HP Hardware for basic HA/Failover

[rogernome]

Hi Guys,

Looking at building something internal for basic hosting. We are looking at a 2 server, 2 switch, 2 san configuration using HP hardware. I was wondering if you can help with the following questions:

1) What is the best model of HP server to go for with this (Rack so DLs)

2) Can you recommend a SAN?

3) Licensing wise, I was looking at VMware Essentials, as I only need vmotion for basic failover (not true failover I know). This also enables vmware backup such as veeam.

4) How may VM's can I expect to run with fully kitted out servers?

I am trying to keep the budget of this around 15-20k USD. I was after something solid for the next 3-4 years.

Any other recommendations, please let me know.

Thanks in advanced.

[a_p_]

This may not fit in your budget, anyway it might be worth to look at:

1:) HP DL380 G7 (Renew - usually comes with the full warranty but less expansive) with 2 CPUs each, boot ESXi from SD card (no HDDs required)

2.) HP P4300 SAS Starter Kit (consists of 2 nodes, configurable with physical RAID5 and network RAID 1) - additional nodes or Kits, depending on your storage capacity requirements

3.) For vMotion and HA you need the vSphere Essentials Plus Kit.

4.) Depends on the workload. With the Essentials Plus Kit you have a vRAM entitlement of 192GB,so memory should not be an issue. With normal workloads I'd expect that you will be able to run at least 10 guests (server workloads) on each host. However, keep in mind that in case of a host failure all VMs may need to run on the remaining host!

Regarding the switches you may take a look at the Procurve 2810 model. Please ensure that - depending on the storage system choose - the switch meets the requirements!

André

PS: Regarding Veeam: They offer Essentials Kits too.

[rogernome]

Is booting off USB stick for vmware acceptable in a production environment? I've heard a lot of people do this, but it sounds a bit sketchy to me...

[a_p_]

For ESXi this is working well, that's basically the reason why HP (and other vendors) provide an on-board SD card slot. ESXi - once booted - runs in memory anyway and only writes e.g. configuration changes to the SD card once an hour or during shutdown, so the SD card is not heavily used (less than e.g. in a camera) and even if it breaks the ESXi host will continue to work!

With running ESXi from the SD card (1GB is sufficient) you can save the money for a RAID controller (unless it's already included), the BBWC/FBWC and the HDDs which adds up to a few hundred $ per host and invest the saved money in the storage system.

André

[rogernome]

Thanks. That's what I wanted to know.

Last question, if this is the case, and HDD's not required, would I not be better to get a lower grade server, IE a 360 that's 1u with better cpu's etc? Just seems a bit of a waste on the 380.

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

Yes, you can certainly go for the 360's. Personally I like the 380's because they provide more options to expand the system if needed and - in my personal opinion - provide better cooling if the system runs with "Static High Performance" set in the BIOS, which I recommend for better performance.

André

[rogernome]

Thanks, this has been a big help.