CentOS - Sep 2019 - File server as host for a Windows Server VM?

I hope that someone here can give some advice on the following:

I have a Samba based Active Directory. A CentOS 7.6 machine runs as a 
file server and hosts the Windows user profiles for all the Windows 
workstations.

Now management has decided that they need a Windows server for a couple 
of administrative applications, which need MS SQL Server. That would be 
the only role of this Windows. Since the above mentioned server has 
enough resources (2x Quad Core Xeon 2.66 GHz with HT and 48 GB of RAM, a 
dual port 10 Gb NIC) I thought of making it a host for a Windows virtual 
machine using KVM. Given the resources and current setup we have, at the 
moment it wouldn't be practical to implement both servers as VMs on top 
of a bare metal hypervisor.

According to your experience, is there any motive why I shouldn't use 
such a setup?

Thank you for any insights.

--On Saturday, September 14, 2019 5:23 PM +0100 miguel medalha 
<medalist at sapo.pt> wrote:
> they need a Windows server for a couple of administrative applications
Do they really need Server for that, or would a workstation do? I use a 
workstation as a license server for one app, and another workstation for 
the management console for the burglar alarm and antivirus. I've got my 
Unifi WAP "controller" on one workstation out of expedience, even
though in
principle I could run it as a Java-based service on Linux. Sadly, none of 
the others provide a Linux alternative, even though the upstream license 
software has Linux support, or I'd put them on my CentOS box.

I did that kind of in the past. Now I dont because I have plenty of
resoruces available.
But.
So far you have not provided stats on server usage (cpu,ram) over a
24hour or 7 day 8am-5pm timeframe. So I will asume you have plenty of
usage/performance to spare.
I suggest you to -if possible- replicate the current server setup
somewhere else and then install the KVM and dependencies via yum. That
way you will spot potential problems if any library changes and its
being used by samba.

Unless using SSDs when creating the VM pleae do not use dynamic disk
allocation. MS SQL may be very intensive and you are already sharing
resources, lets not be the i/o intensity of the expanding disk one of
them.
remember SQL server is all about RAM, the more the merrier.
is your partition aligned?

---------------------
Erick Perez
---------------------

On Sat, Sep 14, 2019 at 10:23 AM miguel medalha <medalist at sapo.pt>
wrote:
>
> I hope that someone here can give some advice on the following:
>
> I have a Samba based Active Directory. A CentOS 7.6 machine runs as a
> file server and hosts the Windows user profiles for all the Windows
> workstations.
>
> Now management has decided that they need a Windows server for a couple
> of administrative applications, which need MS SQL Server. That would be
> the only role of this Windows. Since the above mentioned server has
> enough resources (2x Quad Core Xeon 2.66 GHz with HT and 48 GB of RAM, a
> dual port 10 Gb NIC) I thought of making it a host for a Windows virtual
> machine using KVM. Given the resources and current setup we have, at the
> moment it wouldn't be practical to implement both servers as VMs on top
> of a bare metal hypervisor.
>
> According to your experience, is there any motive why I shouldn't use
> such a setup?
>
> Thank you for any insights.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos

> Do they really need Server for that, or would a workstation do?
A workstation wouldn't do because the number of concurrent connections 
to it would be higher than MS allows for a workstation.

> So far you have not provided stats on server usage (cpu,ram) over a
> 24hour or 7 day 8am-5pm timeframe. So I will asume you have plenty of
> usage/performance to spare.
Yes, I do.
> Unless using SSDs when creating the VM pleae do not use dynamic disk
> allocation. MS SQL may be very intensive and you are already sharing
> resources, lets not be the i/o intensity of the expanding disk one of
> them.
The Windows VM machine would have (for now) two 1TB enterprise class 
disks in a mirror configuration exclusively available to
it.
> remember SQL server is all about RAM, the more the merrier.
I can give it 24 GB or even 36 GB if needed.
> is your partition aligned?
Yes.

On Sep 14, 2019, at 11:23, miguel medalha <medalist at sapo.pt>
wrote:
> I hope that someone here can give some advice on the following:
> 
> I have a Samba based Active Directory. A CentOS 7.6 machine runs as a file
server and hosts the Windows user profiles for all the Windows workstations.
> 
> Now management has decided that they need a Windows server for a couple of
administrative applications, which need MS SQL Server. That would be the only
role of this Windows. Since the above mentioned server has enough resources (2x
Quad Core Xeon 2.66 GHz with HT and 48 GB of RAM, a dual port 10 Gb NIC) I
thought of making it a host for a Windows virtual machine using KVM. Given the
resources and current setup we have, at the moment it wouldn't be practical
to implement both servers as VMs on top of a bare metal hypervisor.
> 
> According to your experience, is there any motive why I shouldn't use
such a setup?
Not sure if it works for you, but there?s an SQL server that runs on Linux. 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/linux/sql-server-linux-overview?view=sql-server-2017
--
Jonathan Billings

Hallo,
works but must be licensed.


Von meinem iPhone gesendet
> Am 14.09.2019 um 19:01 schrieb Jonathan Billings <billings at
negate.org>:
> 
> 
>> On Sep 14, 2019, at 11:23, miguel medalha <medalist at sapo.pt>
wrote:
>> I hope that someone here can give some advice on the following:
>> 
>> I have a Samba based Active Directory. A CentOS 7.6 machine runs as a
file server and hosts the Windows user profiles for all the Windows
workstations.
>> 
>> Now management has decided that they need a Windows server for a couple
of administrative applications, which need MS SQL Server. That would be the only
role of this Windows. Since the above mentioned server has enough resources (2x
Quad Core Xeon 2.66 GHz with HT and 48 GB of RAM, a dual port 10 Gb NIC) I
thought of making it a host for a Windows virtual machine using KVM. Given the
resources and current setup we have, at the moment it wouldn't be practical
to implement both servers as VMs on top of a bare metal hypervisor.
>> 
>> According to your experience, is there any motive why I shouldn't
use such a setup?
> 
> Not sure if it works for you, but there?s an SQL server that runs on Linux.
> 
>
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/linux/sql-server-linux-overview?view=sql-server-2017
> --
> Jonathan Billings
> 
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos

> Not sure if it works for you, but there?s an SQL server that runs on Linux.
I am aware of that, and it would be my first choice. Unfortunately, in 
addition they want to use some damned printing account software, which 
only runs on Windows :-(