HPE Simplivity system with DR.

[lucasPeni]

We are looking at getting an HPE Simplivity (2 node) and utilizing their DR software with a 3rd node in a datacenter. Was just wondering if anyone has any experience with it.

They were one of the only places that did HCI with just 2 nodes. I know you can with vSAN and then use a witness node, but rather keep things simple.

Currently we are using Veeam for DR for just 5 VM's.

[Ryan_Hardy]

What's your main goal? Do you want to have the datastores on two hosts, in case one of them dies? Or do you need to replicate the datastore(s) of these two hosts to another site (datacenter, as you wrote)?

Because when talking about 2-node vSAN with witness appliance you have the datastore on these 2 nodes only - should both die, the data is gone.

Anyhow, vSAN with witness appliance is in no way more complex than SimpliVity with Arbiter appliance. I'd even say vSAN is way more simple because it is integrated into the hypervisor and management is easier.

[sudhirsingh]

@lucasPeni

I believe you can deploy 2+1  kind of SimpliVity setup.

Keep two nodes in Primary cluster and one node in secondary(DR) cluster.

keep both cluster in same federation.

Initial setup should be like this

1. Install Arbiter in any windows server.

2. Create a Data_center object followed by two cluster (Primary and Secondary) object in vCenter.

3. Deploy two node in Primary cluster.

4. Once first two nodes are deployed in the Primary cluster successfully,

    Run the deployment manager again and choose new deployment then select Secondary Cluster which you  have created, select third node and complete the deployment.     

You have 2+1 federation ready.

You can keep your productions VMs running on the server residing on Primary cluster and keep their backups on DR/Secondary Cluster.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Sudhir