@Jason said:
400-500 employee's by year 2020.
But right now, honestly. I'm not certain of what I can 100% project for storage needs 3-5 years. I can just take a look and guess at the storage growth on a monthly basis and calculate there.
As using roaming profiles + company shares and other misc. data on network.
@Dashrender said:
But if I pass the ISCSI through ESXi, ESXi can't see what's on the disk at all, and instead Windows handles everything. In this case Windows formats the drive directly and places files directly on the drive.
This is how its handled with Xen Server.
With Xen Server, I can select the iSCSI LUN storage points. And it will show me the created disks and to which Virtual machines they're associated with.
its Billing Related software.. medical billing. as FYI
So we deal with numerous different EHR/PM systems. One day looking to be able to streamline to one central software. This is a challenge
But all these 400 future employee's using a RDP wrapper to launch their software? Similar to thin-client. (2X Application Server)
I do not install the needed customer software on the employee's workstations. Much easier to handle. I'd be putting out even more fires on daily basis.
Right, which I was prospecting to have 3 large Hypervisor nodes to handle workload.. but might need to scale larger to handle the future
again, company plans to have 400-500 employee's by year 2020.
Total storage. I would guesstimate would grow larger than 5TB in 2+ years.
Right. Future plans was to do 10Gbe backbone for ONLY the Hypervisor Nodes & the NAS/SAN
All other network traffic (workstations, phones) - would be handled by the 1GigE network switching
I would just inter-connect the 1GigE network to the 10GigE network to be able to talk and have access to those devices.
Ofcourse I know local storage would be faster.
Just looking for cost-effective.
As you know I was looking at 2X Synology rackmount 12-disk units (replication - HA setup). and then just Hypervisor nodes.
But damn.. Oracle hit me with 10k per 1U server. what the hell
UPDATE
Oracle just got back to me on Pricing. Made me puke
10K PER server for a F*** simple 1U box? what f[moderated] is going on with this market, have I completely lost touch?
Passes the disk along to windows and allows to manage..
Look >
Citrix Xen Server. You Assign or well attach a storage repository. Here I attached iSCSI LUN storage disks.
You create a Virtual Machine on a Xen Server Node. When creating, you pick WHERE you want the local disks to be stored/created on. You select one of the iSCSI LUNS.
Once selected. A disk or disks will be attached to the Virtual machine you just created and the size you selected. Windows will see these as local disks.
Going to read into the Microsoft utility - this might be the answer.
Presently do not have DFS
Ok so I'll scratch the Proxmox ideal. As right, it probably wouldnt scale. meh.
But I do know and have been planning to migrate away from iSCSI over to NFS storage for Xen Server. I already started... but the issue is with migrating the storage from the current local disk to new local disk that gets assigned to the VM
Still 100% confused on local replicated storage.
Scott made a comment on Xen Server with HA-Lizard
But wouldnt all that storage replication STILL be handled over 1Gbe backbone??!
Have not looked at Xen Motion. I'm going to check into it.
For the life Of me, I would not want to re-do the entire folder structure for the company. that's like death.
I'd just then rather setup a new Windows 2012 Server and start fresh and only pull over the network shared data.
120+ employee's. All which we use Roaming profiles... and not to mention the SMB shares controlled by this domain controller
So if anyone can explain to me
To do away with centralized storage such as what we have now and I've been moving to. I suppose this is what I've grown use to.
In order to have localized storage at the node/hypervisor level. one or many of the hypervisors would be storing all the data and sharing out the NFS? Then its replicated between? probably with DRBD Storage.
however, would would this be done with Citrix Xen Server for instance?
@coliver said:
Is the "D" drive setup as a virtual hard disk on the iSCSI LUN or is it being passed through to the Windows Server?
The "D" disk drive is attached to Windows server through Citrix Xen Server. Which then rides back to the Synology NAS.
Pulled from the LUN storage pool as attached to Xen Server
I had the Synology NAS setup as Block Level storage for the Volume that serves out the ISCSI Luns. mehhhhh.
the complications! Lol.
This is why I was wanting to move to all new design and setup being that I already essentially have data on a centralized setup.
Could I get away with dual Synology 12-bay NAS units? (running in HA/replication).Probably
I was thinking about having 10Gbe backbone/interconnect for the NAS + The VM Node servers. So all that traffic rides on the 10GBE backbone and would not touch the 1Gbe switches.
Hi there
I had a previous thread going on here about 1U Servers and then opened the world up to some storage issues and limitations I'm currently facing
Current:
Windows Server 2008 R2 running on Citrix Xen Server
Xen Server has storaged mapped to it via iSCSI LUN from a Synology NAS.
Disk is attached to Windows Server VM through Xen Server. This is nearly 2TB
I've been wanting to migrate ALL the DATA from the windows "D" Data drive. This is nearly 2TB. This has all the windows shares and permissions set from windows.
Wanted to migrate to another NAS unit we have which would be using NFS Shares attached to Citrix.
I already attached the new larger drive as a Disk to the Windows Server and is setup as different drive letter.
Issue comes in of using a copy method to transfer ALL data off the current drive, to the new Drive letter. Then once done, disconnect the original drive. And give the replacement (new) drive the original drive letter.
@Aconboy said:
HC3
How long has HC3 scale been avail? Today is my first time hearing and being introduced with the option
Also my goal was to migrate to NFS storage away from iSCSI
as dealing with the RAW image or .cow2 image file is hell of alot easier.
I've moved VM's on Citrix Xen Server and Storage to another LUN at the time (when installed the 2nd Synology)
It saturated the network.
The current SuperMicro 1U server only has 2 Intel NIC cards. I have them bonded via Xen Center and LACP enabled.
Thank you for the insight.. great points from you & everyone
For centralized storage.
Right now its essentially a single Synology NAS (Serving out NFS & iSCSI LUNS)
I have two(2) Synology NAS's. But one is directly associated to the Citrix Xen Server and it storage needs. The 2nd larger Synology NAS is tied to both Citrix Xen Server (NFS) and also Prox Mox storage.
The goal was to migrate ALL data off the old NAS to the new larger NAS. But due to limitations and the storage size growing so rapidly became so difficult
Company bitches to me of anydown time. As users will randomly want to work remotely or from home. So telling CEO that I need to migrate 2TB of data over the network to the new storage pool and will take 10 hours. Its pulling teeth.
Ultimate goal in new setup I was planning
meaning WAS
2 - Synology NAS 12 bay units - data replicated between
2 - 3 NODE servers for housing the Virtual Machines
I'm aware of this - and that is the point I was getting across.
As with iSCSI initiator I COULD attach as local disk and direct connect and take advantage of near full network speed with smaller overhead.
In my opinion. There would be more overhead
ISCSI LUN attached to Xen Hypervisor > VM > attached as local disk. Unless pass-through?
Furthermore. The issue stands.
With the primary data being on the Citrix Xen Server as local disk (iSCSI LUN storage). if I was to migrate to an NFS Stor. Mounted to Xen Server.
I would attach as a NEW disk to that Virtual Machine. Mount it within Windows and format. Then I'll be stuck wit 'xcopy' the data & Permissions over to this new storage drive.
As this is an issue now, as the Citrix Xen server has storage ties to our original Synology 4-bay NAS.
I've been wanting to move ALL our LUN's and data to our newer larger Synology NAS. And then use the original 4-bay as a replication/ back-up
NOTE:
Just spoke with folks at Oracle sales, had a conference call to discuss X5-2 servers and specs. Awaiting pricing.
Also noticed ALOT of IBM server X on ebay.. newer ones at that. Not a good sign. Also relates back to how IBM didnt trust their own servers.