Virtualization specs

[boombah]

Hi Guys and girls,

 

Wondering if you would be able to help me out. I will start by saying I am not a network guy. I won't go into details, but I was hoping I could get some advice on what is and what isn't suitable for our school. I am working in Thailand and communication is always an issue.

 

We have 16 servers running in our school of 400 students. We have 2 quotes for virtualization and I have no clear idea of if they are suitable or not. I am having trouble deciphering what it actually means. These are the recommendations:

 

IBM x3550M3 Xeon E5606, 4C 2.13GHz *2

24GB Ram

IBM (2x146GB) 15K 6Gbps SAS SFF HDD Hot-Swap

IBM System Storage DS3512 3x300GB

IBM 2x2TB HD 7200RPM 6GB SAS NL

 

and

 

IBM System X 3250 M4 *2

# Quad-Core Intel Xeon E3-1270 ( 3.1 GHz)

# 24 GB ECC DDR-3 Memory ( Up to 32 GB )

# RAID Controller ( 0,1) with 2x300 GB Hot-Swap SAS HDD

IBM 6Gbps SAS HBA Card with 1m. SAS Cable *4

IBM System Storage DS3512 Express

Encloser with 5 TB ( 5x1TB) NL-SAS ( 6Gb/s)Hot-Plug HDD

 

Any comments, recommendations or advice would be appreciated.

 

Cheers,

[Achandler]

I am assuming it means you are buying 2 x the Server and 1 x Storage

 

If so then do the Servers have 1 processor in or 2?

 

The storage is a 12-bay drive array, two HDDs as in option 1 isnt enough in my opinion as you are limited to what RAID you can use. So you would need more drives. Option 2 seems best here.

 

Server side, your Option 1 has 4 threads only on the servers, which is limiting in virutalisation terms, Option two has 8 per processor. Option 2 i s best here

 

This is said without fully investiagting the servers, e.g. max supported RAM, max supported Processors, what NICs they give you. Does one have a better warranty etc.