additional HardDisk on BL460c

[iinfi1]

hi all,

i v been asked to create a standby instance of our environment to be used as a failback mechanism incase our servers and SAN fail. Just to have something up and running in 8 hours incase of a disaster. Not a part of continuous availability though.
We might well use our test servers which are BL460c blade to act as production.
If storage goes down, we will need to use a server with large local HardDisk or external drive.
can external disks or additional local storage be added in a BL460c blade server?
plz help

[iinfi1]

jus had a brainwave.
how about openfiler as a failback for the storage?
A desktop class machine with about 6-8GB RAM and a HDD with 7000RPM, 2 NICs bonded.

[Ali]

Hi Iinfi,

HP has wonderful technology called virtual connect which supports your thought. Server profile can be dragged and dropped on other available blade servers incase of system down situation.

coming to your query, bl460c comes with 4 different generations and support different hdd. models so please elaborate.

BL460c G1 server can support the following internal storage
SAS hotplug
300GB x 2
SAS Hot Plug SFF (2.5-inch) Midline
500GB x 2

SATA Hot Plug SFF
500GB x 2

G6 / G7 generation servers can support even more.

thanks,
Aftab

[Alzhy]

I agree with the previous poster. If you have a CXXXX Blade System - why not explore all the available best practices available at your disposal.

If you have 2 CXXXX Blade Systems *and* your standby "machine" BL40C is on a different Enclosure - then you would have to ask yourselves WHAT are you pre-empting for as far as quick failover? If this is the case, then you should really look at employing Virtualization with High Availability and the options are wide. I recommend any of the following:

1.) vSPhere (vMware) - $$$
2.) KVM Hosted Hypervisor (which already comes free with your RHEL Advanced Platform subscription)
3.) CentOS as free alternative to RHEL where you also get KVM
4.) Full RHEV (RedHat Enterprise Virtualization) - $$$

2 and 3 will be your best bet though if your ecosystem involves only a few dozen Virtual Servers accross your BL460Cs

SANs (with dual controllers/dual fabrics) can less likely fail. Local HDDs and controllers can fail - so it is a good idea to have your OSes booting off the SAN. a Blade CXXXX enclosure CAN fail -- in which dual Blade ENclosures for these BL proliants IS GOOD/BEST PRACTICE coupled with the above HA/Virtualization solutions.

[iinfi1]

hi ..thank you for your replies.

i think i didn't make my scenario clear. i had initially suggested VMWare VMs but was told that the client is working on a DR already which is at-least a few months away.
meanwhile they need a very very cost effective method on paper which can be implemented without adding any extra servers.
Hence I thought running openfiler with 2 X 1 TB 7200RPM HDD on a high end desktop with 2 X 1Gbps NICs with 8GB RAM can do the job.
the moment production server or SAN goes down. I can power up the OpenFiler and One server to run critical applications till the server comes up.

[iinfi1]

i m not that good with hardware n storage
cpu family : 6
does that mean its generation 6?
does what I am talking make sense?
i will google for what virtual connect means. i v never come across this. the infra person at my site didnt mention about it when I met him.
thanks agian

[Ali]

You can use openfiler if its going to solve the purpose. however, I'm not quite familiar with it.

I was referring to BL460 G6 or BL460 G7 Servers which support greater amount of storage internally.

BL460 G6 quickspecs:
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13238_div/13238_div.html

BL460 G7 quickspecs:
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13706_div/13706_div.html


Link provided will give you insight about the Virtual connect.
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/blades/virtualconnect/infrastructure.html

[Alzhy]

iinfi,

WHAT will you be storing on your homebrew OpenFiler NAS sir? Looks to me your site does not seem to have full trust (or knowledgeable) on your Blade Infrastructure and whatever its corresponfding SAN storage.

I am a Fanbois of OpenFiler but take a deep hard look at what SATA or SAS drives RAIDed in whatever fashion can provide. And DO test performance of your "standby instance" on whatever contraption you come up with. I tust your existing storage is iSCSI hooked up that is why you are eyeing OpenFiler?

There are many HA solutions that are costless that you can implement. SOme I've mentioned already. But I re-iterate again -- please be familiar with your CXXXX infrastructure and the Virtual Connect Infrastructure it provides.

[iinfi1]

what I wanted to do was to replicate the eva4400 data in my openfiler as a standby.
i will read what virtual connect is first. didnt get time over the last 2 days.
thanks for your time.