topic Re: So whats everyone using for switching and servers? in Array Setup and Networking

So whats everyone using for switching and servers?

jwagner137 — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 16:12:43 GMT

I'm curious what folks are using for their ISCSI switching and servers? If you dont want to say that's fine. Just trying to get a feel for what others are using and maybe what you like and don't like about them.

We are looking at a few different server and switch vendors and haven't settled on any particular vendor yet.

Thanks in advance.

John

Re: So whats everyone using for switching and servers?

ryanhoman100 — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 14:33:25 GMT

Using Cisco 3750x and HP A5500 for switching. I like the gui on the HP switches better than the cisco as you can complete most functions without needing to know command line.

Using HP DL380 servers for VMware. The new gen8 series have tons of sensors and run a lot cooler than the older series.

Re: So whats everyone using for switching and servers?

jonathan_dee_ha — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 16:33:42 GMT

For switching we use Cisco's Catalyst 4510r with WS-X4748-UPOE+E linecards for GigE and WS-X4712-SFP+E linecards for 10GigE. We have always used Cisco gear in our data center, but the upgrade to the chassis-based 4510r switch has been great; very robust and versatile. We use IBM x3550 servers in out VMware environment, which is primarily what our Nimble array is dedicated to. All of our other servers are IBM xSeries from different generations.

Re: So whats everyone using for switching and servers?

jliu79 — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 13:22:00 GMT

We are a HP shop. We use ProCurve line switches. For server we use Proliant DL360 G7. HP servers are the best in my opinion and their support is excellent. We also have a IBM BladeCenter which gives us a lot of trouble and IBM support really sucks.

Re: So whats everyone using for switching and servers?

dejvnull49 — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 08:18:41 GMT

Hi all!

We're using HP DL360's and DL380's Gen 8 servers. On the switching side, we were a bit on a budget, so we went over pretty much every 10GB switch available... we ended up with Netgear's 10GB switches, which after som initial issues and quirks are actually running fine. The reason we chose them is that we could get four switches instead of two, so now we have two switches in each DC fully redundant. I also have a fantastic technician who is networking agnostic. He'll make anything work as we want it to.

The biggest caveats with Netgear is getting to 3rd line support. 1st line are useless and just loop you around. Getting 3rd line and the issues are usually solved like with most others like Juniper, HP etc...

/Dave

Re: So whats everyone using for switching and servers?

nelson49 — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 16:04:36 GMT

For the network that connects our SANs and VMware Servers we are using Dell PowerConnect 5524 switches. For our core network we are using HP ProCurve 2800 series switches.

For our servers we currently use Dell PE R610. This year, though, we have switched to a company named ByteSpeed for computers and our next round of servers will most likely come from them too. They provide 5 year warranties on desktops and servers as a standard and use name brand components (mostly Intel).

We haven't had any issues that I am aware of.

Re: So whats everyone using for switching and servers?

roddy_pimentel — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 19:32:05 GMT

We are using Dell PowerEdge Servers R720's, Cisco 3750X for iSCSI and Cisco 4506 Blade for Server Side Switching.

We almost went all Dell, but I don't know. Just a fondness for Cisco and being very familiar with the CLI.

Re: So whats everyone using for switching and servers?

ageiger3171 — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 21:18:42 GMT

We are using Dell M620 blades and Cisco B200 M2/3s. The Dell servers access our arrays through a pair of Force10 MXL switches uplinked to a pair of Cisco Nexus 5548s. The UCS servers connect up through the FI to the Nexus 5548 pairs.

Both have setups have worked pretty well. The Nexus and Force10 switches have their own peculiarities with the molded twinax cables though.

Re: So whats everyone using for switching and servers?

kevin_kumpf — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 15:01:46 GMT

We're using mostly the Nexus line from Cisco for switching and a variety of R"XXX" servers from Dell. From a compatibility standpoint, I can't think of a single issue we've had related to Nimble/Cisco/Dell not playing together nicely.

Re: So whats everyone using for switching and servers?

jwagner137 — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 16:20:27 GMT

Kevin,

Which cisco switches if you don't mind me asking?

We are looking at 3 dell R720s with 2 Cisco 4900M's (1Gb throughout) to a CS260 and CS220.

