Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?
-
@Shuey said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
Why is HPE giving away this much in equipment, but the specs don't seem realistic? Two blade servers, but only TWO hard drives (total)?!
Because they are blades. It's for high density compute needs, not storage. The drives are there for booting the blade, and really overkill for that as well because of SD cards. Once Vmware is booted, it's really low resource.
We don't even have a SAN where I work
Buy one then. $5K for a MSA1040, connect with fibre channel, throw in some SSDs for databases and cheap 'n deep SAS drives for everything else. Maybe $10K total outlay.
And 64GB of RAM (total)!? Per blade wouldn't be bad, but based on the spec list, it looks like it will be 32GB per blade.
RAM is cheap, like, super duper cheap. Throw another $1K per blade to beef up your memory a bit.
Real question is, what is your workload look like and will you need expansion of an additional 14 blades in the future? Can your datacenter handle the power requirements? Will adding this add any redundancy over your probable kludge of a server room?
If you can't use it, I'll take it off your hands. I have some nice PURE Storage arrays that would love to have a new friend.
-
@PSX_Defector Cool, thanks for all the info!
I could see "making the sale" to upper management for the SAN, and possibly the rest of the upgrades as well. This raises another concern though: We don't have anything else on our network utilizing 10Gbps links. We'd like to have 10 gig links between two of our datacenter sites, but not sure if management will pay for the upgrade someday or not. The new equipment will obviously be fast at the c7000, but once it leaves that box going to the rest of the network, it'll all be travelling at 1 gig at that point :-/...
Our two existing VMware hosts are a DL360e Gen8 (hosted at "site 1") and a DL360 G7 (hosted at "site 2"). Each server has 192GB of RAM, and each has one MSA60 DAS for the guest VM storage (12-bays: 10 @ 1TB 10K SAS drives, RAID10, two drives as spares). Site 1 hosts 20 guests and site 2 hosts 5 guests (so far anyway - we plan to add more guests to each host in the future).
If HPE would let me sell the equipment, I'd be happy to. I'd rather use the money to pay off some bills. Unfortunately, one of the contest rules is that it can't be sold :-S.
-
@Shuey said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
Our two existing VMware hosts are a DL360e Gen8 (hosted at "site 1") and a DL360 G7 (hosted at "site 2"). Each server has 192GB of RAM, and each has one MSA60 DAS for the guest VM storage (12-bays: 10 @ 1TB 10K SAS drives, RAID10, two drives as spares). Site 1 hosts 20 guests and site 2 hosts 5 guests (so far anyway - we plan to add more guests to each host in the future).
Better density than I thought, and not ancient equipment.
Your current DAS could be re-purposed as storage with the blade system. You will need a riser card to get a SAS connector. They got a blade interface for Infiniband, but not one for SAS. You will need to talk to the rep to get the right part. Otherwise, pick up a SAN with a fibre interface, lucky for you they are universal. I mix and match stuff all the time.
Move the 360e over to site two as a backup host, or even a primary host. Use the blades as your new site one infrastructure. Or consolidate down to the single site and have site two come back to get data. But you will have a fallback host just in case one dies or needs to be worked on. Although you will still be SPOF with storage.
But, all that said, I see plenty of big problems. Power requirements will eat you alive on that. You will need to get some different plugs to even plug it in. You will need to figure out if your rack will even vent the heat out of that thing.
You might be buying into a very large infrastructure expenditure without any way to use it. Even if it's free.
-
@PSX_Defector said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@jmaurelli said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
I am not keen on putting that hardware in the production environment whatsoever! What happens if you lose you job? Or you find another? I say the new equipment is for training purposes. You also make it known somehow that the equipment belongs to you and are only "licensing" to your employer. It's a win-win. They host in their server room, you train, they reap the benefits of your experience.
Are you really that insecure with new equipment?
No, his point was not to donate $60K of his personal hardware to the business for the business to use. If he loses his job, the job would expect to keep the $60K donation.
-
I'm with the "set up a home lab" crowd here. It's your gear, not the businesses. Build a nice virtual lab at home.
