@tessierp
Hi Patrick
You build software, I build networks…
Proxmox is free as Nethserver. You can get supported updates, they charge about 100€ / year / CPU-Socket. It’s installed on almost any hardware in about 20 mins, depending on your CD/DVD, or if you’re installing from USB-Drive. You can also use it completly free! A lot of the people here who help, support and create, use Proxmox underneath.
It’s a great peace of mind, when you know you can make a live snapshot of almost anything in Proxmox. Then do your update, or test whatever… And if it hiccups, you revert to running as it was within a few minutes!
I’m running Proxmox on a very old ( 7-8 years) HP Proliant ML110 G6 with a Quad-Core Xeon with Hyperthreading, and 16 GB RAM. Disks are mirrored 2 TB WD Red.
I installed - for a friend a NethServer inside a HP Proliant Microserver G8, also with 16 GB RAM.
He is, BTW, a programmer at a swiss bank - but I do his network at home.
Here’s his home Network - all running on Proxmox on the afore mentionned HP Microserver. Even the Firewall! A separate firewall box is better, but as you can see, this works…
I’m using OPNsense (A fork of PFsense, itself a fork of Monowall. The creator of Monowall suggests OPNsense, NOT PFsense!), it’s also free to use and installs also on almost ANY hardware, as long as you have enough NICs, it’ll work!
Here, the NethServer is running the AD, is also running mail, web, file & print, but also NextCloud. All’s available also secured from the Internet. I access the whole thing via VPN.
Note: In the above setup, as in all my 20-30 clients (SME companies), all VMs are running on the Server, the HD-Image file is stored in the NAS (Synology).
My friend is on vacation, now he’s “stuck” in africa, but not having a bad time… That’s why almost all hardware are off… The server remains accessible.
This sort of setup - if I understand you correctly - would be close to your ideal…
Note: If installed under Proxmox, a MS 2016 Server can be backuped LIVE.
If you have at least 2 Proxmox in a Cluster (Full HA needs at least 3 running…) you can LIVE Migrate that MS 2016 Server, including SQL-Sever and/or Exchange in about 90 seconds to the second Proxmox…
LIVE means it’s up and running, and users can work on it!
If you need help - and a confirmed estimate when you’ll be up & running - just PM me. You’re not the first I’ve helped setup such an environment here in this forum - and my networks are known to work for years!
PS: This is a recent migration from MS 2003 SBS - a very old running Server with both SQL-Server (ERP) and Exchange running, for about 15 users…
The ERP is now running on a virtualised Win10, running as server with SQL-Server (2019) installed and the ERP. SQL is backuped daily to the backup NAS, but also the whole VM is saved LIVE using Proxmox to a second NAS…
So all in all several options for disaster or data recovery, both with at least 7 generations In-House and also Out-Of-House.
My 2 cents
Andy