Cluster Design

[jbreto2]

Our company is going through a Virtual Infrastructure Analysis and Design. The consultants keeps refering to "best practices state a maximum of eight (8) hosts per cluster."

I have done some research and found that vSphere supports up to 32 hosts per cluster.

Does anyone have seen the 8 hosts limitation

[sflanders · Accepted solution]

Well this is a bit of a loaded question. While I do not think you will find anything that says the best practice is 8 hosts per cluster, there may be a reason to set a hard limit on 8 depending on your environment. For vSphere the hard limit is 32 hosts per cluster, however anything more than 8 hosts reduces the number of VMs supported per host from 100 to 40 (see the following configuration maximums document for more information: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_config_max.pdf). If you do not expect to have more than 40 VMs per host you can use larger clusters.

[habibalby]

Hello,

Your question drives to so many analysis and your actual needs plus your future expansion.

1. Does the Vi3 environment which you want to implement require more than 8 hosts?

2. How many VM(s) you have to be virtualize?

3. How many P2V you have to make?

4. Host Capacity for Memory and C.P.U

5. VM(s) Capacity for Memory and C.P.U

6. Storage Consideration,

1. What is the VM(s) Storage C: and 😧 for example.

2. Raid Configration for example C: would be on Raid1+0 and 😧 which contains data will be on Raid-5 LUN separate spindles.

3. Are you going to use iSCSI or FC connectivity, if iSCSI, you have to seprate the iSCSI Traffic.

7. Networking Consideration

1. Are you going to host DMZ on the same hosts? If yes, think of your Traffic Sepration between Production, DMZ, S.C and vMKernel.

2. Are you going to protect the hosts, means put them in a seprate network only Admins have access with limited ports.

This kind of brain storming will give more confidenc in implementing your Vi3 successfuly.

Best Regards,

Hussain Al Sayed

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

[habibalby]

Hello,

Your question drives to so many analysis and your actual needs plus your future expansion.

1. Does the Vi3 environment which you want to implement require more than 8 hosts?

2. How many VM(s) you have to be virtualize?

3. How many P2V you have to make?

4. Host Capacity for Memory and C.P.U

5. VM(s) Capacity for Memory and C.P.U

6. Storage Consideration,

1. What is the VM(s) Storage C: and 😧 for example.

2. Raid Configration for example C: would be on Raid1+0 and 😧 which contains data will be on Raid-5 LUN separate spindles.

3. Are you going to use iSCSI or FC connectivity, if iSCSI, you have to seprate the iSCSI Traffic.

7. Networking Consideration

1. Are you going to host DMZ on the same hosts? If yes, think of your Traffic Sepration between Production, DMZ, S.C and vMKernel.

2. Are you going to protect the hosts, means put them in a seprate network only Admins have access with limited ports.

This kind of brain storming will give more confidenc in implementing your Vi3 successfuly.

Best Regards,

Hussain Al Sayed

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

[jbreto2]

Other than the Virtual Machines do you know of other limits ?

Thanks for the quick reply, exactly the information I needed

[mreferre]

Others have explained why the 8 "suggested" limit in more technical terms... I'll take it to another level: what is the speed limit of your car and how fast di you drive to get to the office today?

Massimo.

[habibalby]

Hello,

Your question drives to so many analysis and your actual needs plus your future expansion.

1. Does the Vi3 environment which you want to implement require more than 8 hosts?

2. How many VM(s) you have to be virtualize?

3. How many P2V you have to make?

4. Host Capacity for Memory and C.P.U

5. VM(s) Capacity for Memory and C.P.U

6. Storage Consideration,

1. What is the VM(s) Storage C: and 😧 for example.

2. Raid Configration for example C: would be on Raid1+0 and 😧 which contains data will be on Raid-5 LUN separate spindles.

3. Are you going to use iSCSI or FC connectivity, if iSCSI, you have to seprate the iSCSI Traffic.

7. Networking Consideration

1. Are you going to host DMZ on the same hosts? If yes, think of your Traffic Sepration between Production, DMZ, S.C and vMKernel.

2. Are you going to protect the hosts, means put them in a seprate network only Admins have access with limited ports.

This kind of brain storming will give more confidenc in implementing your Vi3 successfuly.

Best Regards,

Hussain Al Sayed

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".