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6 Replies Last post: Nov 14, 2008 1:41 AM by Oliphant  
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Hugo
3 posts since
Oct 3, 2008

Oct 3, 2008 10:02 AM

Virtualization

Hello all,

I want to start to virtualize all the servers I have at the company I work so at this moment I'm talking with different partners to implement a VMWare solution.

Some partners just say, "don't even go in that direction, virtualization should not be used with critical systems" (like database systems for instance), and others say that I'm going in the right direction so I need your help.

I want to implement a solution that is very simple (3 servers virtualized and one storage) that will hopefully address my company needs (at this moment we have 7 physical servers that are old and running out of space).

With this solution I want mainly to achieved the following:
  • Decrease downtimes due to hardware failures or system maintenance.
  • Avoid buying more servers (I need to upgrade two differents software systems that would force me to buy at least 4 new servers) that will substitute some old servers that we have.
  • Have flexibility to add more CPU or memory power if I need it.
  • Avoid security and compatibility issues between different software.
  • Add more services (ftp server for example, etc) again without buying more servers.

The partners I'm talking to alredy sent me their proposals and the main differences between them are the following:
  • Comunication between the servers and the storage are based either in Fiber Channel or iSCSI.
  • Some use SATA disks, others suggested SAS disks and another suggested Fiber Channel disks.

So my questions are:
  • Do you think I'm going in the right direction? Is virtualization the way to go?
  • What do you think is the best scenario? Fiber Channel or iSCSI?
  • Are SATA disks good enought for virtualization scenarios? Should I go instead for SAS or Fiber Channel?
  • Are the HP DL380 servers good for virtualization?

Note: I have a limited budget for this project! :-)

Thanks for your help.

Best regards,
Hugo
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Hugo
3 posts since
Oct 3, 2008
1. Oct 3, 2008 10:05 AM in response to: Hugo
Virtualization: Am I going in the right direction?

Accidentaly I've create the post without making some last changes to it:

When I say: "DL 380" I wanted to say "DL 380 5G".

Best regards,
Hugo
Click to view derekn's profile Apprentice
derekn
12 posts since
Sep 10, 2007
2. Oct 4, 2008 7:21 AM in response to: Hugo
Re: Virtualization: Am I going in the right direction?

Well asking going virtualization is the right direction on a forum for virtualization is kind of the wrong thing to ask.

Virtualization is the way to go if it fits in your scenario, that is only something you can answer.

My environment is pretty similar to what you are starting up.

25 VM machines, 3 HP DL380G5 Servers, Hitachi AMS200 San via Fibre Channel. We use qLogic Fibre switches to qlogic hba cards in the server, 3 Nic's and a independent server for our Virtual Center (vCenter) box. We started 3 years ago with only virtualizing 8 servers, but have migrated majority of our product servers to virtualization. I am running my DNS servers, File and Print (Novell), Imaging products, 500gig database server (I know its large), and every server we plan to purchase is virtualized first.

We are now increasing our environment to 8 more esx hosts for vdi, well panologic thin clients. So my environment might a little biased.

:8}

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Hugo
3 posts since
Oct 3, 2008
3. Oct 6, 2008 1:53 AM in response to: derekn
Re: Virtualization: Am I going in the right direction?

Hello Derek,

Thanks for your answer and for sharing your environment.

I don't consider my first question "the wrong thing" because others might see some similarities with my scenario (like trying to virtualize databases) and can alert me of typical problems I should avoid (or even tell me not to virtualize databases).

Regarding my other questions:
Should I consider Fiber Channel or iSCSI?
Are SATA disks good enought for virtualization scenarios? Should I go instead for SAS or Fiber Channel disks?

Can anyone help me?

Thanks.
Best regards,
Hugo
Click to view Mirc's profile Candidate
Mirc
1 posts since
Oct 3, 2008
4. Oct 8, 2008 7:58 AM in response to: Hugo
Re: Virtualization
Hi !

  • Do you think I'm going in the right direction?
Yes.

  • Is virtualization the way to go?
Yes.

  • What do you think is the best scenario?
1) Collect resources usage (procesor, memory, net and disk) of existing physical servers
2) Buy/uppgrade ESX servers with enough of above resources (usually memory might be limiting factor) to support VMs and add enough reserve for future and HA.

  • Fiber Channel or iSCSI?
In your relatively small enviroment iSCSI is probably good enough, unless you have very heavy disk usage of your servers.

  • Are SATA disks good enought for virtualization scenarios?
SATA in server enviroment is only suitable for second-tier storage (archiving).

  • Should I go instead for SAS or Fiber Channel?
SAS if you decide on iSCSI (see above).

  • Are the HP DL380 servers good for virtualization?
Certainly, just put in a lot of memory and each should support 10 VMs ...

Well, other oppinions might differ, but the bottom line is:
you should know best, how your servers run now and where they have weak points regarding usage of resources :-)

LP, Miro
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User_no_2
1 posts since
Nov 9, 2008
5. Nov 9, 2008 7:40 PM in response to: Hugo
Re: Virtualization

Hi all,

I'm planning to use virtualization technology for failover and recovery demo. I want to demo that I was running one crucial application in virtual machine 1. If the application or OS in virtual machine 1 crashes, the host will switch to virtual machine 2 so that we can still run the application. Do you have any ideas/recomendation on this?

Best Regards,

:^0

Click to view Oliphant's profile Apprentice
Oliphant
26 posts since
Mar 7, 2008
6. Nov 14, 2008 1:41 AM in response to: User_no_2
Re: Virtualization
What is your infrastucture like e.g what hardware have you got in place.

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