Hardware for Clustering

Hi All,

Would like to look at clustering and have a couple questions to clear up.

We have currently;

2x HP DL380 G5 Server

2x HP DL380 G4 Server

We would like to run 3-4 virtual machines using Hyper-V on the DL380's with clustering between the 2 servers with load balancing if available.

if we use 2x 300GB SAS in each server for the Host OS then we would like to either look at using our current DL380G4, or purchasing a DL380G5 or a QNAP NAS for the shared storage.

HP appears to only support Server 2012 on G6 servers except the G5 Storage Server which offers 2012 drivers;

http://h20566.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/psi/swdHome/?sp4ts.oid=3239518&spf_p.tpst=swdMain&spf_p.prp_swdMain=wsrp-navigationalState%3DswEnvOID%253D4138%257CswLang%253D%257Caction%253DlistDriver&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

Assuming we can source the extra DL380G5 for a fair amount cheaper then a 4+ Virtual Machine capable NAS could we please check through the required hardware.

So far i know that 2012 would allow the use of SMB 3.0 for the CSV which is a better option then iSCSI using 2008r2. Can you confirm this please?

Being that all 3 servers would be G5 HP servers I am thinking Server 2008r2 is the newest we can go.

1x Server 2008r2 VM for Database

1x Server 2008r2 for RDS

1x Server 2008r2 for various industry software.

2x VM for future growth.

I am thinking 2x DL380G5 with 2x 300GB SAS Raid-1. 16-24GB Ram. Server 2008r2 Enterprise.

1x DL380G5 with 4x 1TB or 8x 300GB SAS etc running Raid 10. 12Gb Ram. Storage Server 2008r2.

Besides a redundant network have i got the basics covered?

If we sourced a DL380G6 so we could use Storage Server 2012 would the Host being 2008r2 be able to use SMB 3.0?

Thank you!