Posts made by ntoxicator

Thank you everyone for all the information.

Still confused as to why local storage being recommended over centralized storage on a NAS?

I suppose I just gave up with Citrix Xen Server at 6.1(free) release. Was still bugs (windows drivers). Also any Linux VM's I install, there is no memory view and does not calculate total node memory usage correctly.

With NFS Storage -- I'm unaware of a practice of where I can attach a disk as LOCAL to a windows server. keep in mind. our primary domain controller has ALL! network shares that are viable to the company. This data rides on data within an iSCSI LUN which is attached to Citrix Xen Server and as a disk tied to the VM.

Might need to split this to a seperate thread on network storage and layout....

@scottalanmiller

Define "At a small scale, local storage is generally the only possibly way to have HA."

In my eyes and logic. Seems centralized storage is the way to go.

I'm unsure how you can have HA cluster or setup when the storage needs are localized at the individual server level. Unless of-course, all the data is shared between all servers and replicated.

For instance.

NODE1 - has NFS shares on it
NODE2 & NODE2 - pull data off NODE1's NFS share.

NODE1 suddenly goes down? Then what, as that data is localized to that server.

So just shoot me down as a noob on here. Completely changing what I know?

@scottalanmiller

NOTED!

So back to looking at Sunfire servers or CISCO's lineup.

I just think the Sunfires are down right sexy in appearance, and high built quality. The ones I have are the highest quality servers I've seen in contrast to HP or DELL. I bought them used for my personal testing in Proxmox HA cluster setup.

shit me for getting torn to shreds on here. Pissing contest.

Its much easier to verbalize than type out exact specifics.

What i meant by "I just seen as Windows iSCSI initiator working much better; more manageable and not limited."

Am I currently using windows iSCSI initator? NO
Do I wish I was using it: Yes?

Why: Because I feel it would be easier to manage and connect an iSCSI LUN as localized storage and data storage. The larger 2TB storage holds all the windows network shares and user profile data.... thats the problem.

@scottalanmiller

Essentially What I was looking to do was KVM / VM with complete HA.

I'm uncertain about keeping data local to individual servers. maybe because I have no experience with localized storage in an HA environment? Its all been shared centralized storage.

@coliver

Thank you for info.

I'll take another look at Xen Server. As I've used 6.0 and 6.1. Also helped maintain a smaller datacenter that supported ~200 users in a healthcare facility.

Again. We Presently have one(1) Supermicro server running Xen Server 6.0 and hosting the primary Domain Controller VM. But the primary of the data. 2TB Worth of data is connected to Xen Server through iSCSI LUN and then a drive attached to the Virtual machine through Xen Server.

issue: Looking to Migrate this domain controller to a more potent server. How though with 2TB of data? As its mapped through Citrix Xen server. So if I was to clone the VM disk and migrate to ProxMox - i cannot necessarily re-attach the iSCSI LUN back to the same server. Now, if we stayed on Citrix - moved to larger server. I cloned the Operating System disk. Migrated. And then re-attached the same iSCSI LUN and setup back to new node; that could probably work

I just seen as Windows iSCSI initiator working much better; more manageable and not limited.

Would I rather use NFS over iSCSI? Absolutely..

UPDATE: Yes, we're currently using Xen Server FREE edition. Works fine. I've used the Xen Server Enterprise at the data center I helped manage. It was better, although it had its own issues.

I personally just find ProxMox better features over Citrix Xen Server (free edition)

Maybe its my background with hosting game servers and that experience as well? As I'm also versed with SolusVM

Ok

Right now we have:

1 - Primary Domain Controller
5 - Terminal Servers (Load balanced with 2X Application server)
1 - Terminal server for Remote Users
1 - Terminal server for Application gateway Server & HTTP web (2X server)

We host all customer software internally on the servers and our employee's launch it via 2X Wrapper. This helps with the management aspect. Rather than having to goto each individual workstation and install and setup different customer software or application. As there is quite a bit of employee turn-over; or employee's will get shifted to different accounts; which may be a different software application.

100% Could cut down the number of Virtualized Servers if we had beefier hardware to support the workload.

I Enjoy the idea of servers in HA Cluster and centralized storage.

1 server happens to go down for whatever reason, running VM's migrate to another Node or spare. Data is centralized and can be easily backed-up or moved around.

Thanks for your comments and replies!

I'll look into HP servers before DELL. It concerns me about their price/performance now as I feel their quality has deteriorated over the years. Supermicro I know is always a good choice, as I've used them for years. its just the time to configure and build the whitelabel machines and then also the warranty/support. Comes at a cost.

Anytime we have a minute of downtime. I have COO & CEO breathing down my neck screaming.

ProxMox reason: It has straight KVM or OpenVZ support. also has enterprise features. Why pay more for Citrix Xen Server when its complete BULLSHIT in my eyes. Sorry.. I dont see the benefits of Citrix Xen Server (KVM based).

No true experience with VMware eSXI.

Right now we have 6TB of storage in RAID-10 Array. But gets depleted pretty quickly. Using right about 2TB of that for company storage and user data. Working to re-work the storage needs and just use iSCSI LUN and attach to Windows Server 2008.

Right now the DATA Storage is piped through Citrix Xen Server in means of ISCSI LUN and mapped as a Drive associated to the VM. This was not smart on my behalf years ago. I would of been better to just directly attach a LUN right to Windows server using the ISCSI initiator. Everything was a blur 2 years ago when was scrambling to put the build together at the time.

So, company I work for has finally started to gather a budget. Although I'm director of IT (if want to call it that - wont go off on a rant). They've told me to go out and price servers that we need and new network equipment to sustain future growth
Right now at 120 employee's. Plans to add 30 more employee's within 2016. Afterwards growth to up over 400. (moving to new larger facility)
Right now I'm Virtualizing everything.
Current: SuperMicro Barebone 1U AMD 6220's server. Citrix Xen Server
Also have 3 - 1U Sun Sunfire X servers running HA Cluster with proxmox. This was a testing area for me on personal servers. Company VM's have been flooding on here because.... current single 1U server is at max capacity
Network: Synology NAS's. RAID-10.. etc. LACP link aggregation on 1GBe network...
Looking at new servers:
I'm 100% fanboy of the Oracle SunFire servers. Anyone have opinions?
Also looking at the LENOVO System X (IBM Line) of servers.
However, CISCO has their servers now.... But -- this brings back very bad memories for TAC Support and the website needs to die. Cant find shit on their website.
Plans are to use ProxMox VE for HA cluster for all the servers.
NAS in RAID-10 array (multiple) on 10GbE backbone.
10GbE PCi-e add-on cards for the servers 10Gbe interconnect 10Gbe on NAS servers.
1Gbe switching for local data.
ISCSI storage from one of the NAS servers to attach to a Windows VM for all Data storage.
NFS Storage pool for the HA ProxMox server cluster. This would ride on the 10Gbe backbone network.
Ofcourse. All iSCSI traffic & data traffic would be on seperate VLAN - Which already is.
Any server suggestions or NAS/SAN suggestions?
I've even pondered the thought of InfiniBand (Direct connect to servers)