized stuff before, but was not sure whether a multiple-HDD VM was a good idea.

Already copying data to it and is busy populating the empty drives. Will have to unleash my users on it and see if it scales well or not :D
 
Do you use "main" shares, e.g. Creditors and then everyone, that has access, can work on all the files/folders under it? Setting up the shares/security was always the biggest task for me.
 
SharkBait said:
Do you use "main" shares, e.g. Creditors and then everyone, that has access, can work on all the files/folders under it? Setting up the shares/security was always the biggest task for me.
Click to expand...

Something like that, yes. Once you got it right, it'll be a real PITA to set up from scratch and all that. There's one specific tree that have complex permissions, was a real PITA to set up back then but they're not using it anymore :mad:

Current server is Server2003, new server is Server2016 - backups under 2016 with server backup should be better than under 2003, although I'll miss ntbackup.

Oh the fun I'll have with PowerShell - clean out all old files and delete users' MP3 and MP4 collections with the click of a button :twisted:
 
The_Librarian said:
Something like that, yes. Once you got it right, it'll be a real PITA to set up from scratch and all that. There's one specific tree that have complex permissions, was a real PITA to set up back then but they're not using it anymore :mad:

Current server is Server2003, new server is Server2016 - backups under 2016 with server backup should be better than under 2003, although I'll miss ntbackup.

Oh the fun I'll have with PowerShell - clean out all old files and delete users' MP3 and MP4 collections with the click of a button :twisted:
Click to expand...

I used treesizefree for that. :)
 
You don't need that many drives/partitions. Microsoft has a built in tool called FSRM which allows you to limit the size of folders. At most I would have 3 for your file server: OS, data and junk. The junk VHD won't be backed up.
 
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