server setup

whizbang

First; Apologies if this sounds stupidly simple to the experts, but i'm a noob when it comes to servers and such.

I have an application running on a windows server, which communicates via LAN, to separate (non windows) machines. A software utility runs (as a service) on the server to handle the comms with the non windows machine.

I now want to connect up to 4 of these machines to the server, however the software utility is specific to each machine. So I need to run 4 of these utilities concurrently...
( Equipment supplier says use 4 separate PCs, but more hardware is out of the question.)

So can a Windows server OS handle running 4 of these processes?
If not, i presume there are ways such as virtual machines, ?

I'm more of a hardware guy, but i will have to explain to the sys admins whats required.
thanks in advance,

gctest50

Little tool that shows whats using what

http://download.sysinternals.com/files/VMMap.zip

ressem

We would only be guessing without knowing more about the application. It doesn't bode well if the supplier is recommending against it.
Is there a technical reason for hardware out of the question? Does that include emulated hardware.

You could use the programs like Sysinternals process monitor, process explorer, netstat and windows event log to start monitoring a server, then stop and start the utility service to record what files, databases and registry entries it interacts with.

Obvious things to look out for would be...
1) the 4 services all try to open the same network port for listening. 3 will then fail. You would need to see if the client machines and service could be set to a different port.
Otherwise things will get complicated and you might need to mess with virtual machines or using a router to do port mapping based on source IP.

2) log files, record files, databases. A lot of basic utilities assume that they can lock the files for exclusive use, or worse, just write without any checks so the result is mucked up. You may not be able to get each utility working with an individual set of files.

I don't think that you have an option other than letting the IT people research and probably trial the program.
(This might might have a cost to the businesses internal customer)

whizbang

Thanks folks.
Hardware is cost really, maybe a bit of physical location also. Software and time is not factored, so no issue there.
Emulated hardware ?

With more investigation it looks like i cant run multiple versions simultaneously. I can set different ports for local comms for each, but external port is fixed and log files locations are fixed.

Can i setup 4 VMs on a server to handle just this. The hardware requirements are pretty slim, but would this be too much for any server?

ressem

Sorry but this reads as though you want to install this on top of an existing working machine, and you want an opinion from a boardsie to challenge the IT department?
Trying to install it on a business critical machine might get you permabanned from the IT dept. Downtime could quickly exceed the saving of buying a small dedicated server.

Because we have no idea about your service does or how critical it is, my guess is irrelevant. I hope that it's not trying to dump hundreds of megabytes/second of medical data to storage.

Well specced dedicated servers can run 10 or more instances of Windows Server core doing heavy work such as mail and database servers, using ESX / Hyper-V/ Xen hypervisors.
So the cost changes from hardware to upskilling both yourself and IT staff with these technologies and the software licenses.

You could just put Windows 8 Pro and hyper-v on a laptop and see how that works for you.

swampgas

whizbang wrote: »

First; Apologies if this sounds stupidly simple to the experts, but i'm a noob when it comes to servers and such.

I have an application running on a windows server, which communicates via LAN, to separate (non windows) machines. A software utility runs (as a service) on the server to handle the comms with the non windows machine.

I now want to connect up to 4 of these machines to the server, however the software utility is specific to each machine. So I need to run 4 of these utilities concurrently...
( Equipment supplier says use 4 separate PCs, but more hardware is out of the question.)

So can a Windows server OS handle running 4 of these processes?
If not, i presume there are ways such as virtual machines, ?

I'm more of a hardware guy, but i will have to explain to the sys admins whats required.
thanks in advance,

Do you have a support contract with the software supplier? Is it mission critical? If so, why is a noob like you (as you claim yourself:pac:) being asked to figure it out?

In theory, there should be no problem running multiple VMs on one server, in fact there would be certain advantages to doing so. Have you asked the software supplier if this is supported? Have you tried googling - there may be a community or forum out there where the same issue has already been discussed.

whizbang

The networking end of this equipment is new to this equipment supplier(and me), and the supplier would rather have tried and tested working systems they can support rather than unknown/untested stuff.

If this works reliably, then its a major step up, but the manufacturer support is so much more difficult. The sysadmins already onsite will no doubt find this childsplay, but I'm the one they will call..!

As the reseller I have all issues to contend with.

There are advantages to doing it this way, mainly less hardware and onsite support. Equipment supplied is mine, Computing is theirs!
No, its not critical, just configuration info translated to recognizable setup info for machinery, and end state report. About 50Kb per Minute. And it can be done in batches per shift.

Thanks all, will try to go with one server running VMs