Dilemma: Add a host or add memory

[bernie7923]

Hi, we are currently in a dilema. We currently support an ESXi 4.1 environnement that contain 4 host(Clustured, HA, DRS). Here's the setup:

HP DL380 G6

2 X E5540

64 Gb Memory

The cluster actually hosts 140 VM desktop, servers, prod ans lab and so far it runs flawlessly but for HA consideration and futur need for news servers we have two choices. For almost the same price we can either upgrade every hosts to 128 GB of ram or add another host. The reason it is so expensive to add memory, is because every memory slots are full and we need to new ones.

I need opnion of some expert because so far we're not sure what to do.

Thanks for your help

[hitman16980]

I was in the same situation and just went with the memory.  If you have no other scaling issues, don't bother with a new host.

[jsbarber]

Assuming you've included the additional licence and running costs of an additional host and you're sure these amount to the same as a RAM upgrade (surprising), I would go with the additional host. It improves your HA redundancy from a host failure point of view.

[JohnADCO]

We were able to replace our hosts with new hosts with the memory we needed cheaper than upgrading our existing hosts memory.   This was on Dell platforms so you may want to look into that posibility as well for HP stuff.   This allowed us to upgrade to the latest gen severs anyways.

[cblomart]

Mainly the remarks concerning licences is valid. I'll suppose you compared the whole cost.

So for a rapid solution, i would add a host... you would keep the cpu/memory unbalance included in your original specs but you would not put all this memory into the bin (or resel them for half the price... or less).

If you have the money to add a host, maybe you could reconsider your hardware and replace the whole pack... maybe 3 hosts with more memory would be suffisient but you then need to get back the value of your current server (resel, salvage them for other use).

Buying hardware with half the memory slots free not always increases the memory price and allows you a one shot upgrade without this kind of question. (often the middle sized ram just have approximatively the same size/price ratio).

[PUREJOY]

You are saying that there are only 8 memory slots (going by the math - 8 * 8G = 64 GB which you have currently. 8 * 16G =128G which you may have with 16G of memory)

But the HP DL380 G6 have 12 memory slots, you can easily go upto 96 G with 8 GB of memory. that way you can bring the system to 96 each and get the additional 128 G for the four node cluster.

In the scenario you are saying, given 16G is quite expensive, it make sense to buy another host.

In other cases I would have said - The answer actually depends on whether you have more CPU left on the servers so that more memory matters.

You are running 140 desktops, more memory would certainly help.

Also memory prices are much lower than servers with processors plus extra memory.

you can go upto 98GB of RAM with 2 CPU to full cap the vRAM entilement. you are paying the same price for

[BharatR]

Hi

For almost the same price we can either upgrade every hosts to 128 GB of ram 

Upgrade the RAM to every Host it will be cheaper as it doesn't require any Licenses in vSphere 4.1

Maximum (RDIMM)

192GB (12 x 16GB) for Registered Memory  configurations

DIMM slot and configuration diagrams Basic memory slot & population  diagram Population order; start with "A" first, "B" second, "C" third, etc.

18 DIMM SLOTS  (9 per CPU node) CPU1 CPU2 slot # population order slot # population order Chnl 1 1 G 1 G Chnl 1 2 D 2 D 3 A 3 A Chnl 2 4 H 4 H Chnl 2 5 E 5 E 6 B 6 B Chnl 3 7 I 7 I Chnl 3 8 F 8 F 9 C 9 C

add another host

For Purchasing New Server will Require License for Per CPU with vSphere 4.1 as in vSphere 5.0 it requires RAM Licenses,So this is the Second Benefit