judenihal

I have a Pentium D 3.0 GHz Server supporting VT and it has 3.24 GB of RAM. I also have a Pentium 4 3.0 GHz Machine having 1.5 GB of RAM. The Pentium 4 doesn't have 64 bit support and VT support. Anyways, heres what I want to do. I want to have a Exchange Server, a Domain Controller (Active Directory) and a Terminal Server.

Now, if I use Windows Server 2003, installing a Domain Controller and Exchange Server (In a VM) would be the best way to do it. I can then make my Pentium 4 a Terminal Server as well as an Internet Gateway machine.

The Pentium D 3.00 Server with 3.24 GB of RAM is going to be our File server as well since I am going to deploy 2 500 GB Hard Drives into it and later, buy an additional controller card and install the same identical hard drive for backup/raid 1.

Now, heres what is going to mess up my plans. Windows Server 2008, Exchange Server 2007, Windows 7 and Windows Vista. They need A LOT OF Ram and 64 bit processor support.

Should I configure it the same way, run Windows Server 2008 x64 on the 3.24 GB Ram and then create a VM running another Windows Server 2008 x64 with Exchange Server 2008 and leave the Terminal Server the same way with Windows Server 2003?

Or should I take this approach: Install Windows Server 2008 x86 on the 1.5 GB Computer and install Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 with Exchange Server 2007 and make a 1.0 GB VM for Terminal Services?

Another problem is that there is an R2 version, but its only for 64 bit and my 1.5 GB RAM system only has 32 bit, plus I don't know weather its even necessary to have R2 or the normal version. Whats the difference, can Window 7 work better on both?

So, is it really necessary to use Windows Server 2008, or should I just stick with Windows Server 2003 R2? I might be also using Vista other than XP and I've heard that Vista sucks with 2003 Domains.

Please tell me what I should do.

ComGuards

You might be trying to run a bit too much, in all honesty, especially with Exchange Server 2007. (Exchange Server 2010 is just about due out - the RC is available and you can upgrade to the final RTM version from the RC).

Virtualization solutions are heavily dependent on RAM and disk I/O. Running that many virtual machines on RAID-1 arrays is gonna be slow (based on my experience).

I'd actually probably suggest you look into running a free virtualization hypervisor on the PentiumD-3.0GHz, such as VMWare ESXi 4. With 3.25GB of RAM available, you should be able to run at least 2 512MB domain controllers, the Exchange 2007 servers, and even maybe the terminal server, all on the single box. You'll just really be hurting on the performance side because of your low-number of hard-drive spindles.