Dell S2D R640 Ready Nodes - Server Replacement

[Tefters]

Afternoon all,

 

Gone out and got a few quotes for server replacements, been looking at S2D ready nodes in particular.

 

Dell has come back with a steal deal for 2x all flash R640's nodes on a 5 year hardware and software support agreement however installation is down to myself unless i pony up for consultancy/installation.

Being a man that loves to dabble and while not a stranger to HCI S2D setups and processes am curious as to whether others have gone down the same route and brough certified kit and installed it themselves.

 

Ofcourse there will be a little manual reading along the way for the finer intricates but that is simple enough.

 

Just looking for others thoughts or whether they have done the same themselves.

[Steve21]

I guess it normally depends on how quick you need it to be done. Generally I always prefer to play with (aka install) the kit myself, as then I know exactly what's setup, where and if it goes wrong who's at fault (Edit - When I first started in my last place, they just had a new server setup done by external company, and ran into problems day 1 of me working there, so having to backtrack over the work and see what they setup was a pain to find the problem to then fix it!)

 

But to give you an example, over Easter last year we had our entire switching estate replaced over Easter and got the company to do the migration, not because I couldn't, but because the lack of time to do all the other jobs at once

 

If you have time, and can run things side-by-side, what's the harm in installing it, moving a few VMs across and seeing how they go?

 

Steve

[Tefters]

I guess it normally depends on how quick you need it to be done. Generally I always prefer to play with (aka install) the kit myself, as then I know exactly what's setup, where and if it goes wrong who's at fault (Edit - When I first started in my last place, they just had a new server setup done by external company, and ran into problems day 1 of me working there, so having to backtrack over the work and see what they setup was a pain to find the problem to then fix it!)

 

But to give you an example, over Easter last year we had our entire switching estate replaced over Easter and got the company to do the migration, not because I couldn't, but because the lack of time to do all the other jobs at once

 

If you have time, and can run things side-by-side, what's the harm in installing it, moving a few VMs across and seeing how they go?

 

Steve

 

 

My thoughts exactly...

If all goes well I could have my hands on the kit within 4 weeks and with no other big plans over summer gives a good 9 weeks to get everything setup and migrated over.+