hard partitioning vs two small servers

[Barbara Flynn_1]

Hi

Trying to decide at the moment between buying a rp8420 and hard partitioning it into two or buying two rp4440s......from an admin point of view what is the advantage in going with the 8420? I might be missing something obvious but if I have two copies of the OS on the 8420 surely I have to patch twice etc....??

Thanks in advance,
Barbara

[Torsten.]

If you configure hard partitions, you have up to 4 independent systems in one box.

You don't have just 2 copies of OS, you have 2 systems with its own OS.

The pros of rp8420:
more memory, more cpu, more I/O slots, more flexibility, ability to configure vpar to increase flexibility

[Barbara Flynn_1]

Thanks Torsten, but looking at the spec of both the 8420s and 4440s, if I hardpartition my 8420 into two I can only get up to 64GB RAM, with a 4440 I can get up to 128GB.

Apart from vPars I don't know that I am getting a whole more. Two 4440s seem to be more scalable.....I understand hard and virtual partitioning but for two systems I can't really see the advantages.....however I am happy to be wrong if someone can point in the right direction.....

[Torsten.]

max mem rp4440: 128GB

http://www.hp.com/products1/servers/rackoptimized/rp4440/index.html

max mem rp8420: 256GB

http://www.hp.com/products1/servers/rackoptimized/rp8420/index.html

Compare the specs on your own.
If the power of a rp4440 is enough for you, you are more "independent" with 2 systems.
If you want to build a cluster, you'll need 2 systems.

[DCE · Accepted solution]

From the admin point of view there is little, if any difference between 2 hard partitions and two seperate servers. Basically each hard partition is it's own server, and must be treasted as such.

What you need to look at is fleibility, expandibility, purchase costs and support costs.

[timmy b.]

Barbara,

I would like to point out that the rp8420 is quite a bit more than double an rp4440. In fact, the rp8420 has up to four cell boards, each of which can be populated with the same amount of processors (8), and the same amount of memory (64gb) as a single rp4440. Properly configured, it is more than 4 times an rp4440. You may wish to consider an rp7420, which has a maximum of two cell boards, each of which can be populated with 8 cpus and 64gb of memory.

Good Luck with your upgrade!

Tim

[Barbara Flynn_1]

Thanks DCE, that answered my question perfectly.