Backup Servers

[Riverhawk]

Could any of these systems be used as a backup server or which one would be the right choice to use?

OS Model Serial Number
VMS 7.3.2 DEC AS1200 NI82108MYU 1 500
VMS 7.3.2 DEC ES40 AY14402982 3 833
VMS 7.3.2 DEC ES40 4948DPSZ1004 3 500
VMS 7.3.2 DEC ES40 Ni92008584 3 500

[Hein van den Heuvel]

(cold) Backup for an other system?

Or a server to run Backup on?
Backing up what? Using what tool?
How will you connect?
NFS? Cluster?

What is the rest of the configuration?

There was a recent discussion here.
Check that out?

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1211743


I always like more power, so I'd pick:

VMS 7.3.2 DEC ES40 AY14402982 3 833

On the other hand, if you do not just need a small extra serve, using less power and less footprint, then the AS1200 might be best.

fwiw,
Hein.

[Riverhawk]

The initial thought was to use these servers as a hot standby for our AGS80 servers at a remote DR site.

The data for the VMS servers is on an XP-1024 disk array in Horsham Pa. Using HP XP Continuous Access the data is mirrored to another XP disk array where the hot standby VMS servers ( Possible the ES40â s) could access.

If we were to fire up the hot standby servers (ES40â s), do they have enough power to run the applications that are currently running on the AGS80 servers?

[Andy Bustamante]

There's a common answer on the forum, "it depends."

A GS80 can support up to 8 CPUs. Memory in use vs installed is also a potential bottleneck. You'd need to compare resources being used on your production system against potential resources. If you're running an 8 CPU 667 GS80 at 20 percent CPU for example, a 3 833 CPU ES40 may handle the load easily. If you have an 8 CPU 1000 GS80 running at near 100 percent CPU, an ES40 won't handle the load.

You need to define your production environment. Then collect performance measurements.

Andy

[Hoff · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the forums.

Disaster response and recovery and planning is a whole lot more involved than the tiny little text input boxes here in ITRC can provide.

Sizing the backup box(es) is just the first step.

If the AlphaServer GS80 was properly sized and configured, an AlphaServer ES40 is unlikely to be able to pick up the full load; the AlphaServer GS80 is rather higher up the performance scale. Not all the way up, but further up than the AlphaServer ES40, ES45 and ES47 boxes. If the AlphaServer GS80 is over-sized for its load, then the AlphaServer ES40 might be able to provide coverage.

The bandwidth and latency, mirroring and shadowing, power and comms, change management, policies and procedures and other such all look (and are!) individually easy and obvious. But it's the aggregate of all of these -- and getting all of these and other factors covered and considered -- that leads to a functional DT configuration.

Other considerations include the media and data transfer times; how fast you can cut over to the hot site. Whether you can run some over the link and the rest via courier, or if you want to cluster the configuration and run all the hardware all the time. What sorts of policies are in place to avoid split-brain and comms failures.

Another (key) factor is a discussion and a decision around how much the downtime costs, and whether or not you wish to try to cover it with a hot-site, with a cluster, with insurance, or some other approach. The costs and the budget are arguably the central factor that covers the hot site and the comms, as well as the set-up; the whole rest of the decisions involved here.

Stephen Hoffman
HoffmanLabs LLC

[Hein van den Heuvel]

>> The initial thought was to use these servers as a hot standby for our AGS80 servers at a remote DR site.

Now look back at the original query.
How were we to guess that?

If your business is at all serious about this, then PLEASE solicit professional help for this design. The base question does not instill much confidence that there are enough skills availabel to work this challenge.

Talk with your business people what the minimum level of service for the DR site should be. *Try* to map that onto the GS80, and describe the performance needs from there. Think user/job counts, CPU load, CPU Mhz, GB memory used, storage and network connectivity needed.

I suspect that a well equiped ES45 (1.25 Ghz CPU, 16-Dimms, 4-way interleaved memory can match many a GS80 setup, so could a backup offering more than 50% of the original power.
If you just want to 'see' the data, then the AS1200 will do. If you want to to any processing then ES40 833 3-Way sounds like a minimum.

Hope this helps some,
Hein van den Heuvel (at gmail dot com)
HvdH Performance Consulting

[Riverhawk]

Thanks all for answering my question.