-
@scottalanmiller said:
@PSX_Defector said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@jmaurelli said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
I am not keen on putting that hardware in the production environment whatsoever! What happens if you lose you job? Or you find another? I say the new equipment is for training purposes. You also make it known somehow that the equipment belongs to you and are only "licensing" to your employer. It's a win-win. They host in their server room, you train, they reap the benefits of your experience.
Are you really that insecure with new equipment?
No, his point was not to donate $60K of his personal hardware to the business for the business to use. If he loses his job, the job would expect to keep the $60K donation.
Unfortunately, and I still haven't found out the rules and restrictions from SpiceWorks and HPE, there's a strong chance that this equipment HAS to go to the company that I work for.
-
@Shuey said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@scottalanmiller said:
@PSX_Defector said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@jmaurelli said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
I am not keen on putting that hardware in the production environment whatsoever! What happens if you lose you job? Or you find another? I say the new equipment is for training purposes. You also make it known somehow that the equipment belongs to you and are only "licensing" to your employer. It's a win-win. They host in their server room, you train, they reap the benefits of your experience.
Are you really that insecure with new equipment?
No, his point was not to donate $60K of his personal hardware to the business for the business to use. If he loses his job, the job would expect to keep the $60K donation.
Unfortunately, and I still haven't found out the rules and restrictions from SpiceWorks and HPE, there's a strong chance that this equipment HAS to go to the company that I work for.
Oh, what if you didn't work for one? What would have happened? What if you work for two?
-
@scottalanmiller said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
I'm with the "set up a home lab" crowd here. It's your gear, not the businesses. Build a nice virtual lab at home.
Read my recent reply
-
@scottalanmiller said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@Shuey said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@scottalanmiller said:
@PSX_Defector said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@jmaurelli said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
I am not keen on putting that hardware in the production environment whatsoever! What happens if you lose you job? Or you find another? I say the new equipment is for training purposes. You also make it known somehow that the equipment belongs to you and are only "licensing" to your employer. It's a win-win. They host in their server room, you train, they reap the benefits of your experience.
Are you really that insecure with new equipment?
No, his point was not to donate $60K of his personal hardware to the business for the business to use. If he loses his job, the job would expect to keep the $60K donation.
Unfortunately, and I still haven't found out the rules and restrictions from SpiceWorks and HPE, there's a strong chance that this equipment HAS to go to the company that I work for.
Oh, what if you didn't work for one? What would have happened? What if you work for two?
I hear ya, but I didn't make up the rules of the contest, lol. I only entered because I thought "Whether the equipment goes to me or the company I work for, who cares. $60,000 in "free" equipment is better than NO equipment
-
@Shuey said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@scottalanmiller said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@Shuey said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@scottalanmiller said:
@PSX_Defector said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@jmaurelli said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
I am not keen on putting that hardware in the production environment whatsoever! What happens if you lose you job? Or you find another? I say the new equipment is for training purposes. You also make it known somehow that the equipment belongs to you and are only "licensing" to your employer. It's a win-win. They host in their server room, you train, they reap the benefits of your experience.
Are you really that insecure with new equipment?
No, his point was not to donate $60K of his personal hardware to the business for the business to use. If he loses his job, the job would expect to keep the $60K donation.
Unfortunately, and I still haven't found out the rules and restrictions from SpiceWorks and HPE, there's a strong chance that this equipment HAS to go to the company that I work for.
Oh, what if you didn't work for one? What would have happened? What if you work for two?
I hear ya, but I didn't make up the rules of the contest, lol. I only entered because I thought "Whether the equipment goes to me or the company I work for, who cares. $60,000 in "free" equipment is better than NO equipment
I'm just saying... how are the rules written that they cause this to work without creating a disaster? What if you are a contractor or self employed? Do you do ANY consulting yourself, ever? If so, that's a company that you work for.
-
@scottalanmiller said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@Shuey said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@scottalanmiller said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@Shuey said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@scottalanmiller said:
@PSX_Defector said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@jmaurelli said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
I am not keen on putting that hardware in the production environment whatsoever! What happens if you lose you job? Or you find another? I say the new equipment is for training purposes. You also make it known somehow that the equipment belongs to you and are only "licensing" to your employer. It's a win-win. They host in their server room, you train, they reap the benefits of your experience.
Are you really that insecure with new equipment?
