Cannot decide between 1U servers for growing company
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@ntoxicator said:
So if anyone can explain to me
To do away with centralized storage such as what we have now and I've been moving to. I suppose this is what I've grown use to.
In order to have localized storage at the node/hypervisor level. one or many of the hypervisors would be storing all the data and sharing out the NFS? Then its replicated between? probably with DRBD Storage.
however, would would this be done with Citrix Xen Server for instance?
So I just wrote up an entire quote on this for my org.
Your Xenservers would have enough capacity (storage) to run everything you have today, plus room for growth. You build the Xen installation on both host, and then configure them into a XenPool.
This allows the VM's to migrate between the two (or more host) in the event you need to work on them.
For free 2-Node HA, look into HA-Lizard.
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@ntoxicator said:
But wouldnt all that storage replication STILL be handled over 1Gbe backbone??!
Bond the Ethernet together or install a 10GbE NIC into each host.
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ethernet is bonded.
Could install 10GbE cards on servers. But the NAS would still be limitation as does not support PCI-e cards.
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@ntoxicator said:
ethernet is bonded.
Could install 10GbE cards on servers. But the NAS would still be limitation as does not support PCI-e cards.
He's saying you should get rid of the NAS and have all storage on the servers.
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@ntoxicator said:
ethernet is bonded.
Could install 10GbE cards on servers. But the NAS would still be limitation as does not support PCI-e cards.
But your NAS isn't used as a place for your VM's to reside. As a backup target sure, but the NAS is worthless in the case of local storage on your Xen Hosts.
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Understood. So would have to resort in Local storage on server an dutilize the HA-Lizard HA-iSCSI or HA-Lizard on the node....
Appears to be free module/software - was unaware of it. Is it proven?
NAS is handing out iSCSI LUN's as an FYI
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Also spec'ing 2 servers with internal storage with 4+ drives.. I see as being more expensive
As the server vendors charge high amounts for storage disks. As I'm sure folks would recommend SAS drives over consumer 7200RPM Sata
I really like the HGST NAS drives. High MTBF and great speed.
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@ntoxicator said:
Also spec'ing 2 servers with internal storage with 4+ drives.. I see as being more expensive
As the server vendors charge high amounts for storage disks. As I'm sure folks would recommend SAS drives over consumer 7200RPM Sata
I really like the HGST NAS drives. High MTBF and great speed.
Vendors are selling both their name and the support that comes with the disks. You will probably find in the long run that having a decent warranty with replacement hard drives is going to even out over the life of the machine.
It's odd that you are talking about building an HA setup but then balk at the price of hard drives. That doesn't mesh well with what you are saying you want. Or am I reading too much into this?
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@coliver Vendors also sell quite a few features that just aren't there in roll-your-own based approaches - site to site replication, zero footprint snapshots, etc.
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@ntoxicator on the HGST 1.8 drives - major firmware issues with those. The right IO patterns with them make them drop off of the bus with no warning.
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My biggest frustration is the strangle hold the server vendors put on you.
I know the type of hardware I want to use for the application. They want to hold my hand and tell me this or that, or say this is what we have as baseline and you have to do it this way.
Just sell me the damn drive trays and let me populate the hard caddy's on my own; its not going to void the warranty. Only item effect would be local disk array - be our responsibility. Big woop
If mobo fails or fails fan; thats not the fault of customer purchased hard drives
I suppose with that mindset, I'm better off with supermicro build.
But supermicro chasis build quality is NOT the same as say a nice Oracle server or HP/CISCO
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@ntoxicator said:
My biggest frustration is the strangle hold the server vendors put on you.
I know the type of hardware I want to use for the application. They want to hold my hand and tell me this or that, or say this is what we have as baseline and you have to do it this way.
Just sell me the damn drive trays and let me populate the hard caddy's on my own; its not going to void the warranty. Only item effect would be local disk array - be our responsibility. Big woop
If mobo fails or fails fan; thats not the fault of customer purchased hard drives
I suppose with that mindset, I'm better off with supermicro build.
But supermicro chasis build quality is NOT the same as say a nice Oracle server or HP/CISCO
So, purchase two or three refurb chassis from XByte. Then populate it with whatever drives you want. If I recall correctly they will support the servers less the drives.
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@ntoxicator said:
Just sell me the damn drive trays and let me populate the hard caddy's on my own; its not going to void the warranty.
E-Bay...
Or vendors like xbyte, which when you buy their SSD drives can also sell you (or maybe they throw in) the cages.
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Amazon has a bunch of sleds also. Usually not too badly priced.
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@ntoxicator said:
ethernet is bonded.
Could install 10GbE cards on servers. But the NAS would still be limitation as does not support PCI-e cards.
Bonding with iSCSI doesn't work. You need MPIO. Have to bond with NFS.
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@ntoxicator said:
Understood. So would have to resort in Local storage on server an dutilize the HA-Lizard HA-iSCSI or HA-Lizard on the node....
Appears to be free module/software - was unaware of it. Is it proven?
NAS is handing out iSCSI LUN's as an FYI
HA-Lizard is just automation around the OS itself. It's not really bringing anything "new" to the table. It is just doing all of the heavy lifting for you.
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@coliver said:
So, purchase two or three refurb chassis from XByte. Then populate it with whatever drives you want. If I recall correctly they will support the servers less the drives.
xByte and/or Dell will support that.
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So oracle came down on price more...
What you guys think of the Older SunFire X4170's ?? I see some of them for sale with the needed specs I'm looking for "e-bay"
Also on E-Bay..
I'm seeing ALOT of CISCO UCS200 and similar servers. Relatively new. This does not appear to be a good sign? Anyone chime in?
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P.S
CDW Rep of mine came back with a quote from CISCO for 1U Servers. Similarlly priced to those of what Oracle came at me with; but the oracles were spec'd nicer..
