What makes a system HCI?
-
@scottalanmiller said in What makes a system HCI?:
@DustinB3403 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
Maybe crappy HCI, but far better than three servers, connected to two switches, to one physical SAN which is what many here want.
I don't think anyone wants this, they are simply having the wool pulled over their eyes as someone steals their money.
I see it a lot, and it's always someone getting a little something from their buddy at the dealer.
Thats why I am specifically not doing this type of thing. As said, it may not be the top tier all bells and whistled HCI, but three nodes or more, with starwind vsan, running a windows failover cluster is 1) still HCI, and 2) better than doing an ipod.
-
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@JaredBusch said in What makes a system HCI?:
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
Its rediculous we keep saying it if it is just not true, as it can never be serious.
You are not going to catch me arguing with you on this statement.
Ok, I get that. I'm not trying to argue, just to understand
So I guess my next leap from this then is what is inherently wrong with 'HCI like' setups? I can take on board that its not HCI, thats fine. But, does it make the solution bad.
Like I posted earlier, if I have a 3 node system running a windows failover cluster and a starwind vSAN... as long as it meets my uptime needs, is it still bad because its not, true HCI? If we take HCI as having to have tooling...
HCI is the "industry standard great solution approach." This implies a few things...
- THere are other great solution options.
- There are crappy alternatives as well.
- A great architecture implemented poorly is still crappy.
-
@scottalanmiller said in What makes a system HCI?:
@DustinB3403 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
Maybe crappy HCI, but far better than three servers, connected to two switches, to one physical SAN which is what many here want.
I don't think anyone wants this, they are simply having the wool pulled over their eyes as someone steals their money.
I see it a lot, and it's always someone getting a little something from their buddy at the dealer.
Exactly.
"Oh you'll give me $2000 if I tell so-n-so to buy that six figure equipment set, done!"
-
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@scottalanmiller said in What makes a system HCI?:
@DustinB3403 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
Maybe crappy HCI, but far better than three servers, connected to two switches, to one physical SAN which is what many here want.
I don't think anyone wants this, they are simply having the wool pulled over their eyes as someone steals their money.
I see it a lot, and it's always someone getting a little something from their buddy at the dealer.
Thats why I am specifically not doing this type of thing. As said, it may not be the top tier all bells and whistled HCI, but three nodes or more, with starwind vsan, running a windows failover cluster is 1) still HCI, and 2) better than doing an ipod.
Yup. As long as it's Starwind vSAN and not any Windows storage, it's actually really good. WIndows, Hyper-V, Starwind... all good components. It's really ReFS and SS that are scary and to be avoided. This isn't bad at all, actually.
-
@scottalanmiller said in What makes a system HCI?:
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@scottalanmiller said in What makes a system HCI?:
@DustinB3403 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
Maybe crappy HCI, but far better than three servers, connected to two switches, to one physical SAN which is what many here want.
I don't think anyone wants this, they are simply having the wool pulled over their eyes as someone steals their money.
I see it a lot, and it's always someone getting a little something from their buddy at the dealer.
Thats why I am specifically not doing this type of thing. As said, it may not be the top tier all bells and whistled HCI, but three nodes or more, with starwind vsan, running a windows failover cluster is 1) still HCI, and 2) better than doing an ipod.
Yup. As long as it's Starwind vSAN and not any Windows storage, it's actually really good. WIndows, Hyper-V, Starwind... all good components. It's really ReFS and SS that are scary and to be avoided. This isn't bad at all, actually.
Which starts to get back to where my initial issue started. Many on the team say that is not HCI due to having more than one NIC. And I sit there thinking WTF! That's why I am going down this rabbit hole trying to understand in some level of detail what HCI is...
For example, we have 2 x quad port 10 GB NIC and 1 x 100 Gb Mellanox in each of the three nodes. The mellanox is for a dedicated backend starwind sync between the three nodes (best practice from what starwind said). The two quad cards are for redundant iSCSI links, redundant links for VM networks to core, and redundant links for hosts/cluster com. Yet, I get folks in my team say... woah... 3 NICs! Thats not HCI. VXRail do it all with 1 x NIC in each box. Must be a shit solution if VXrail only need 1 and starwind want 3! Blows my mind.
-
@scottalanmiller said in What makes a system HCI?:
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@scottalanmiller said in What makes a system HCI?:
@DustinB3403 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
Maybe crappy HCI, but far better than three servers, connected to two switches, to one physical SAN which is what many here want.
