ESX 3.5 cluster best solution

[Luchious]

Hi, I am currently running a cluster with 2 ESX 3.5 servers with 32 GB of memory each I am running about 22 virtual servers. Well I dont have enought resources to add any more virtual servers. We just bought another server and that has 64 GB of memory, and I was wondering what is the best solution for me. add this 64 GB server to the current cluster andbuy more memory for the servers that I have and bring them up to 64 GB each? or buy another servers that has 64 GB of memory and have 2 different clusters?

(3 servers= 1 cluster) or (4 servers= 2 clusters) what is the best practice?

Please help I would like to pick the best solution.

[ChrisDearden]

from a cost point of view , upgrading the memory on your exisiting hosts has got to be cheaper than purchasing another hosts ( and associated licence costs )

also from a usage point of view - if you had a 3 host cluster you can load each host up to 66% utilisation , loose a host and still be able to present 100% of the required resources.

In the 2 cluster model , you would only be able to load each host up to 50% and still guarentee 100% resource availability.

[Luchious]

Thank you for your response, lets say you would spend the same amount of money on either solution, which solution would you rather do 2 current servers with 32 GB of memory (one cluster) and 2 servers with 64 GB of memory (a different cluster) or the 3 node cluster?

Thanks again

[The_Reckoning55]

I think one cluster with 3 hosts is a better solution because it seems more fault tolerant. 2 clusters would be a better solution if you were going to run a VMWare View farm and a server farm, but if you are just looking for a solution to run your business servers and want them to be as Highly Available as they can be, I think your best bet is to go with the one cluster with 3 hosts.

Also, there is nothing that says all of your hosts have to have the same amount of memory. It is a good practice but not mandatory.

**Remember to award points if you found this post helpful

DJ Gillit

Network Engineer

CoNetrix, Inc

www.conetrix.com

[Texiwill]

Hello,

A 3 Node cluster will be more resilient than a 2 node cluster. I would go that route and then plan on upgrading memory as appropriate to the other nodes. Upgrading memory is often quite a bit cheaper than buying a new system.

You will have to be careful about resource pools as well, they will have a maximum mem size of the minimal memory available.

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator
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Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.
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