I am currently running a free ESXi server that I want to upgrade. I am hoping for some advice and guidance on this move. My current setup is using non HCL hardware which has been running without any trouble but I really want to upgrade to better hardware without spending too much money. I am currently running ESXi on a Gigabyte (desktop) mboard with an AMD Phenom quad core processor. My datastores are on an Openfiler system which is connected via iSCSI. The Openfiler box has 2 1.5tb sata drives which are set up in a software raid 0 array. This is one of the reasons I want to make some changes. I would like to set up my storage in a raid 5 array (or something else if there is a better recommendation). Is putting them on the Openfiler host a good option or would I be better to set the whole ESXi host up with it's own storage?
This host is hosting 2 Windows 2003 Standard servers and a linux based proxy server. There are only about 30-35 people using the servers. One of the W2K3 servers is a the DC and File Server. The other server hosts a SQL based database that is used pretty heavily by around 20-25 concurrent users throughout the day. This host also carries several shared printers as well as an instant messaging server for about 10 users.
I hope someone can give me some insights on what I need.