I don't think anyone wants this, they are simply having the wool pulled over their eyes as someone steals their money.
I see it a lot, and it's always someone getting a little something from their buddy at the dealer.
Thats why I am specifically not doing this type of thing. As said, it may not be the top tier all bells and whistled HCI, but three nodes or more, with starwind vsan, running a windows failover cluster is 1) still HCI, and 2) better than doing an ipod.
Yup. As long as it's Starwind vSAN and not any Windows storage, it's actually really good. WIndows, Hyper-V, Starwind... all good components. It's really ReFS and SS that are scary and to be avoided. This isn't bad at all, actually.
Well, the CSV cluster storage is provided by Starwind on the same hosts to all hosts. They actually have these starwind image files on each of the nodes, where starwind runs, which contain the LUN/CSV/vSAN data... So the starwind files sit on windows, but are provided over iSCSI by starwind to the cluster... if that makes sense. I assume that is standard for how the vsan works.
-
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@scottalanmiller said in What makes a system HCI?:
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@scottalanmiller said in What makes a system HCI?:
@DustinB3403 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
Maybe crappy HCI, but far better than three servers, connected to two switches, to one physical SAN which is what many here want.
I don't think anyone wants this, they are simply having the wool pulled over their eyes as someone steals their money.
I see it a lot, and it's always someone getting a little something from their buddy at the dealer.
Thats why I am specifically not doing this type of thing. As said, it may not be the top tier all bells and whistled HCI, but three nodes or more, with starwind vsan, running a windows failover cluster is 1) still HCI, and 2) better than doing an ipod.
Yup. As long as it's Starwind vSAN and not any Windows storage, it's actually really good. WIndows, Hyper-V, Starwind... all good components. It's really ReFS and SS that are scary and to be avoided. This isn't bad at all, actually.
Which starts to get back to where my initial issue started. Many on the team say that is not HCI due to having more than one NIC. And I sit there thinking WTF! That's why I am going down this rabbit hole trying to understand in some level of detail what HCI is...
For example, we have 2 x quad port 10 GB NIC and 1 x 100 Gb Mellanox in each of the three nodes. The mellanox is for a dedicated backend starwind sync between the three nodes (best practice from what starwind said). The two quad cards are for redundant iSCSI links, redundant links for VM networks to core, and redundant links for hosts/cluster com. Yet, I get folks in my team say... woah... 3 NICs! Thats not HCI. VXRail do it all with 1 x NIC in each box. Must be a shit solution if VXrail only need 1 and starwind want 3! Blows my mind.
VxRail isn't considered good by any stretch. Okay, but not good. Super high cost, low end. Starwind is the top end - nothing is faster, nothing scales bigger.
You definitely do not need the 100Gb Mellanox, but it's nice.
-
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@scottalanmiller said in What makes a system HCI?:
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@scottalanmiller said in What makes a system HCI?:
@DustinB3403 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
Maybe crappy HCI, but far better than three servers, connected to two switches, to one physical SAN which is what many here want.
I don't think anyone wants this, they are simply having the wool pulled over their eyes as someone steals their money.
I see it a lot, and it's always someone getting a little something from their buddy at the dealer.
Thats why I am specifically not doing this type of thing. As said, it may not be the top tier all bells and whistled HCI, but three nodes or more, with starwind vsan, running a windows failover cluster is 1) still HCI, and 2) better than doing an ipod.
Yup. As long as it's Starwind vSAN and not any Windows storage, it's actually really good. WIndows, Hyper-V, Starwind... all good components. It's really ReFS and SS that are scary and to be avoided. This isn't bad at all, actually.
Well, the CSV cluster storage is provided by Starwind on the same hosts to all hosts. They actually have these starwind image files on each of the nodes, where starwind runs, which contain the LUN/CSV/vSAN data...
Yes, I know how it works, lol. It's the fastest SAN tech on the market.
-
@scottalanmiller said in What makes a system HCI?:
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@scottalanmiller said in What makes a system HCI?:
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@scottalanmiller said in What makes a system HCI?:
@DustinB3403 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
Maybe crappy HCI, but far better than three servers, connected to two switches, to one physical SAN which is what many here want.
I don't think anyone wants this, they are simply having the wool pulled over their eyes as someone steals their money.
