[SOLVED] Server suggestion for new installation

[cdsJerry]

I have a friend who owns a small business. I've been telling him about Proxmox (which I love) and I think this might be the right route for him but money is tight. He really only needs one VM which would act as his Desktop machine for him. He works from home and sometimes from the road so he'd connect to it via remote Desktop (he's a windows guy). He would need multiple monitor support which I've never done with Proxmox but I read that it's a feature. I've just never needed it personally. Being able to back up the VM is a big selling point for going the Proxmox route. He doesn't trust online services so he wants everything hosted locally.

Since money is tight I'm thinking a used Dell Server as the Proxmox host machine. I'm currently using a Dell T430 server with a Dell PERC H730 Raid controller but I've had people make comments in the forum that I'm using an outdated machine and they imply that it's not good enough for Proxmox, but it's been working great for _me_ and the few Windows VMs that I need. But I'd like suggestions from you guys because I'm not current on my servers. What's a affordable server with RAID that you'd suggest for a guy with limited funds? My last server came from MKTrading but it looks like they've gone out of business.

 

[bobmc]

If he only needs one VM why not just skip proxmox and install windows directly on the hardware?

 

[sierra_mike]

If there is no growth past a single VM, I am not sure suggesting a VM host is the proper way to save money.

A future growth plan would get you some solid suggestions on hardware though. Good luck!

 

[louie1961]

Buy him a cheap laptop, back it up to the cloud, and be done. Running a business is hard enough. He doesn't need to mess with Proxmox for his desktop machine. He has bigger fish to fry.

 

[cdsJerry]

If he only needs one VM why not just skip proxmox and install windows directly on the hardware?

Windows backups are ... lacking. I've had to do some rebuilds when hardware has failed and trying to restore from a Windows backup is pretty disappointing. You have to reinstall everything and reset everything. Many software licenses only allow for limited installations so you burn a license every time you have rebuild a machine. It never works the way you think it should. On the other hand, being able to backup a VM and simply restoring a VM is pretty cool. I've thought about putting my work desktop on VM for this exact reason.

Some programs, such as Quickbooks Enterprise, wants you to run it on it's own server but I just learned that Intuit is trying to discontinue everything but their online versions so that may not matter.

I'll give this more thought.