I am working on building a new virtual machine with CentOS installed on it. It takes a lot of time to setup and build servers to include all of the hardening steps, service changes, custom monitoring scripts, etc. To this end, I was curious if there was a way to define a template of the base server install that could be used to spin off copies of other servers of the same type? Additionally, if I can a core server template, is there a way to say add the configuration pieces for a web server or a database server and build that new server such that you would have core template + database template = new server? I hope that this makes sense.
I'm looking to put together a server with the base OS as Windows Server 2008 with Hyper V. This machine is a development box that will be hosting multiple VMs for development - test instances of various Microsoft flavors as well as a Team Foundation Server VM.
I want the machine to have raid 5 across 4 1 TB drives. I'm not concerned with the "lesser performance" of Raid5. Other's have said raid 5 in a VM environment works just fine. Besides, this isn't an azure server. It's a development VM server.
My question is, what should I be aware of when picking out the hardware for this box? Do any of you who have built similar setups have any suggestions or considerations that I should be aware of?
I've been given the task of defining a server build and build process for a move to Windows Server 2008 for a few hundred physical machines and a few hundred VMs.
I'm from a Solaris background and am trying to pick things up from someone who has moved on and left no documentation for previous processes.
I have discovered various Microsoft tools, including WDS, WAIK, MDT, but I'm struggling to find anything that gives a coherent overview of how they fit together and how to do it. (I fear that my reliance on googling will not serve me as well for MS products).
I realise that this is a big topic, but is anyone able to make any recommendations as to the best tools and techniques for creating a Windows Server 2008 build including applications.
Thanks in advance. Tom
This is the canonical question for "Should I build coomputing hardware myself?" questions.
I have put together countless PCs, but never a large server. The geek in me says build it, but the realist in me says let the manufacturer handle it when there is a problem. Ignoring the time penalty involved with the initial assembly time of a built one, which is a better solution? Have you ever run into a problem with a home build server that would have been solved easier/quicker/cheaper by going with a manufacturer? Are there any features that manufacturers give that aren't easily attainable with a home built server?
When building a new PC, I sometimes struggle to determine what capacity (watts) power supply to use. Is there some sort of online calculator that exists that allows you to choose your various components and will calculate the power consumption?