What to do with these 2 servers?

[localzuk]

Isn't SMB Live Migration or Share Nothing Live Migration what you need?

SMB live migration doesn't differ from iSCSI live migration from what I can tell, other than the vhds being on an SMB share instead of in a LUN.

Share Nothing LM seems fine, but what about failover?

I want to be able to do both live migration *and* have failover. We need to get a device for our file server anyway, so what would the reason not to use this as the central storage be? (either in iSCSI or SMB3 form).

[VeryPC_Ed]

You can do shared nothing live migration between the 2 nodes (IT Camps On-Demand) and maybe put those 10GB adapters in those boxes to good use !

If you didn't want to spend any more cash, then certainly the shared nothing of WS2012 with the existing 2 boxes would work but as has been said having a stink load of SSD sat being basic file storage is a shame but if you don't have a demand for advanced services (VDI/DB etc) then you could just get away with using those units but the storage capacity for the future is going to be seriously hindered (are the boxes 1u 8 bay ?)

if you want to throw a 'fileserver' in there, use it as a SAN and go for the traditional failover cluster with shared storage, then a decent box with a SAS 6BPS backplane would be fine to do a mix of SSD and SAS Storage, just make sure you have a decent controller + decent networking and you'll be fine.

We have done several deployments in the past using Windows Storage Server and Starwind ISCSI SAN for active/active replication to a second server for DR and this has worked really well, Microsoft ISCSI target is good (free) but depending on situation isn't as well performing as something like Starwind or SAN Melody - If you want some alternate options on hardware drop me a line.

One thing to consider while looking at all of this is how it will impact your backup strategy as this is something easily overlooked.

[SYNACK]

To be honest it may be cheaper and much more supportable to just smack an iSCSI or SAS appliance in there, as there are only two server SAS is probably cheaper. Dual controllers and PSUs generally take care of the accessibility issues. If they both go pop, just get another one as the config is on drive. Nice simple system, supported, fast and easy for someone else to take over. I also tend to spec stuff that others can take over easier as it may cost a little more upfront but it is much more responsible for the school in question as a little extra hardware cost is nothing in comparison to the cost of on-demand expertise in more abstract solutions.

Bang in some corporate stuff and most can support it, bang in some custom stuff and they spend all the savings on an 'expert' the first time something goes wrong and your not available.