Evaluating HP, Dell, IBM Solutions for small VMware deployment
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Chiper1
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Evaluating HP, Dell, IBM Solutions for small VMware deployment
DRS, VMotion, IBM, Dell, HP, SAS, Blade Centre S, VMware, VMware Deployment, VMware HA, Virtualization Hardware
Gday All, Currently doing some research for a solution to consolidate our 6 or so servers using VMware. We are looking to implement HA, DRS and VMotion. Our budget for the hardware is about $30K AUD and we currently have 10 users. We have the following server roles to consolidate and they are running on various ESX hosts with local storage and physical servers at present DC (60 GB data) Exchange (9GB Mailbox Store, PF 0GB) BES (2 Devices currently no more than 5) SQL (2 databases, 4.5GB) Web (2 web applications, 3.9GB) TS (Max 2 simultaneous users) VCS (To manage ESX hosts) Based on our small user base, direct attached SAS should suffice. Moving forward we are looking at moving into virtual hosting to provide our customers with hosted application solutions and will probably role this out with VMware View so we should make provision for this. Initially we would aim to install this hardware locally however as we convert customers to our hosted solution would require to move this to a data centre purely based on bandwidth requirements. With this in mind we are considering a blade solution to A - Ensure smallest footprint as possible B - Ensure expandability That said we have come up with the following solutions and would appreciate any feedback or advice you can offer in relation to these products. Each host has the following specs 24GB RAM (6 x 4GB modules) 2 x 72GB SAS 15K HDD RAID 1 - For ESX install 2 x Xeon Quad Core 95W 2.66GHz/1333MHz CPU Each storage has the following specs Dual Controller model 5 x 450GB SAS 15K 3.5" HDD RAID 5 (1.8TB storage)

Option A - IBM ($9K More) 2 x IBM X3650 M2 Servers 1 x DS3200 SAS Storage Array Dual Controller OR Blade Centre S Chassis 2 x HS22 Blades

Option B - HP ($4K More) 2 x HP DL380 G6 X5550 Servers 1 x 2012SA DC Modular Smart Array

Option C - Dell (Best Price) 2 x Power Edge R710 Rack Mount Servers 1 x Power Vault MD3000 with HA solution Would like to thank anyone that takes the time to offer advice, its all clear as mud as we slowly battle through the design phase.

Cheers, Chiper [!-- BEGIN attachments --][!-- END attachments --][!-- BEGIN content details --]



Software/Hardware used:
HP Dell or IBM with VMware and Microsoft Server Exchange SQL
ASKED: Oct 13 2009  8:08 AM GMT
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Bpina
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I'm not going to offer much advice on the server side of it, other than to state my overall preference for HP server hardware using Opteron processors when doing virtualization. Any of those 3 systems you've listed would work fairly well for you, just go for the one that you feel the most comfortable with and offers you the most bang for the buck. Where I will offer a specific recommendation is on the storage side of the equation. If you can find a dealer that you can get service and support for it, look at Scale Computing and their HPC clustered storage solution. They make a system that is easily expandable, very affordable, simple to configure, and very high availability. For about $13k US, you can build a 3TB iSCSI SAN, or configure it as a NFS NAS. The data throughput is excellent, and expanding storage on the system is as simple as plugging a new unit into the array. For the money, you won't find another storage solution out there that offers the level of redundancy and amount of storage that Scale does. Check them out at http://www.scalecomputing.com

Good luck with your project. My $.02 worth.
Last Answered: Oct 13 2009  3:35 PM GMT by Bpina   90 pts.
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Mshen   23505 pts.  |   Oct 14 2009  12:08AM GMT

As Bpina said, you should go with the vendor that you are most confortable with. Make sure you push your sales reps to make their pricing as competitive as possible. For the same specs, you should be able to squeeze some good savings from all three vendors.

 
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