Advice on Current Infrastructure and Possible New VM Host Server
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We currently have a VM environment that consists of two hosts, each running ESXi v6.0 and a vCSA that manages them (also v6.0). We're using a VMware Essentials license, so we don't have the fancy bells and whistles like vMotion. We have about 40 guest VMs spread across the two hosts, and we're using nearly 5TB of the available overall/combined total storage (nearly 8TB).
Host 1 stats:
- DL360 G7
- 6-core x 2 (E5645 @ 2.40GHz)
- 192GB RAM (12 x 16GB 1067MHz)
- (MSA60) 12 x 750GB SATA RAID 10 (datastore "DS10")
Host 2 stats:
- DL360 G8
- 8-core x 2 (E5-2440 v2 @ 1.90GHz)
- 192GB RAM (12 x 16GB 1600MHz)
- (MSA60) 12 x 750GB SATA RAID 10 (datastore "DS1")
Currently, neither host could handle running all 40 of our guest VMs, so my initial thought is this: Management is only willing to buy (or upgrade) ONE server, and the budget is between $10k-$15k.
I'd like to price out a server from xByte (something with at least 10TB of storage). If management approves the purchase, the idea would be to install ESXi v6.5 on it, then migrate all of our guests to this new server. Then I'd kill off the G7 and move its storage over to the G8 and rebuild the G8 into a fresh v6.5 host. The G7 would then be available as a spare in case the G8 ever dies.
Thoughts/feedback?
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One handy rule of thumb, there is no value (except extreme circumstances) to VMware ESXi until you pay for Essentials Plus. If you don't go for Essentials Plus, that decision alone should result in not using ESXi at all. That's the first tier that makes sense because "all" the value is in the support and that's where support starts and the first point where you start to compete with the free versions of everything else.
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At $15K, seems reasonable that you could afford a single box that could handle everything.
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Is the storage the only thing holding you back from putting all 40 VMs on one host?
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In purchasing the new machine, drop the MSA and go to local storage.
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@bnrstnr said in Advice on Current Infrastructure and Possible New VM Host Server:
Is the storage the only thing holding you back from putting all 40 VMs on one host?
Pretty much, yep.
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@scottalanmiller said in Advice on Current Infrastructure and Possible New VM Host Server:
In purchasing the new machine, drop the MSA and go to local storage.
Definitely! I learned that from you many months ago ;). I was thinking about going with something like a R730 with 12 x 2TB drives (10 on RAID 10 with 2 hot spares).
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@shuey said in Advice on Current Infrastructure and Possible New VM Host Server:
@scottalanmiller said in Advice on Current Infrastructure and Possible New VM Host Server:
In purchasing the new machine, drop the MSA and go to local storage.
Definitely! I learned that from you many months ago ;). I was thinking about going with something like a R730 with 12 x 2TB drives (10 on RAID 10 with 2 hot spares).
Generally with RAID 10 you don't do hot spares at all. They are costly and do extremely little. More likely you'd want 12 drives and one cold spare.
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@scottalanmiller said in [Advice on Current Infrastructure and Possible New VM Host Server]
Generally with RAID 10 you don't do hot spares at all. They are costly and do extremely little. More likely you'd want 12 drives and one cold spare.
Thanks for the info : )
