Hello, We are in the process of trying to size a server for use with
VS2005. We will be using the system for QA and testing purposes, so each
VM will run our VS.NET code, SQL Server, IIS or similar web server and
perhaps a middleware piece, but not likely. It is also possible that we
will run SQL Server on its own "real" server and allow the VM's to
access it.
I read Microsoft's VS2005 case study in which they installed the thing
for their own legal group. From that, which is all I could find, they
are recommending basically 1 CPU per "application being consolidated."
From this its hard to say what we will need.
My current best guess is to either purchase a 4-way Dell Xeon server or
two 2-way Xeon Dell servers both with 4GB RAM and a couple of SATA
disks. Redundancy is not important for this purpose, we would rather
have speed then RAID5, for example.
Then we have the issue of Win2k3 Server for either 32-bit or 64-bit. I
have always worked on Sun servers, so I am used to 64-bit environments,
but I am not sure that 64-bit will add any real performance for us, and
I am concerned about stability and reliability considering how new
Win2k3/64 and all the drivers, etc. are. In the Win world, is 64-bit
seen as a way to increase memory area to get past 32-bit limits, or will
there be dramatic improvements in performance. In the same vein, is/will
VS.Net be able to produce optimized 64-bit applications?
If we go the 64-bit route, will we need to be concerned about developing
on 32-bit XP and building 64-bit code from VS.net? If we use 64-bit OS
for Production, does that mean that we have to use 64-bit OS on all
developers desktops?
As you can tell, I have a lot of questions and I am having a hard time
finding any answers. Are there people who have implemented VS2005 in a
similar (I.e. QA or testing) environment? Same for the two types of
Win2k3.
Thanks in advance...Michael
