ML
    • Recent
    • Categories
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Groups
    • Register
    • Login

    SW Port - New Server for virtual host - Sanity Check

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved IT Discussion
    xbyteesxidellr720replication
    34 Posts 4 Posters 4.9k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • DustinB3403D
      DustinB3403 @scottalanmiller
      last edited by

      @scottalanmiller said in SW Port - New Server for virtual host - Sanity Check:

      @dustin did you invite @beta over for this here already?

      Yes.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • B
        beta @scottalanmiller
        last edited by

        @scottalanmiller yes I just joined xD

        DustinB3403D scottalanmillerS 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • DustinB3403D
          DustinB3403 @beta
          last edited by

          @beta said in SW Port - New Server for virtual host - Sanity Check:

          @scottalanmiller yes I just joined xD

          Welcome to the community!

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • scottalanmillerS
            scottalanmiller @DustinB3403
            last edited by

            @DustinB3403 said in SW Port - New Server for virtual host - Sanity Check:

            • Dell R630 - 10 2.5'' drive bay chassis - I normally buy 2U servers for the drive capacity, but I figured 10 drive bays should be pretty good as I can use RAID 5 now to get better capacity and still have half my drive bays empty in case of future expansion.

            I would only do this if you have a strong aversion to the extra 3" of rack space being used and if you are super confident that you would never want large capacity storage. This might not sound limiting now, but it might be very limiting when needs change in two years.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • scottalanmillerS
              scottalanmiller @beta
              last edited by

              @beta said in SW Port - New Server for virtual host - Sanity Check:

              @scottalanmiller yes I just joined xD

              Awesome. Welcome to the community and I guessed at your username and it worked!

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • B
                beta @scottalanmiller
                last edited by

                @scottalanmiller We are already running ESXi, it's what I know and am comfortable with. If this was greenfield project, I'd consider Hyper-V, but that's what we are on now.

                scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • B
                  beta @DustinB3403
                  last edited by

                  @DustinB3403 It is definitely more than enough for now. I figure in 5 years time, since I have extra drive bays, I can add more disk if needed.

                  DustinB3403D scottalanmillerS 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • DustinB3403D
                    DustinB3403
                    last edited by

                    As for the other hardware specs, I'd say they are perfectly acceptable.

                    I also have my questions about ESXi in this configuration, but you've already mentioned why you're using it.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • DustinB3403D
                      DustinB3403 @beta
                      last edited by DustinB3403

                      @beta said in SW Port - New Server for virtual host - Sanity Check:

                      @DustinB3403 It is definitely more than enough for now. I figure in 5 years time, since I have extra drive bays, I can add more disk if needed.

                      You can, but only as a separate array, which you'll have to introduce into ESXi.

                      I try to evaluate my growth over the past 5 years, and determine what that delta is per year. Once I have that (5 year sum) I add 20% for storage.

                      Makes life simpler.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • B
                        beta @DustinB3403
                        last edited by

                        @DustinB3403 Yes, I took that into consideration too. I do have in my favor we are a non-profit, so I can get MS licensing from Techsoup which is MUCH cheaper than anywhere else so the updated MS licensing doesn't hurt us too badly.

                        DustinB3403D 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • scottalanmillerS
                          scottalanmiller @beta
                          last edited by

                          @beta said in SW Port - New Server for virtual host - Sanity Check:

                          @scottalanmiller We are already running ESXi, it's what I know and am comfortable with. If this was greenfield project, I'd consider Hyper-V, but that's what we are on now.

                          Gotcha. I would still consider it, it's an expanding cost that you can nip in the bud. Every new hardware purchase is a great trigger for a huge cost savings.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • DustinB3403D
                            DustinB3403
                            last edited by

                            The generally considered best practice is OBR (one big raid) for the life of the server.

                            Splitting arrays was never really a good thing to do.

                            scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • scottalanmillerS
                              scottalanmiller @beta
                              last edited by

                              @beta said in SW Port - New Server for virtual host - Sanity Check:

                              @DustinB3403 It is definitely more than enough for now. I figure in 5 years time, since I have extra drive bays, I can add more disk if needed.

                              Yup, and SSDs will get bigger and cheaper all of the time. But there is something nice about knowing you CAN pop in 10TB HDs as a separate tier, too.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • DustinB3403D
                                DustinB3403 @beta
                                last edited by

                                @beta said in SW Port - New Server for virtual host - Sanity Check:

                                @DustinB3403 Yes, I took that into consideration too. I do have in my favor we are a non-profit, so I can get MS licensing from Techsoup which is MUCH cheaper than anywhere else so the updated MS licensing doesn't hurt us too badly.

                                But it hurts some. Why spend the extra for something that you won't have a true benefit of?

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • scottalanmillerS
                                  scottalanmiller @DustinB3403
                                  last edited by

                                  @DustinB3403 said in SW Port - New Server for virtual host - Sanity Check:

                                  Splitting arrays was never really a good thing to do.

                                  It was, just before you were in IT.

                                  http://www.smbitjournal.com/2012/12/the-history-of-array-splitting/

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                  • coliverC
                                    coliver @DustinB3403
                                    last edited by

                                    @DustinB3403 said in SW Port - New Server for virtual host - Sanity Check:

                                    Dell R630 - 10 2.5'' drive bay chassis - I normally buy 2U servers for the drive capacity, but I figured 10 drive bays should be pretty good as I can use RAID 5 now to get better capacity and still have half my drive bays empty in case of future expansion.

                                    Go for the R720/xd. It's not that much more in the long run and you will be able to upgrade/add storage on demand. It's a really nice system.

                                    2xIntel E5-2640v4 10-core 2.4GHz - This seems to me the best compromise between cores and GHz. I currently have 28 vCPUs provisioned.

                                    You could probably get away with 8-core processors. You may want to look at the total average GHz used (very easy to do with ESXi) over a week or two. This will give you a better understanding of how much actual compute capacity you'll need. Not the best measure of CPU usage but it helps get an idea. Windows licensing (and ESXi) aren't cheap and since they are both done via CPU now you need to be aware of that.

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                    • scottalanmillerS
                                      scottalanmiller
                                      last edited by

                                      Have you considered getting another R720 that matches and instead of Veeam replication, using Starwind for a real high availability setup for the same or less money?

                                      B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • DustinB3403D
                                        DustinB3403
                                        last edited by

                                        @scottalanmiller I was just about to say that . . . 😛

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • DustinB3403D
                                          DustinB3403
                                          last edited by

                                          Which a nice thing about using Starwinds is you wouldn't have to worry about your database, or possible corruption while trying to back it up.

                                          They even have a free version for life if I recall correctly.

                                          scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • scottalanmillerS
                                            scottalanmiller @DustinB3403
                                            last edited by

                                            @DustinB3403 said in SW Port - New Server for virtual host - Sanity Check:

                                            Which a nice thing about using Starwinds is you wouldn't have to worry about your database, or possible corruption while trying to back it up.

                                            They even have a free version for life if I recall correctly.

                                            Yes, it's all free. Only the GUI isn't free after the first month.

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • 1
                                            • 2
                                            • 1 / 2
                                            • First post
                                              Last post