John

Re: So whats everyone using for switching and servers?

kevin_kumpf — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 16:48:50 GMT

We're using the Cisco Nexus 5010 (which I believe is EOL now) and the 5548. Admittedly these may be pricey to get into but have been the most rock-solid, datacenter level switch we've used for storage.

I don't think you'll be disappointed in the R720 either, as that's currently our flagship server. Quite beefy for only 2U of rack space.

Re: So whats everyone using for switching and servers?

gsherart26 — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 16:57:44 GMT

We are using HP ProCurve 5400zl switches with 10Gb modules. Servers are HP BL460c G8 blades (256G RAM, Dual 8 Core). We boot off the Nimble so there is no local storage.

Re: So whats everyone using for switching and servers?

jwolf81 — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 16:41:49 GMT

We're running four HP Gen8 BL460's on VMware with 192 GB RAM each at our primary datacenter. Switching there is through two 10GB HP Procurve 5820 series switches. Storage is Nimble CS240G and an old Drobo device for archive storage. We have around 50 VM's running in that environment (SQL and Citrix XenApp are the biggest hitters there).

We're replicating at the storage level, a SQL cluster, and through DFS down to our DR and development site which is a single HP Gen8 DL380 running VMware. I just have a small Procurve 2910 there at the moment with a Nimble CS240 as the only storage on site.

Both setups work extremely well, and my only gripe with the switches is the 5820's are really running the old 3com OS. The commands are different between the two Procurve products because of that which is frustrating. In a pinch, I also like to use the web interfaces on the switches as you can do most everyday tasks through there.

We're booting all our servers into VMware from onboard SD cards.

Re: So whats everyone using for switching and servers?

J Benway — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 13:08:47 GMT

We have Dell R7X0 server connected with 10GB twinax cables to cisco nexus 5548. I agree the twinax cables are VERY touchy. I think we've had to replace about 6 of them. We are using Qlogic CNA cards in the servers.

Re: So whats everyone using for switching and servers?

jwagner137 — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 17:18:59 GMT

So we finally purchased and got in place our core. We ended up going with Dell Poweredge R720s and 4 Cisco 4900ms with a Nimble CS260 and CS220.

If I had to do it over I would go with a different switch vendor.

Otherwise all is running well and we are very happy with the setup and functionality so far.

Re: So whats everyone using for switching and servers?

tmoore106 — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 04:23:54 GMT

For those that engage with a Nimble SE in the purchase process of an array, ask for that SE's feedback on switches specifically used for iSCSI. We see the good, the bad and the ugly.

Re: So whats everyone using for switching and servers?

Jacob_Wilde — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 20:41:20 GMT

We're running Nexus 5548's and all servers are Cisco UCS Blades, things seem to running well, we might consider going to Jumbo Frames as we're all 10GbE and we've seen some latency issues with SQL when doing backups and maintenance jobs that hit the databases hard. VMware seems to fly along, only thing I could wish for is an additional pair of 10GbE ports per controller so I could direct connect the Nimble Arrays to our two UCS domains via Appliance Ports.

Re: So whats everyone using for switching and servers?

davecramp16 — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 01:02:53 GMT

I'll chime into this too.

DC1:

Cisco Nexus 5548 switches & Cisco UCS Blades. We run jumbo frames for iSCSI and NFS traffic VLANs.

DC2

Cisco Nexus 5547 switches & HP C7000 / BL460C G6/7/8 blades. HP FlexConnect 10gbit blade switches with Jumbo frames for NFS and iSCSI traffic.

Re: So whats everyone using for switching and servers?

dhicks2 — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 19:00:44 GMT

HP DL360 Gen 9

HP 5406 10GBE

HP5612 10GBE

CS240

Re: So whats everyone using for switching and servers?

marty_booth — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 04:07:51 GMT

Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blades

Cisco C240s

Cisco 6296 FIs

Cisco Nexus 7k

2x CS300s (DR site)

2x CS500s (Prod site with All Flash Shelves)

We run the Nimble via appliance ports directly into the FIs, jumbo frames. I wish I hadn't done jumbo frames now, overcomplication of the environment for no real performance gain.

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