@Jhon.Smith said:
Hello John,
In you case i think StarWind Virtual SAN will fit perfectly. Thus we are glad to offer you our NFR license. You can get it by filling in this form and providing a link to this forum thread in it.
https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-virtual-san-for-mvp-mctUnfortunately NFR license will be provided to OP only (at least for now).
Thank you very much. I've just completed the online form.
@scottalanmiller said:
@JohnFromSTL said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Figuring out the IOPS needs is key. Without that we are guessing quite a bit.
To be completely honest with all of you, we have not calculated the IOPS on our SQL machines.
This page has some tips (http://www.sqltuners.net/blog/13-05-16/Measuring_Disk_IO_performance_for_SQL_Servers.aspx) but is there a tool or PowerShell command which people normally use to collect the data?
I think the majority of us use the Dell DPACK. If you want a DPACK read without needing to have Dell salespeople push you to install an Inverted Pyramid of Doom (which is what they do, every time, no exceptions) you can do this through NTG who are authorized to read DPACKs and have Dell's assurance that there is no sales push involved as NTG is allowed to block our customers from Dell's sales channel.
Is DPACK the best tool to use? And would you happen to have a contact name for someone at NTG? I've spoken with someone from Dell but their lousy tool keeps dropping connections to the DPACK Web Service and this gentleman isn't very responsive at all.
@Dashrender said:
If you're looking to buy Dell Equipment (even if you aren't) you can open the process with Dell, get their DPack and that will tell you your current usage.
Sweet, I'm looking into that right now. BTW, I really do appreciate how helpful all of you have been.
@scottalanmiller said:
Figuring out the IOPS needs is key. Without that we are guessing quite a bit.
To be completely honest with all of you, we have not calculated the IOPS on our SQL machines.
This page has some tips (http://www.sqltuners.net/blog/13-05-16/Measuring_Disk_IO_performance_for_SQL_Servers.aspx) but is there a tool or PowerShell command which people normally use to collect the data?
Thanks everyone!! I've got to leave for the day, I'll try and connect back to work later tonight.
@Dashrender said:
@JohnFromSTL said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@JohnFromSTL said:
The Dell Outlet has several nicely equipped machines for under $5,000, but I'm not sure about using nearline SAS.
What is your concern with NL-SAS?
Are they fast enough?
Do you know the IOPs load you need to support?
I'll have to gather and calculate the info from our 3 SQL machines.
Does this page show the best way to determine current IO details?
http://www.sqltuners.net/blog/13-05-16/Measuring_Disk_IO_performance_for_SQL_Servers.aspx
The page suggested using the following select statement to obtain the required information.
SELECT
*
,wait_time_ms/waiting_tasks_count AS 'Avg Wait in ms'
FROM
sys.dm_os_wait_stats
WHERE
waiting_tasks_count > 0
ORDER BY
wait_time_ms DESC
@scottalanmiller said:
@JohnFromSTL said:
The Dell Outlet has several nicely equipped machines for under $5,000, but I'm not sure about using nearline SAS.
What is your concern with NL-SAS?
Are they fast enough?
@scottalanmiller said:
@JohnFromSTL said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@JohnFromSTL said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@dafyre said:
I currently have a Dell R720xd running Hyper-V 2012R2. It works really really well. Not sure on the price tag, but that is a nicely built system. Raid controller can do RAID 10, and RAID 6 in addition to the others... Add ram to meet your needs.
We have a monster R720xd with 128GB too. Sweet machine. R730xd has even bigger CPU options.
@scottalanmiller, @dafyre Which CPU and how much RAM is installed in your R720xd server?
Not sure on the CPU in ours. I know it is 128GB of RAM.
Does yours have the 2.5" or 3.5" drive option?
3.5". The 12 LFF plus 2 SFF option is really nice.
The Dell Outlet has several nicely equipped machines for under $5,000, but I'm not sure about using nearline SAS.
Processor: Intel Xeon E5-2620 Processor (2.00GHz, 15M Cache, 7.2GT/s QPI, Turbo, 6C, 95W, Max Mem 1333MHz,OEM,XL)
Processor: Intel Xeon E5-2620 Processor (2.00GHz, 15M Cache, 7.2GT/s QPI, Turbo, 6C, 95W, Max Mem 1333MHz,OEM,XL)
2 TB 7.2K RPM Near-Line SAS 6Gbps 3.5in Hotplug Hard Drive [QTY : 12]
300GB 10K RPM SAS 6Gbps 2.5in Hot-plug Hard Drive [QTY : 2]
8GB RDIMM, 1600MT/s, Low Volt, Dual Rank, x8 Data Width [QTY : 4]
Intel Ethernet I350 QP 1Gb Network Daughter Card
@scottalanmiller said:
@JohnFromSTL said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@dafyre said:
I currently have a Dell R720xd running Hyper-V 2012R2. It works really really well. Not sure on the price tag, but that is a nicely built system. Raid controller can do RAID 10, and RAID 6 in addition to the others... Add ram to meet your needs.
We have a monster R720xd with 128GB too. Sweet machine. R730xd has even bigger CPU options.
@scottalanmiller, @dafyre Which CPU and how much RAM is installed in your R720xd server?
