Upgrading our Virtualised environment

Discussion in 'Virtual and Cloud Computing' started by Kitkatninja, Jan 12, 2013.

  1. Kitkatninja
    Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    Kitkatninja aka me, myself & I Moderator

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    Hi All,

    Just wanted to post this and get some ideas..

    Our current environment:

    A few Dell servers (2900's) and an Intel Modular server (compute modules with an internal SAN). The Dell's are about 4-5 years old and the intel server is coming up to 4 years old. They are out of warranty now.

    We are looking to replace them as the main servers, but continue to use them for Windows 2012 hyper-v 3 disaster recovery features. Then once these servers fail, then we'll replace them.

    This is just another Business continuity planning (BCP) item we're implementing, anyway that's not what I'm getting into at the moment.

    After investigation, the following solutions have been proposed from various suppliers:

    First one -
    2 x Dell MD3600F (1 with 12 x 600GB 15k rpm HDD, 1 with 12 x 2TB Nearline SAS), 8gb fibre switch

    Second one -
    D-Link DSN-6120 SAN (iSCSI) with 7.2TB (10k rpm) and DSN-654 add-on with 24TB (7200 rpm)

    Third one -
    2 x Dell MD3600i (iSCSI) - 25TB (7200 rpm) with stackable Dell switch

    Fourth one -
    EMC VNXe 3150 including Unisphere for VNXe (iSCSI) 20TB (7200RPM)

    What do you guys think on the hardware?
     
    Certifications: MSc, PGDip, PGCert, BSc, HNC, LCGI, MBCS CITP, MCP, MCSA, MCSE, MCE, A+, N+, S+, Server+
    WIP: MSc Cyber Security
  2. SimonD
    Honorary Member

    SimonD Terabyte Poster

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    What kind of IOPS do you require and what do the units claim they are capable of delivering? Also worth looking at is after all the raiding has been carried out what's your actual usable space going to be?

    Next up is what kind of costings are involved with the different quotes? Also do you have existing fibre infrastructure for the MD3600F's or do you also need to factor HBA's into the cost as well? Do your current old servers have iSCSI NIC's or are you going to use existing NICs?

    Are you running 1 gig or 10 gig backend?
     
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  3. Kitkatninja
    Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    Kitkatninja aka me, myself & I Moderator

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    There's no worries re the IOPS - what we're going to move to and from there's an increase (a large one). Again, I've already taken the raiding into consideration.

    Got the quotes already, some are within budget, some aren't.

    If we go with the MD3600F, it'll also include the fibre switch, the fibre cables and the HBA's.

    The network is 1gb throughout, however again, if we go down the fibre route (the connectivity will be 8gb between the server and SAN) or the iSCSI route (the connectivity will be a 10gb one) - all these have been taken into consideration.

    I was wondering about the actual hardware, does anyone have any hands on experience with them?
     
    Certifications: MSc, PGDip, PGCert, BSc, HNC, LCGI, MBCS CITP, MCP, MCSA, MCSE, MCE, A+, N+, S+, Server+
    WIP: MSc Cyber Security

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