topic Re: VMWare on HP Proliant Server in Operating System - VMware

VMWare on HP Proliant Server

rdecker — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 08:33:29 GMT

Diagram is too big to upload but here's the URL to the plan:

http://XenMaster.com/VMWareBackupVLAN.aspx

I'm setting up a network for an web application provider. I'd like to have your feedback if possible. The requirement is High Performance and High Availability for 10K users. I'm planning to use 8 DL580 for VMware hosts and 2 HP DL360 for Vsphere Vcenter. I haven't used HP for a while and wonder if it's the right choice of servers for VMware and if they can achieve the goal. I'm going to use fastest available Intel CPU and start with 128GB of memory.

Virtual servers:
DMZ hosts
4x web servers, 2 on each host
2x biztalk servers, 1 on each host
2x exchange gateway, 1 on each host
Inside network hosts
2x SQL 2008 servers, 1 on each host (MS cluster)
2x domain controllers, 1 on each host
2x Exchange 2010 servers, 1 on each host (MS cluster)

Re: VMWare on HP Proliant Server

Michal Kapalka (mikap) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:13:09 GMT

hi,

we are using HP servers without any problem.

Proliant and Integrity + Tape library ...

DL580 is very powerfull server.

mikap

Re: VMWare on HP Proliant Server

Jan Soska — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:41:10 GMT

Agree with Michal, your server plan is ok (I prefer AMD personally, but new intels are really good).
Just to mention - storage could by your performance problem, what plans do you have there?

Jan

Re: VMWare on HP Proliant Server

rdecker — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:39:47 GMT

We're going to use EMC CX4-120 for the storage. It's in the diagram. Let me know your thoughts on that too if you have the time. Thanks.

Re: VMWare on HP Proliant Server

Michal Kapalka (mikap) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:22:35 GMT

hi,

the clariion is very well, in our enviroment we are using Symmetrix as a main storage for all VM-s, and Clariion CX700 ( the CX4 is a new generation with lot of futures ) - for VCB, with getto scripts.

Check the PowerPath for Vmware.

mikap

Re: VMWare on HP Proliant Server

Jan Soska — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 05:17:29 GMT

Hello, one more point - you plan lot of server which require lot of space, why don't you think about blades (c7000)? You can get your config in 10U (except vCenters, but you can virtualize them...)

Jan

Re: VMWare on HP Proliant Server

Michal Kapalka (mikap) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 05:24:42 GMT

hi Jan,

the blade is very well, but in my opinion its better to have X stand alone servers like a DL580 instead of blade infrastructure, its for me more secure, and normally i don't care about foot print and also count of cables.

Of course there are pros/cons, this is just my personal opinion.

Sorry for poisoning the thread with this message.

mikap

Re: VMWare on HP Proliant Server

walterrsmith — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:20:08 GMT

8 DL580's is a lot of horsepower for 14 VM's. Might want to scale that back initially and add more servers as capacity is required.

Also, MS best practices for Exchange 2010 is not to mix VMware HA with MS Clustering (see http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/exchange2010/thread/7e8c9cd5-2d3b-407d-a971-7331dd56c615.

MS Clustering is not supported on a DRS / HA enabled VMware cluster, as I recall. I don't think it will allow you to use VMotion either. I'm not sure if this is true with VSphere but I'm pretty sure that's the case with ESX 3.x. See page 13 (http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/sql_server_virt_bp.pdf).

Re: VMWare on HP Proliant Server

rdecker — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:07:22 GMT

Thank you everyone for your help thus far. I'm still fiddling some hardware specs, will report back with the final plan.