No, his point was not to donate $60K of his personal hardware to the business for the business to use. If he loses his job, the job would expect to keep the $60K donation.
Unfortunately, and I still haven't found out the rules and restrictions from SpiceWorks and HPE, there's a strong chance that this equipment HAS to go to the company that I work for.
Oh, what if you didn't work for one? What would have happened? What if you work for two?
I hear ya, but I didn't make up the rules of the contest, lol. I only entered because I thought "Whether the equipment goes to me or the company I work for, who cares. $60,000 in "free" equipment is better than NO equipment
I'm just saying... how are the rules written that they cause this to work without creating a disaster? What if you are a contractor or self employed? Do you do ANY consulting yourself, ever? If so, that's a company that you work for.
Again, I see where you're coming from, and I agree. But you know how rules can be sometimes (a lot of "gotchas"). I'm subject to THEIR TERMS, whether they make sense or not
-
@Shuey said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@scottalanmiller said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@Shuey said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@scottalanmiller said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@Shuey said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@scottalanmiller said:
@PSX_Defector said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@jmaurelli said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
I am not keen on putting that hardware in the production environment whatsoever! What happens if you lose you job? Or you find another? I say the new equipment is for training purposes. You also make it known somehow that the equipment belongs to you and are only "licensing" to your employer. It's a win-win. They host in their server room, you train, they reap the benefits of your experience.
Are you really that insecure with new equipment?
No, his point was not to donate $60K of his personal hardware to the business for the business to use. If he loses his job, the job would expect to keep the $60K donation.
Unfortunately, and I still haven't found out the rules and restrictions from SpiceWorks and HPE, there's a strong chance that this equipment HAS to go to the company that I work for.
Oh, what if you didn't work for one? What would have happened? What if you work for two?
I hear ya, but I didn't make up the rules of the contest, lol. I only entered because I thought "Whether the equipment goes to me or the company I work for, who cares. $60,000 in "free" equipment is better than NO equipment
I'm just saying... how are the rules written that they cause this to work without creating a disaster? What if you are a contractor or self employed? Do you do ANY consulting yourself, ever? If so, that's a company that you work for.
Again, I see where you're coming from, and I agree. But you know how rules can be sometimes (a lot of "gotchas"). I'm subject to THEIR TERMS, whether they make sense or not
I KNOW, and that's why I'm pointing out how THEIR TERMS work, right? I'm saying, that by what you said their rules were, this is how it works. I'm not saying you aren't tied to their rules, I'm pointing out what their rules mean.
-
Whoa, new reply threading. That's different.
-
@scottalanmiller said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@Shuey said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@scottalanmiller said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@Shuey said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@scottalanmiller said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@Shuey said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@scottalanmiller said:
@PSX_Defector said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@jmaurelli said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
I am not keen on putting that hardware in the production environment whatsoever! What happens if you lose you job? Or you find another? I say the new equipment is for training purposes. You also make it known somehow that the equipment belongs to you and are only "licensing" to your employer. It's a win-win. They host in their server room, you train, they reap the benefits of your experience.
Are you really that insecure with new equipment?
No, his point was not to donate $60K of his personal hardware to the business for the business to use. If he loses his job, the job would expect to keep the $60K donation.
Unfortunately, and I still haven't found out the rules and restrictions from SpiceWorks and HPE, there's a strong chance that this equipment HAS to go to the company that I work for.
Oh, what if you didn't work for one? What would have happened? What if you work for two?
I hear ya, but I didn't make up the rules of the contest, lol. I only entered because I thought "Whether the equipment goes to me or the company I work for, who cares. $60,000 in "free" equipment is better than NO equipment
I'm just saying... how are the rules written that they cause this to work without creating a disaster? What if you are a contractor or self employed? Do you do ANY consulting yourself, ever? If so, that's a company that you work for.
Again, I see where you're coming from, and I agree. But you know how rules can be sometimes (a lot of "gotchas"). I'm subject to THEIR TERMS, whether they make sense or not
I KNOW, and that's why I'm pointing out how THEIR TERMS work, right? I'm saying, that by what you said their rules were, this is how it works. I'm not saying you aren't tied to their rules, I'm pointing out what their rules mean.
