Time to Freshen Up - Keep Simplivity Options

[204AL]

Hello,

I have a single SimpliVity federation with a stretched cluster—4 hosts in Availability Zone 1 and 4 hosts in Availability Zone 2. All hosts are ProLiant DL380 Gen10.

We're at the point where we can refresh and looking at staying with Simplivity vs. looking at other HCI options.

If We Stay with Simplivity: We're looking at decommissioning 2 hosts from each zone (deployed in summer 2019). That would leave us with 2 Gen10s per zone (deployed in summer 2023 and we'd extend warranty/support), and we're considering adding 2 Gen11s to each zone. Originally, we were in a DR/PR setup but switched to a stretched cluster in summer 2023.

Would the process be as 'straightforward' as removing the 2019 hosts from the federation and then deploying the Gen11s? Or are there any gotchas we should be aware of?

Ideally, I'd like to establish a cycle where we remove and replace 4 nodes every few years to keep things 'fresh.'

Some specs, just in case:

• Used space: 56.19TB, Free space: 59.10TB, Storage usage: Just under 50%
• The 2019 hosts have Xeon Gold 6140 CPUs and 2023 hosts have Xeon Gold 6226R CPUs

[Sanika]

Hi @204AL 

In my opinion, the process of decommisioning 2019 hosts and adding Gen11s should be mostly straight forward. But there are a few considerations to keep in mind:

• When removing the 2019 hosts, make sure they are in a healthy state and that all data has been migrated to other nodes in the federation
• Check your HPE SimpliVity policies, especially those related to VM placement and failover, to ensure the new hosts will be handled correctly.
• Ensure there are no critical dependencies or services running on the hosts to be decommissioned.
• Once all VMs are migrated, power off the VMs on the hosts to be decommissioned and remove the hosts from vCenter inventory.
• Verify that the Gen11 hosts are compatible with your current SimpliVity software version and that all firmware and drivers are updated.
• Ensure your HPE SimpliVity deployment is configured as a stretched cluster, allowing for VMs to be replicated across availability zones.
• If you have an arbiter, ensure it is accessible from both zones.

If you encounter any issues during the process, please contact HPE support for assistance.

Regards,
Sanika.

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