Running Terminal Server 2003 farm on Virtual Server 2005R2

[Guest Don]

I was wondering if anyone could point me to information or give their

thoughts regarding "virtualizing" a Terminal Server 2003 farm onto a x64

Windows Virtual Server 2005R2 box.

 

Currently we have (7) 32-bit TS2k3 servers in WLB cluster with about 300

terminals. The servers are on separate physical boxes. I'd like to

consolidate those onto 1 or 2 64bit VS05R2 machines with lots of memory.

 

--

Thanks,

Don

[Guest Charlie Russel - MVP]

Re: Running Terminal Server 2003 farm on Virtual Server 2005R2

 

Makes no sense at all. Why cripple your TS boxes by virtualizing them and

forcing them to be 32-bit and limited to ~3GB of RAM each? FAR better to

simply run one or two 64bit TS boxes with lots of RAM. Just make sure you've

got good I/O to support it. (A nice _wide_ array with a good controller and

plenty of cache, and good NICs.)

 

Terminal Services is a core workload for x64. With good I/O, you can run 300

on one 4-way box with sufficient RAM. I think I saw that an HP DL-585 (quad

opteron) did ~700 before it maxed out. But trying to run them in Virtual

Server is just wrong.

 

--

Charlie.

http://msmvps.com/xperts64

http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/charlie.russel

 

 

"Don" <Don@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:BEC638A5-E5BA-43F2-9FEB-1F0F0A7294BB@microsoft.com...

>I was wondering if anyone could point me to information or give their

> thoughts regarding "virtualizing" a Terminal Server 2003 farm onto a x64

> Windows Virtual Server 2005R2 box.

>

> Currently we have (7) 32-bit TS2k3 servers in WLB cluster with about 300

> terminals. The servers are on separate physical boxes. I'd like to

> consolidate those onto 1 or 2 64bit VS05R2 machines with lots of memory.

>

> --

> Thanks,

> Don

[Guest Tony MS]

Re: Running Terminal Server 2003 farm on Virtual Server 2005R2

 

I agree with Charlie. My 7 year company hosting 32-bit W2K3 'physical' TS for

the user front-end and 32-bit 'virtual' W2K3 on 32-bit W2K3 VS2005 R2 for LAN

back-end services is just now moving to 64-bit blade servers.

 

The front-end TSs will run on physical 64-bit servers while as many

'virtual' back-end 64-bit AND 32-bit servers as possible will run on other

64-bit W2K3 physical servers.

 

Your idea to run a virtual 32-bit OS on a 64-bit physical serve does not

increase the value of your situation that much. Once the W2K8 Virtual

Services which allow 64-bit guest OS's with upto 20 GB RAM allocation, then

you can decide via testing if virtual 64-bit TS services are worth it.

 

 

 

"Charlie Russel - MVP" wrote:

> Makes no sense at all. Why cripple your TS boxes by virtualizing them and

> forcing them to be 32-bit and limited to ~3GB of RAM each? FAR better to

> simply run one or two 64bit TS boxes with lots of RAM. Just make sure you've

> got good I/O to support it. (A nice _wide_ array with a good controller and

> plenty of cache, and good NICs.)

>

> Terminal Services is a core workload for x64. With good I/O, you can run 300

> on one 4-way box with sufficient RAM. I think I saw that an HP DL-585 (quad

> opteron) did ~700 before it maxed out. But trying to run them in Virtual

> Server is just wrong.

>

> --

> Charlie.

> http://msmvps.com/xperts64

> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/charlie.russel

>

>

> "Don" <Don@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

> news:BEC638A5-E5BA-43F2-9FEB-1F0F0A7294BB@microsoft.com...

> >I was wondering if anyone could point me to information or give their

> > thoughts regarding "virtualizing" a Terminal Server 2003 farm onto a x64

> > Windows Virtual Server 2005R2 box.

> >

> > Currently we have (7) 32-bit TS2k3 servers in WLB cluster with about 300

> > terminals. The servers are on separate physical boxes. I'd like to

> > consolidate those onto 1 or 2 64bit VS05R2 machines with lots of memory.

> >

> > --

> > Thanks,

> > Don

>