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jitendrakmr
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Cluster Query

Hello Everyone,

I have an existing 7 nodes Vmware cluster with HA and DRS enabled. Currently all 7 ESX hosts in cluster are DELL PowerEdge 2950 (8 CPU Xeon E5430 @2.66GHz ).

Can I add a new ESX host in this cluster running on DELL PowerEdge R710 (2 CPU Xeon X5550 @2.66GHz)? Any possible future issues if it is possible to add this into cluster?

Thanks in advance!

Jitendra

VCP, MCSE 2003, MCITP Enterprise Admin, CCNA, ITIL Foundation, Netapp NS0-153 (Storage Networking)

Personal Website - http://www.virtualizationtrainings.com, http://www.hillsindia.com

VCP, MCSE 2003, MCITP Enterprise Admin, CCNA, ITIL Foundation, Netapp NS0-153 (Storage Networking) Personal Website - http://www.virtualizationtrainings.com, http://www.hillsindia.com
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Gerrit_Lehr
Commander
Commander

That will be no problem at all.

Kind Regards,

Gerrit Lehr

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Chuck8773
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

vMotion should not work without a workaround.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1991

Adding it to the same cluster will still give you HA benefits. Be careful loading it to full though. When it comes time for an ESX update, you may still want to vmotion a host into maintenance mode without overloading the other 55xx hosts.

Charles Killmer, VCP

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jitendrakmr
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I understand that vMotion can work after enabling EVC on cluster. Will there be any limitations once EVC is enabled?

Is ita good practice to enable EVC feature on cluster? Or are there any potential issues/limitations with this feature?

Thanks.

Jitendra

VCP, MCSE 2003, MCITP Enterprise Admin, CCNA, ITIL Foundation, Netapp NS0-153 (Storage Networking)

Personal Website -

VCP, MCSE 2003, MCITP Enterprise Admin, CCNA, ITIL Foundation, Netapp NS0-153 (Storage Networking) Personal Website - http://www.virtualizationtrainings.com, http://www.hillsindia.com
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Chuck8773
Hot Shot
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The only limitations you would run into are when you would benefit from using a feature that is masked.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1005764&sl...

You could use EVC to vmotion all of the vm's to the new host, then raise the EVC mode to gain those features. If they are features that the VM can use, it will likely require a hard reboot to have them accessible.

Charles Killmer, VCP

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Charles Killmer, VCP4 If you found this or other information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful".
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bulletprooffool
Champion
Champion

VMotion etc accross different processors often require EVC to be enabled (which requires a shut down of all VMs in the cluster and enabling of certain settings on the BIOS of each ESX host)

have a look at http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=100321... to review compatibility.

Unfortunately, the compatibility charts seem to get updated far less regularly than the processors.

One day I will virtualise myself . . .
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NTurnbull
Expert
Expert

Looking at the vMotion CPU compatibility KB Then it's not supported for vMotion

EDIT: In the time it took me to post this, an hours worth of updates occured on the thread... hmm... oh well too late

Thanks,

Neil

Thanks, Neil
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jitendrakmr
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Hot Shot

Thanks Everyone. I am planning to enable EVC on cluster by creating a new EVC enabled cluster and migrating VMs to it. This way I think I can avoid downtime in enabling the EVC feature on cluster.

I have another query though - At what time should I think of having another cluster? Right now we have 7 nodes and max supproted are 32. I am sure going till 32 node count is not a good idea for a single cluster. What can be the deciding factors/elements to have a new cluster?

Thanks.

Jitendra

VCP, MCSE 2003, MCITP Enterprise Admin, CCNA, ITIL Foundation, Netapp NS0-153 (Storage Networking)

Personal Website -

VCP, MCSE 2003, MCITP Enterprise Admin, CCNA, ITIL Foundation, Netapp NS0-153 (Storage Networking) Personal Website - http://www.virtualizationtrainings.com, http://www.hillsindia.com
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jitendrakmr
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Thanks Everyone. I am planning to enable EVC on my cluster now. I will create a new EVC enabled cluster and will vMotion Vms to it and will also move ESX hosts one by one and this way I will have EVC enabled cluster without downtime. Does anyone see any problem in this?

Also can anyone tell me at what time should I start thinking to have new cluster? Right now we have 7 nodes in our existing cluster and I understand that max supported hostsin a cluster are 32. I also understand that its not a good idea to ho up tp 32 hosts so what are the deciding factors/elements to have a new cluster instead of adding moreESX hosts in existing one?

Thanks.

