ESXi cluster, advice needed
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@rtfm said in ESXi cluster, advice needed:
@Dashrender said in ESXi cluster, advice needed:
@rtfm said in ESXi cluster, advice needed:
hi everybody!
first of all thank you for your contribution. Keep it simple...
However, i did not mention (intentionally, no ofence i will explain myself) the following facts:- we already have these VMs hosted in a 4-node flexpod environment (if vmware enterprise plus is an overkill for us, then how would you judge flexpod???).
- our organization is rich in terms of money but poor in terms of IT intellectual capital. Therefore we need outsourced support. in our place it is hard to find that, so we usually address ourselves to certified solutions.
- we have invested time and money on vmware hypervisor and our poor IT would not like to throw this away.
- the initial question was supposed to refer to a DRS solution based on vmware SRM (VM based replication, not array based), however years after studying your recommendations i would like to try something more simple.
i understand that all above mentioned arguments are usually trivial in competitive environments, but unfortunately this is not our case.
sorry for wasting your time. i am thankful to you for your recommendations.
BTW what happens if a single node, or a node with local storage is lost? isn't that a potential cause for filesystem corruption?
Moreover, how do i put the host in maintenance mode (Hmmm, and why should i do that if i only have one host, especially with let's say free esxi?)?- ?
- Why is your organization poor on IT capital? Why not hire consultants to do it? No reason to have them be on staff, is there?
- This is the sunk cost fallacy. That money is already spent, consider it gone and move forward with a most cost effective solution - that said, sometimes where you already are is the most cost effective when all aspects are considered - at least until a full overhaul is required.
- ?
- it's plain old fashioned public sector, the last IT hired was 15 years ago...
Ah, that puts it in perspective.
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@rtfm said in ESXi cluster, advice needed:
would you suggest a 2-node setup with local datastores and a fast network and that's it, given that we take as proper backups as possible
Under most conditions, yes. Fast, easy, effective. If you need absolute uptime, do so higher in the stack at the application level. If you just need really good uptime, take excellent backups, be able to restore really quickly, and probably keep a recent (like hours old) "copy" on the second host so that you can spin up in minutes.
Two stand alone hosts with good backups is often a "couple minutes" of downtime during a crisis solution, instead of a few milliseconds. Sure, a few minutes is relatively long compared to a few milliseconds, but to most businesses (and certainly most governments) a few minutes of downtime every few years doesn't matter at all.
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@scottalanmiller said in ESXi cluster, advice needed:
@rtfm said in ESXi cluster, advice needed:
would you suggest a 2-node setup with local datastores and a fast network and that's it, given that we take as proper backups as possible
Under most conditions, yes. Fast, easy, effective. If you need absolute uptime, do so higher in the stack at the application level. If you just need really good uptime, take excellent backups, be able to restore really quickly, and probably keep a recent (like hours old) "copy" on the second host so that you can spin up in minutes.
Two stand alone hosts with good backups is often a "couple minutes" of downtime during a crisis solution, instead of a few milliseconds. Sure, a few minutes is relatively long compared to a few milliseconds, but to most businesses (and certainly most governments) a few minutes of downtime every few years doesn't matter at all.
From the requirements perspective i totally agree to your words! Considering our poor in-house human resources an RPO of even one day is totally satisfactory and acceptable! In that case i understand that there is no actual need to mess with HA, FA, SRM etc...
BTW your comment about how "system integrators" try to sell bare metal and certifications instead of brains was more than appropriate!
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@rtfm said in ESXi cluster, advice needed:
BTW your comment about how "system integrators" try to sell bare metal and certifications instead of brains was more than appropriate!
It's where all the money is. As a consultancy... I can sell you a full IT department for a year. But I have to pay those people and my profits are small, but they can provide you with a wealth of work, advice, etc. building, maintaining, and supporting whatever you need.
But for the same money, I could just sell you a product that you don't need, that sounds good but doesn't do a good job for you, and earn easily triple the profits because I don't need to pay staff.
So the challenge is, if I resell those products, how do I make myself "do the right thing" when the customer is literally paying me only if I screw them over? The customer effectively demands, through how they pay and choose solutions, to only get the bad solutions. As a company, it's all but impossible to resist selling the product because the customer never knows the difference, and you earn so much more money as a salesperson than in provided sound IT. That's why companies like NTG and Bundy Associates simply don't sell any product at all, so that that incentive to do so isn't there at all. Because if it was, it's all but irresistable.
