I am trying to get a feel of how much RAM I will need for the below configuration. 18 Users for entire outoffice. We are going to run one server from this loction. The server will be a Dell R310. We will run off this server, Windows 2008 R2 64bit, RDS for 10 to 15 users, DC, DNS, DHCP, files server. RDS sessions will run Outlook, Office 2003 and some remote VPN apps mostly. Question is how much RAM would be recommended for this setup and why? Dave Santel

Hello, fist of all there is no BDC. All DCs are RW except RODCs. As you don't have much users, I think that 4 Go for RAM will be enough. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights. Microsoft Student Partner 2010 / 2011 Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator: Security Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows 7, Configuring Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Enterprise Administrator Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Server Administrator

You can see some general guides lines in the following articles: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc728303(WS.10).aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc738079(WS.10).aspxSanthosh Sivarajan | MCTS, MCSE (W2K3/W2K/NT4), MCSA (W2K3/W2K/MSG), CCNA, Network+ Houston, TX Blogs - http://blogs.sivarajan.com/ Articles - http://www.sivarajan.com/publications.html Twitter: @santhosh_sivara - http://twitter.com/santhosh_sivara This posting is provided AS IS with no warranties,and confers no rights.

Hello, beside the already given information,it is NOT recommended to run RDS and applications on a DC what you have listed here. RDS should always run on a dedicated member server. Also RRAS services should NEVER be hosted on a DC, therefore also a member server is recommended. So in your case you need at least 3 servers, better 4: 1 DC/DNS/GC (recommended are 2 of them) DHCP ONLY if some additional settings are done for security reason 1 RDS server 1 RRAS/VPN server As you see with 4 servers and limited budget i can suggest that you buy the Enterprise edition from Windows server 2008 R2 and one machine with at least 16GB RAM and dual core processor and built the server with Hyper-V as host system ONLY, that will NOT become domain member and then run the 4 servers as VM on it, this is allowed with one single Enterprise edition license.Best regards Meinolf Weber Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.