Jitendra

VCP, MCSE 2003, MCITP Enterprise Admin, CCNA, ITIL Foundation, Netapp NS0-153 (Storage Networking)

Personal Website - http://www.virtualizationtrainings.com, http://www.hillsindia.com

VCP, MCSE 2003, MCITP Enterprise Admin, CCNA, ITIL Foundation, Netapp NS0-153 (Storage Networking) Personal Website - http://www.virtualizationtrainings.com, http://www.hillsindia.com
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jitendrakmr
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Thanks Everyone. I am planning to enable EVC on my cluster now. I

will create a new EVC enabled cluster and will vMotion Vms to it and

will also move ESX hosts one by one and this way I will have EVC

enabled cluster without downtime. Does anyone see any problem in this?

Also can anyone tell me at what time should I start thinking to have new cluster? Right now we have 7 nodes in our existing cluster and I understand that max supported hostsin a cluster are 32. I

also understand that its not a good idea to ho up tp 32 hosts so what

are the deciding factors/elements to have a new cluster instead of

adding moreESX hosts in existing one?

Thanks.

Jitendra

VCP, MCSE 2003, MCITP Enterprise Admin, CCNA, ITIL Foundation, Netapp NS0-153 (Storage Networking)

Personal Website - http://www.virtualizationtrainings.com, http://www.hillsindia.com

http://www.hillsindia.com

VCP, MCSE 2003, MCITP Enterprise Admin, CCNA, ITIL Foundation, Netapp NS0-153 (Storage Networking) Personal Website - http://www.virtualizationtrainings.com, http://www.hillsindia.com
Reply
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jitendrakmr
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Thanks Everyone. I am planning to enable EVC on cluster. I will create a new EVC enabled cluster and will vMotion the Vms and also the ESX hosts to new cluster to avoid downtime in enabling EVC. Please let me know if anyone see any issue in it?

Also can anyone please suggest at what point should I start thinking to have a new cluster? Right now I have 7 ESX hosts in once cluster and I undertsand that max number of ESX hosts can be 32. I also understand that its not a good idea to go till 32 hosts in one cluster so what should be the deciding factor or element to have new cluster instead of adding more hosts to existing one?

Thanks again!

Jitendra

VCP, MCSE 2003, MCITP Enterprise Admin, CCNA, ITIL Foundation, Netapp NS0-153 (Storage Networking) Personal Website - http://www.virtualizationtrainings.com, http://www.hillsindia.com
Reply
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jitendrakmr
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Thanks Everyone. I am planning to enable EVC on cluster. I will create a new EVC enabled cluster and will vMotion the Vms and also the ESX hosts to new cluster to avoid downtime in enabling EVC. Please let me know if anyone see any issue in it?

Also can anyone please suggest at what point should I start thinking to have a new cluster? Right now I have 7 ESX hosts in once cluster and I undertsand that max number of ESX hosts can be 32. I also understand that its not a good idea to go till 32 hosts in one cluster so what should be the deciding factor or element to have new cluster instead of adding more hosts to existing one?

Thanks again!

Jitendra

VCP, MCSE 2003, MCITP Enterprise Admin, CCNA, ITIL Foundation, Netapp NS0-153 (Storage Networking)

Personal Website -

VCP, MCSE 2003, MCITP Enterprise Admin, CCNA, ITIL Foundation, Netapp NS0-153 (Storage Networking) Personal Website - http://www.virtualizationtrainings.com, http://www.hillsindia.com
Reply
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jitendrakmr
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Thanks Everyone. I am planning to enable EVC on cluster. I will create a new

EVC enabled cluster and will vMotion the Vms and also the ESX hosts to new

cluster to avoid downtime in enabling EVC. Please let me know if anyone see any

issue in it?

Also can anyone please suggest at what point should I start thinking to have

a new cluster? Right now I have 7 ESX hosts in once cluster and I undertsand

that max number of ESX hosts can be 32. I also understand that its not a good

idea to go till 32 hosts in one cluster so what should be the deciding factor or

element to have new cluster instead of adding more hosts to existing one?

Thanks again!

Jitendra

VCP, MCSE 2003, MCITP Enterprise Admin, CCNA, ITIL Foundation,

Netapp NS0-153 (Storage Networking)

Personal Website -

[

|http://www.hillsindia.com/]

VCP, MCSE 2003, MCITP Enterprise Admin, CCNA, ITIL Foundation, Netapp NS0-153 (Storage Networking) Personal Website - http://www.virtualizationtrainings.com, http://www.hillsindia.com
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