I see it a lot, and it's always someone getting a little something from their buddy at the dealer.
Thats why I am specifically not doing this type of thing. As said, it may not be the top tier all bells and whistled HCI, but three nodes or more, with starwind vsan, running a windows failover cluster is 1) still HCI, and 2) better than doing an ipod.
Yup. As long as it's Starwind vSAN and not any Windows storage, it's actually really good. WIndows, Hyper-V, Starwind... all good components. It's really ReFS and SS that are scary and to be avoided. This isn't bad at all, actually.
Well, the CSV cluster storage is provided by Starwind on the same hosts to all hosts. They actually have these starwind image files on each of the nodes, where starwind runs, which contain the LUN/CSV/vSAN data...
Yes, I know how it works, lol. It's the fastest SAN tech on the market.
So it may not be the best solution to have 3 x nodes, clusterd, with starwind vSAN, but it is still a good solution, better than the old ipod setup. I can take that.
-
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@scottalanmiller said in What makes a system HCI?:
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@scottalanmiller said in What makes a system HCI?:
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@scottalanmiller said in What makes a system HCI?:
@DustinB3403 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
Maybe crappy HCI, but far better than three servers, connected to two switches, to one physical SAN which is what many here want.
I don't think anyone wants this, they are simply having the wool pulled over their eyes as someone steals their money.
I see it a lot, and it's always someone getting a little something from their buddy at the dealer.
Thats why I am specifically not doing this type of thing. As said, it may not be the top tier all bells and whistled HCI, but three nodes or more, with starwind vsan, running a windows failover cluster is 1) still HCI, and 2) better than doing an ipod.
Yup. As long as it's Starwind vSAN and not any Windows storage, it's actually really good. WIndows, Hyper-V, Starwind... all good components. It's really ReFS and SS that are scary and to be avoided. This isn't bad at all, actually.
Well, the CSV cluster storage is provided by Starwind on the same hosts to all hosts. They actually have these starwind image files on each of the nodes, where starwind runs, which contain the LUN/CSV/vSAN data...
Yes, I know how it works, lol. It's the fastest SAN tech on the market.
So it may not be the best solution to have 3 x nodes, clusterd, with starwind vSAN, but it is still a good solution, better than the old ipod setup. I can take that.
Well the IPOD isn't hyperconverged. It's just servers using shared storage.
-
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@scottalanmiller said in What makes a system HCI?:
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@scottalanmiller said in What makes a system HCI?:
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@scottalanmiller said in What makes a system HCI?:
@DustinB3403 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@Jimmy9008 said in What makes a system HCI?:
Maybe crappy HCI, but far better than three servers, connected to two switches, to one physical SAN which is what many here want.
I don't think anyone wants this, they are simply having the wool pulled over their eyes as someone steals their money.
I see it a lot, and it's always someone getting a little something from their buddy at the dealer.
Thats why I am specifically not doing this type of thing. As said, it may not be the top tier all bells and whistled HCI, but three nodes or more, with starwind vsan, running a windows failover cluster is 1) still HCI, and 2) better than doing an ipod.
Yup. As long as it's Starwind vSAN and not any Windows storage, it's actually really good. WIndows, Hyper-V, Starwind... all good components. It's really ReFS and SS that are scary and to be avoided. This isn't bad at all, actually.
Well, the CSV cluster storage is provided by Starwind on the same hosts to all hosts. They actually have these starwind image files on each of the nodes, where starwind runs, which contain the LUN/CSV/vSAN data...
Yes, I know how it works, lol. It's the fastest SAN tech on the market.
So it may not be the best solution to have 3 x nodes, clusterd, with starwind vSAN, but it is still a good solution, better than the old ipod setup. I can take that.
Actually, with Hyper-V 2019 and Starwind, it's one of the best solutions. You can also get this as an appliance from Starwind with full support.
-
@scottalanmiller Where in that quote do you see that Hyper-V 2019 is being used?
-
@DustinB3403 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@scottalanmiller Where in that quote do you see that Hyper-V 2019 is being used?
That's why I stated it, to make sure that it was.
-
@scottalanmiller said in What makes a system HCI?:
@DustinB3403 said in What makes a system HCI?:
@scottalanmiller Where in that quote do you see that Hyper-V 2019 is being used?
That's why I stated it, to make sure that it was.
Oh