I don't even know what their rules are yet, lol. I'm still waiting for someone from SW or HPE to contact me
-
@Shuey said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@scottalanmiller said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@Shuey said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@scottalanmiller said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@Shuey said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@scottalanmiller said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@Shuey said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@scottalanmiller said:
@PSX_Defector said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@jmaurelli said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
I am not keen on putting that hardware in the production environment whatsoever! What happens if you lose you job? Or you find another? I say the new equipment is for training purposes. You also make it known somehow that the equipment belongs to you and are only "licensing" to your employer. It's a win-win. They host in their server room, you train, they reap the benefits of your experience.
Are you really that insecure with new equipment?
No, his point was not to donate $60K of his personal hardware to the business for the business to use. If he loses his job, the job would expect to keep the $60K donation.
Unfortunately, and I still haven't found out the rules and restrictions from SpiceWorks and HPE, there's a strong chance that this equipment HAS to go to the company that I work for.
Oh, what if you didn't work for one? What would have happened? What if you work for two?
I hear ya, but I didn't make up the rules of the contest, lol. I only entered because I thought "Whether the equipment goes to me or the company I work for, who cares. $60,000 in "free" equipment is better than NO equipment
I'm just saying... how are the rules written that they cause this to work without creating a disaster? What if you are a contractor or self employed? Do you do ANY consulting yourself, ever? If so, that's a company that you work for.
Again, I see where you're coming from, and I agree. But you know how rules can be sometimes (a lot of "gotchas"). I'm subject to THEIR TERMS, whether they make sense or not
I KNOW, and that's why I'm pointing out how THEIR TERMS work, right? I'm saying, that by what you said their rules were, this is how it works. I'm not saying you aren't tied to their rules, I'm pointing out what their rules mean.
I don't even know what their rules are yet, lol. I'm still waiting for someone from SW or HPE to contact me
Hard to hold you to rules that weren't part of the contest.
-
Here's another thought: Let's say they DO let this equipment be "mine" instead of the company's... The equipment is next to useless to me as is (because I would need more infrastructure added to it in order to make it "fully functional", especially based on the replies I've gotten from ML members so far). I can't afford all of those extra costs...
-
@Shuey Here's the terms: https://xact.spiceworks.com/u/gen/Oct2016/HPE_IT_Makeover_Sweeps_Rules_Rev5_Round_3_2016_0729_a5a1ed0a8ac1ab0e1e3991987e2bd962.pdf
I'm gonna start reading through them to see what gotchas exist..
-
@Shuey said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
Here's another thought: Let's say they DO let this equipment be "mine" instead of the company's... The equipment is next to useless to me as is (because I would need more infrastructure added to it in order to make it "fully functional", especially based on the replies I've gotten from ML members so far). I can't afford all of those extra costs...
That's definitely the trick here, it's a blade center which is very tough to use and will end up acting like a loss leader that will cause you to invest into it and then keep spending money on it in the future. It's actually got some financial risk to deploy just because it is so likely to encourage bad decisions in the future. It's not as useful as it sounds for your environment if you don't already have what it takes to leverage it.
http://www.smbitjournal.com/2009/12/the-dangers-of-blade-servers-in-smb/
-
@scottalanmiller said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
@Shuey said in Ideas for how to use new, free gear from HPE?:
Here's another thought: Let's say they DO let this equipment be "mine" instead of the company's... The equipment is next to useless to me as is (because I would need more infrastructure added to it in order to make it "fully functional", especially based on the replies I've gotten from ML members so far). I can't afford all of those extra costs...
That's definitely the trick here, it's a blade center which is very tough to use and is meant to be a loss leader to get you to invest into it and then keep spending money on it in the future. It's actually got some financial risk to deploy just because it is so likely to encourage bad decisions in the future. It's obviously not a set of equipment meant to "improve" anyone's environment. It's equipment that no SMB would ever buy themselves and is not nearly as useful as drastically less expensive gear. And it is potentially incomplete. It's not a makeover, it's just leftover gear.
http://www.smbitjournal.com/2009/12/the-dangers-of-blade-servers-in-smb/
Well, now I feel even more excited about winning this contest!
-
Best bet is to resell the equipment. It's not that it is useless to you, but it is risky and sounds like it requires additional investment which would be pretty silly to invest in random gear that has little value for you.
