Senario:
Management wants to keep Exchange in-house.
We are a Non-profit and already have license(s) for Exchange 2010(Server and CAL's), and Server 2012 R2 (or below)
Hardware: DL360 G5 with Dual - Quadcore Intel Xeon E5335, 32Gb Ram and 5 - 72GB SAS drives and Dual GB NIC.
Would like to vitualize the Exchange server for later migrations and "cluster" later this year for DR. We have the Lic's as a non-profit to use HyperV but no other budget (for now) to buy anything else so it's build as physical or Vitualize. I have done SBS 2003 to SBS 2011 several times. but not Virtualized.
Would like tips and confirmation on my plan.
To build Windows server
2012 R2 core server and virtualize a Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010 sp3
server. Utilizing mirrored 72's for core system and RAID 5 remaining 3 - 72's
for virtual space. This server will be the only thing Virtualized in our 13
server network for now, 5 of those servers are going away, plus the old
Exchange server of course. This will get our feet wet and get us ready to migrate
"on the fly" when we add more cluster nodes after we secure more
funding for new hardware down the road.
Of course most Hired hands don't want to touch because we aren't buying their hardware or software, so it is down to you and it is down to me.
Much appreciate any tips and
insight you can give...