New Vmare setup

[andyrite]

Just Bought:-

 

3x DELL VMware VI3 Embedded Servers - PE 2950III

Dual Quad Core XEON E5460 3.16GHz : 32G Mem : 2 * 73G SAS 15K : Quad 1G NIC

32G Dual Port iSCSI HBA Including DRAC Card

VMware ESXI v3 Enterprise 2CPU One Year Gold Embedded

 

VMware Virtual Centre Server

 

Dell EqualLogic PS5000XV 7.2TB 15K 450GB SAS (very very heavy!!!)

2 x Cisco 3750G Stackable 24 Port Switches

 

Pretty impressed with the dell servers. Have bought mainly HP in the past but work out cheaper to get ESXi with the dells.

 

Equalogics have just lanuched the 6000 series. The PS6000S has solid state drives.

[Soulfish]

That's one decent setup! Any hints as to how much it all set you back? Particularly the SAN! Currently looking at getting ourselves 4 similar spec Sun servers (Dell can't seem to get near the Sun matching grant pricing) and a Sun SAN and then use Citrix XenServer for virtualisation.

 

VMware was just a little too expensive for my tastes

[Butuz]

Yep - I've been pouring over Dell SAN @ Servers for the last couple of weeks - but now I have discovered SUN servers and SAN's I'll never need to go to dell.co.uk again!

 

Sun undercut Dell massiveley in education.

 

Thats a very nice setup though - that is roughly what I was considering for my next big upgrade (before I found SUN that is!). Though I was looking at the PS5000x as the 15k drives are well overpriced, and the Poweredge R805 rather than the 2950.

 

Let us know how you get on!!!!

 

Andrew

[andyrite]

The SAN was £24750.

Most of our storage and servers were due for renewal anway. It work out nearly the same price as replacing them.

 

I put in a HP ProCurve 8212zl as the core switch over the summer. That very nice too!!!!

[garethEds]

The SAN was £24750.

Most of our storage and servers were due for renewal anway. It work out nearly the same price as replacing them.

 

I put in a HP ProCurve 8212zl as the core switch over the summer. That very nice too!!!!

 

£24750?????? WTF?????

 

Where do you get those sorts of funds from?

 

GJE

[Tallwood_6]

£24750, the 8212zl with a few extra modules would have set you back nearly that as well! Looks a very good setup indeed.

[Butuz]

Guess some establishments actually take ICT as seriously as they should!

 

I guess the college turns over something like £5 - 10 million a year.

 

What's £24k when it underpins everything the college does, in teaching, learning and administration?

 

Butuz

Edited April 3, 2009 by Butuz

[torledo]

Just Bought:-

 

3x DELL VMware VI3 Embedded Servers - PE 2950III

Dual Quad Core XEON E5460 3.16GHz : 32G Mem : 2 * 73G SAS 15K : Quad 1G NIC

32G Dual Port iSCSI HBA Including DRAC Card

VMware ESXI v3 Enterprise 2CPU One Year Gold Embedded

 

VMware Virtual Centre Server

 

Dell EqualLogic PS5000XV 7.2TB 15K 450GB SAS (very very heavy!!!)

2 x Cisco 3750G Stackable 24 Port Switches

 

Pretty impressed with the dell servers. Have bought mainly HP in the past but work out cheaper to get ESXi with the dells.

 

Equalogics have just lanuched the 6000 series. The PS6000S has solid state drives.

 

good work. can i ask how your going to be setting up vmware. i.e a 2-node cluster with standby, sorry i'm not all that familiar with the possible HA and vmotion options you have with a 3-node setup ?

you'll also get 6 network ports with the addition of quad adaper, so is it 4 ports for vmware and 2 ports for iscsi ? sounds like a pretty good setup.

 

also, your right about the PS5000XV....it looks like an absolute beast. should get some decent mileage out of that.

[Soulfish]

The SAN was £24750.

Most of our storage and servers were due for renewal anway. It work out nearly the same price as replacing them.

 

I put in a HP ProCurve 8212zl as the core switch over the summer. That very nice too!!!!

 

Just putting in a HP ProCurve 5412zl as our core switch here. Would of liked the 8212zl but unfortunately my budget doesn't quite stretch that far!

[andyrite]

We just had a new build. The 8212zl was part of that. I've only got one 10gb link going to that at the moment.

 

I've got three servers for HA. I'm not to sure what vmware will do yet but it should balance the vm's across the three servers unless one fails. Got lots of planning to make sure it will fall over to just two servers.

 

The dells have dual port ISCSI hba's as well. So 8 ports in total. 4 for the vm network. (trunk setup into hp, load balancing on ip hash) 1 for vmotion, 1 for Mangement network.

 

I'm pretty impessed at the moment but early days yet.

[andyrite]

Almost forgot. The dells have a drac controller built in as well. Thats another network cable.

[ranj]

bit of advice on SANs. Has anyone got one of the following.

 

Would you choose an:

 

Equallogic PS6000X iscsi

HP MSA2324 Fibre Channel Starter Kit

Hitachi SMS100 iscsi SAN

 

Looking to store Virtual machines in VMware. The Equallogic is the most expensive SAN, has more storage, dual everything about 22k, the HP is about 14k if i got with redundant option and the hitachi is the cheapest.

 

If anyone has anything to add on the following, it would be most appreciated.

 

Thanks

[Soulfish]

Wasn't keen on the Hitachi units. Seemed that they were "sealed for life" with no hope of upgrading anything, so you'd be forced into a new unit to add extra disks etc.

 

If you're going for a VMWare solution I'd do some research on how well it works with HP's SANs. I've read some stuff about people not getting on with HP SANs + VMWare. I did like the look of the Equalogic 6000 range, but then I found the Sun Open Storage systems that a few of us have now purchased.

 

If your still looking have a word with Andy at the cutter project and see what he can work out for you based on a Sun solution. I saw earlier that the matching grant deadline has been extended as well

[Duke]

Looking to store Virtual machines in VMware. The Equallogic is the most expensive SAN, has more storage, dual everything about 22k, the HP is about 14k if i got with redundant option and the hitachi is the cheapest.

 

If anyone has anything to add on the following, it would be most appreciated.

 

Have you looked at the Sun S7000 series (7110, 7210, 7410)? Not sure if they'll fit your budget but there's a lot of love for them around here right now. We got a 7410 in recently and while it's not completely set up yet it's a lot of fun to use. The prices range from cheap to 'mid-level', but as the OS and protocol licensing is all free they still undercut NetApp and EMC by a big margin.

 

Cheers,

Chris