Help choosing replacement Hyper-V host machines and connected storage
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@scottalanmiller said:
@JohnFromSTL said:
- Replication between servers in the event of host server failure
- Load Balancing
- Storage
- Hyper-V client machines (12TB - 14TB)
As far as connectivity is concerned I would probably use 10GbE between the Hyper-V host servers and the storage.
With only two nodes, shared storage should not come up as an option. There is both no way to afford it and it would defeat any value in having two of these nodes. Your budget doesn't allow for this option. The starting point for something like that would be an EMC VNX to be reliable enough to even slightly consider having two nodes.
As I see it, your choices are going down to a single server or going to two servers and using replicated local storage. Even that will be tough, but external shared storage both doesn't meet your goals not fit in your budget.
And there are not many servers which have that amount of local storage.
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@JohnFromSTL said:
@dafyre said:
I'd definitely recommend reaching out to the Scale Computing guys (are there any on here?) here or either on SW. For information about pricing. It would be new kit and would last you several years. I think they can do 2 node setups as well.
Thanks, I'll check them out.
Scale would very likely be an amazing fit for your needs. Easy to manage, highly reliable with built in high availability and auto-node recovery, etc. All of the compute and storage is built into the cluster. So it is a single price for everything, so no surprises down the road.
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@JohnFromSTL said:
And there are not many servers which have that amount of local storage.
Correct, that is why I mentioned the R730xd, because it is one of the biggest local storage devices on the market.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Dell PowerEdge R910 are monster servers but lack a lot of storage options. How is your CPU utilization? That is going to be the killer as those are quad processor systems. So even though they are two generations old, they are twice the size of normal servers. You are going to be looking at the Dell R730xd loaded to get the storage and the CPU that you need to come in around where you were before. That's not going to be possible, I don't think, in your price envelope.
Host01 hovers around 9-10% CPU and 55% memory utilization.
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@JohnFromSTL said:
Host01 hovers around 9-10% CPU and 55% memory utilization.
Which CPUs and how many do you have in that host?
How much memory is in that host?
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I currently have a Dell R720xd running Hyper-V 2012R2. It works really really well. Not sure on the price tag, but that is a nicely built system. Raid controller can do RAID 10, and RAID 6 in addition to the others... Add ram to meet your needs.
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@dafyre said:
I currently have a Dell R720xd running Hyper-V 2012R2. It works really really well. Not sure on the price tag, but that is a nicely built system. Raid controller can do RAID 10, and RAID 6 in addition to the others... Add ram to meet your needs.
We have a monster R720xd with 128GB too. Sweet machine. R730xd has even bigger CPU options.
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@dafyre said:
Raid controller can do RAID 10, and RAID 6 in addition to the others.
There are others?
That controller has a 1GB cache too, which is important, AND has CacheCade built in. The R730xd loses the CacheCade option.
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@scottalanmiller
RAID 1, most notably... But I didn't want to mention RAID-5 spits on the floor. -
If the R910 is maxing out at, say, 20% CPU, then my guess is that an R720xd will do the trick to take over its load. The R720xd has two, faster procs than the R910. Not only are the individual procs faster, but by moving from quad procs to dual procs you gain a small amount of efficiency just from that one move. So faster procs and more efficient proc usage and then cutting the total number of procs in half.... seems like you will be okay.
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Memory is really going to be the biggest thing to start with here for capacity planning. Once we know that number, we will have something strong to work with.
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@dafyre said:
I'd definitely recommend reaching out to the Scale Computing guys (are there any on here?) here or either on SW. For information about pricing. It would be new kit and would last you several years. I think they can do 2 node setups as well.
Scale needs 3 nodes, they don't have anything to install on existing servers like OP has and Scale has no Hyper-V support.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@JohnFromSTL said:
Due to our size and budget constraints we purchase refurbished equipment, which are typically 2-3 years old. Whichever solution I end up with needs to last 3-4 additional years.
Refurb is good. @xByteSean is around to help out with that. As is @ryan-from-xbyte
xBytes allows people to get Dell quality @ SuperMicro price
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@KOOLER said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@JohnFromSTL said:
Due to our size and budget constraints we purchase refurbished equipment, which are typically 2-3 years old. Whichever solution I end up with needs to last 3-4 additional years.
Refurb is good. @xByteSean is around to help out with that. As is @ryan-from-xbyte
xBytes allows people to get Dell quality @ SuperMicro price
That's a great way to look at it.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@JohnFromSTL said:
@Minion-Queen said:
NTG can help with the Scale questions so ask away!
Any idea on starting price?
Did I miss your total memory needs? How much memory are you using added all up?
Host01:
CPU: (4) - Xeon X7350 @ 2.93GHz
RAM: (24) - 4GB DIMM 96GB RAM installed
RAID: PERC 5/i (RAID-5)
HDD: (5) - 300GB Hitachi Ultrastar 15K600 HUS156030VLS60 15k RPM 16MB Cache SAS 6Gb/s 3.5"Host02:
CPU: (4) - Xeon X7350 @ 2.93GHz
RAM: (24) - 4GB DIMM 96GB RAM installed
RAID: PERC 5/i (Msft Storage Spaces)
HDD: (5) - 1TB Seagate Constellation ES.3 ST1000NM0023 7200 RPM 128MB Cache SAS 6Gb/s 3.5" -
@KOOLER said:
Scale needs 3 nodes, they don't have anything to install on existing servers like OP has and Scale has no Hyper-V support.
Scale would be a change of direction. No need for John to manage his hypervisor or storage. Everything in a single package, ready to go.
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It's good to see this thread with more legs over here on Mango than on SW.
Here is the interesting thing going on with the Dell generations now. We see the 11th gen still popular (R510s and R710s) if you only need 6-core CPUs. If you need 8-cores, then we see people skipping the 12th generation and going on to the 13th generation servers like the R730xd. The newer CPUs are so powerful at the low end and therefore so inexpensive, it is hard to justify other the 12th generation. There are some exceptions if you are okay with E5-2600 version 1 CPUs. That market is crashing and you can find some deals.
This is why we encourage people to call us so we can walk through the options in the secondary market. It is very different than buying directly through Dell.
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@JohnFromSTL said:
RAID: PERC 5/i (RAID-5)
Well fixing that will be the first thing
We can do RAID 6 on the new servers. -
@ryan-from-xbyte said:
It's good to see this thread with more legs over here on Mango than on SW.
FTW!
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@ryan-from-xbyte said:
The newer CPUs are so powerful at the low end and therefore so inexpensive, it is hard to justify other the 12th generation.
Except for when you are building storage devices. The R720xd really shines where CPU makes no difference.
