Storage Question
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If you really want a solution for a second DC, I'd buy a Unitrends appliance. Then if the AD VM fails, you can spin up the AD VM on the Unitrends box and be back online in under an hour normally.
This gives you your sorta 2nd DC and your backup solution.
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@BRRABill said:
@scottalanmiller said:
It's not crazy at all. Since it's free and just adding extra redundancy.
Well, other than the license cost.
But already paid.
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@BRRABill said:
Well, even if I wanted to keep the backup DC, I could install Server 2012 on a desktop I have here, and at least save the cost of a second server.
That wouldn't be crazy, right? Other than the license cost.
It's not crazy at all. Since it's free and just adding extra redundancy.
It's not free, it's $800 and it's another box he has to maintain.
He already paid for the license. So it is free now.
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@scottalanmiller said:
He already paid for the license. So it is free now.
You're assuming the two current servers he has are 2012R2.. if that's the case, you're right.
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@scottalanmiller said:
He already paid for the license. So it is free now.
I technically haven't paid for it, but we ended up doing it in monthly payments, and I'm not sure the paperwork can be stopped.
Are you really recommending NOT to have a backup DC. Everything I have always read said to definitely do it. I think I'd feel better with it, but I can be talked out of that!
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@BRRABill said:
Are you really recommending NOT to have a backup DC. Everything I have always read said to definitely do it. I think I'd feel better with it, but I can be talked out of that!
Honestly for the smaller side of SMB, no you do not need it with all the fast recovery options that exist with everything virtualized now.
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@BRRABill said:
Are you really recommending NOT to have a backup DC. Everything I have always read said to definitely do it. I think I'd feel better with it, but I can be talked out of that!
That's because of several factors:
- Lots of people like MS and their partners make money selling you extra licenses. There is a lot of incentive to push them.
- Companies of any significant size need things like this to failover because the impact is many times larger and the cost of extra licenses is nothing to them. So they assume you are bigger than you are.
- They assume AD being tied into other systems where there is no cache layer.
- IT folks often want to add complexity to make their jobs appear harder than necessary.
- Hubris. IT must be mission critical, right? It would be unthinkable that we could live without it for a few hours.
For small businesses, it is actually decently rare that the cost of a second AD DC is justified. If you had a second server anyway for other reasons, like most medium sized businesses and larger do, the second AD DC might be free. But for you, it is a LOT of money.
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If I decide to put a 3rd party RAID card in there...
- Will it work with the hot-plug backplane that is currently in there?
- Will it work in the T320 itself? Assuming/hoping it would just be a plug and play.
- Will the drive lights work, or will I still have blinking amber? I know it can read SMART, but what control the lights on the drive carrier?
- Any recommendation on a particular card?
Has anyone ever done this on the T320?
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If only we could also cut the costs of the CALs of my bill, too!
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@BRRABill said:
If I decide to put a 3rd party RAID card in there...
- Will it work with the hot-plug backplane that is currently in there?
Yes, that is just hardware.
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@BRRABill said:
- Will it work in the T320 itself? Assuming/hoping it would just be a plug and play.
All it gets from the server is power
It's a standard PCIe device. As long as the computer is a PC and supports PCIe, it has to. -
@scottalanmiller said:
@BRRABill said:
If only we could also cut the costs of the CALs of my bill, too!
Well.... Linux.
My head has gone from
9am: swimming
2pm: spinning
5pm: almost off axisLinux would be the end of me.
I'm finding out if I can take 1 license off the paperwork. Maybe I'll order the 3rd party RAID controller and my day will be complete!
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@BRRABill said:
- Will the drive lights work, or will I still have blinking amber? I know it can read SMART, but what control the lights on the drive carrier?
Not likely, the lights are not part of the controller or the drives. that would be part of the proprietary mechanisms.
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@BRRABill said:
- Any recommendation on a particular card?
LSI with 1GB or more of cache. You can get one that basically is the H710 but directly from LSI without being rebranded or having the Dell firmware.
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Have we even talked about what hypervisor to use yet? I think it was HyperV but don't remember if we saw that or I just imagined it.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Not likely, the lights are not part of the controller or the drives. that would be part of the proprietary mechanisms.
Not likely the amber will keep blinking, or not likely any lights will work at all.
Also, with that kind of setup, where do the SMART alerts go? I'm just used to using DELL stuff and it all goes through their Server Admin product.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Have we even talked about what hypervisor to use yet? I think it was HyperV but don't remember if we saw that or I just imagined it.
Yes, going with Hyper-V.
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@BRRABill said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Not likely, the lights are not part of the controller or the drives. that would be part of the proprietary mechanisms.
Not likely the amber will keep blinking, or not likely any lights will work at all.
I'd expect no lights at all.
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@BRRABill said:
Also, with that kind of setup, where do the SMART alerts go? I'm just used to using DELL stuff and it all goes through their Server Admin product.
Up the stack. The drives report to the RAID card. The RAID card reports to the driver in the OS. The driver reports to the OS.
