Hi,
We are in the design phase of our new Dynamics CRM 2016 system, and I'd like to find out which roles can be consolidated to reduce the total number of servers needed.
Initially we were given a design document telling us that we needed to install everything to separate servers, and doubling up those server for load balancing. I thought that those requirements were way over the top considering we would be deploying 6 pro CALs, 20 basic CALs and 400 essentials CALs.
Here is the recipe originally proposed by our vendor:
1 Dynamics 2016 CRM backend server
1 Dynamics 2016 CRM front end server
1 Scribe server
1 SQL Database server for Dynamics CRM
1 SQL Database server for Dynamics NAV
1 Web Portal server
2 CRM Reporting server SSRS, load balanced
1 Dynamics NAV Help server
2 ADFS servers, load balanced
2 ADFS proxy servers, load balanced
1 email router
14 servers! Most of which I think will be a waste of RAM and disk if deployed this way. I will strike the 3 load balanced servers right away, as they can be added in the future if needed.
All systems will be installed on the same local virtualization cluster which consists of four hosts, sharing common SSD based storage, and 10GBE interconnects.
I guess my question is which of these roles does it make sense to consolidate from a compatibilty, security and performance standpoint? And which ones should not co-exist?
Thanks in advance,
Brad