Not sure on the CPU in ours. I know it is 128GB of RAM.
Does yours have the 2.5" or 3.5" drive option?
@scottalanmiller said:
@dafyre said:
I currently have a Dell R720xd running Hyper-V 2012R2. It works really really well. Not sure on the price tag, but that is a nicely built system. Raid controller can do RAID 10, and RAID 6 in addition to the others... Add ram to meet your needs.
We have a monster R720xd with 128GB too. Sweet machine. R730xd has even bigger CPU options.
@scottalanmiller, @dafyre Which CPU and how much RAM is installed in your R720xd server?
@scottalanmiller said:
@JohnFromSTL said:
You're correct, it's the opposite of what I need. I'm frustrated the purse-strings are more watertight than a frog.
Even with tight pursestrings, though, doesn't the MD SAN approach make it worse? The cost of the SAN PLUS the cost of the drives and all for nought since it doesn't accomplish any of the goals? If we were to skip all of the goals we could do lots of things for way cheaper.
Reducing power consumption and BTUs is most important.
I'm not opposed to having multiple Hyper-V host machines, but that would require twin servers for failover and load sharing.
Did I list each of the servers I'm currently using?
@scottalanmiller @Dashrender @StrongBad @Reid-Cooper
Apologies in advance if I missed anyone. So, there are several options up here.
@scottalanmiller said:
That is a huge amount of SQL Server workloads. Figuring out the CPU and memory needs for that will be the biggest part of doing capacity planning.
We have a lot of SQL databases but they are not being accessed that frequently. I'm working on gathering metrics for our 3 SQL Server instances.
@scottalanmiller said:
@JohnFromSTL said:
Would a PowerVault MD3200i work with any of these servers that have been mentioned above?
That's a low end iSCSI SAN. So there is no consideration for compatibility. iSCSI is iSCSI and everything supports it. But there is no use case for you where this would make any sense. This would be about the worst possible options, right? Slow, expensive and incredibly dangerous - no failover and very fragile? It would defeat everything that you are trying to accomplish. Isn't this the antithesis of your goals?
You're correct, it's the opposite of what I need. I'm frustrated the purse-strings are more watertight than a frog.
@scottalanmiller said:
Wow, not bad. Not bad at all.
Would a PowerVault MD3200i work with any of these servers that have been mentioned above?
@scottalanmiller said:
@JohnFromSTL said:
Sorry for not replying sooner, the weekend sucked and I didn't had a chance to look at any of this.
Weekends off? That's not how this works!
The funny thing is, I would have much rather been at work this weekend than dealing with installing a new tub/shower faucet at home. I hate plumbing!!
@Dashrender said:
@JohnFromSTL said:
@Dashrender said:
Your new storage seems to be many times more than you are current using. Is that right?
What are you using for a backup solution?
Sorry for not replying sooner, the weekend sucked and I didn't had a chance to look at any of this.
You are correct, the new storage is larger since I'm looking to consolidate physical servers and Hyper-V clients onto these two servers. I'm looking at a Quantum Scalar i40 2x LTO 5 Fibre 40 Slot Tape Library Autoloader.
40 slot - WTH? how much is that thing?
$2,000 w/25 licenses
@Dashrender said:
Your new storage seems to be many times more than you are current using. Is that right?
What are you using for a backup solution?
Sorry for not replying sooner, the weekend sucked and I didn't had a chance to look at any of this.
You are correct, the new storage is larger since I'm looking to consolidate physical servers and Hyper-V clients onto these two servers. I'm looking at a Quantum Scalar i40 2x LTO 5 Fibre 40 Slot Tape Library Autoloader.
@StrongBad said:
Hey @JohnFromSTL good to see you here at the MangoLassi party!
Thank you very much, I'm glad to be here.
@scottalanmiller said:
If the R910 is maxing out at, say, 20% CPU, then my guess is that an R720xd will do the trick to take over its load. The R720xd has two, faster procs than the R910. Not only are the individual procs faster, but by moving from quad procs to dual procs you gain a small amount of efficiency just from that one move. So faster procs and more efficient proc usage and then cutting the total number of procs in half.... seems like you will be okay.
I apologize if I said R910, but I'm actually using 2 x PowerEdge R900 as Hyper-V host machines.
@StrongBad said:
Okay, I think that we have a pretty good round up of the options at this point. Until we have more information from the OP, like if there is more money, new requirements or specific disk requirements this seems to be the consensus:
Solution 1: The bare bones, cost saving solution is a two node Dell R510 or R720xd with 8x 4TB NL-SAS drives in RAID 10 (add drives as needed for performance up to 12) cluster. The 4TB 3.5" drives are just too cheap to not use and RAID 10 probably makes them the reasonably fast choice even though they are NL-SAS rather than 10K. Use HyperV and StarWind to do the clustering and failover. Might be able to come in somewhere around the assumed budget limits.
Solution 2: The expensive but easy approach. Scale with three nodes and everything included (hyperconverged) in a single package. A fraction of the work to set up or to maintain. Will grow easily in the future. Likely far more expensive than the OP can justify.
Would the CPU options on the Dell R510 or R720xd provide enough horsepower for the VMs?