VMware vSphere

Looking for some advice on this.  We currently have two vSAN clusters, all hosts with E5-2630v3 processors, one hybrid, one all-flash, EVC enabled on both clusters.  We were planning to change the hybrid hosts to all-flash and move them into the all-flash cluster, creating one large cluster, and add a new host at the same time.  Problem is, our hardware vendor is telling us that the v3 processor is no longer available and is proposing the v4 processor.  So now I am rethinking what we're doing.

Cluster1 (Hybrid) - 4 hosts:

     E5-2630v3 x 2

     256GB RAM

     2 x 400GB Intel P3700

     8 x 1.2TB 10K SAS

Cluster2 (All-Flash) - 5 hosts

     E5-2630v3 x 2

     256GB RAM

     2 x 400GB Intel P3700

     4 x 1.92TB SSD

The plan is to replace the 10K drives in the hybrid hosts with SSDs and move them into them into the all-flash cluster.  And add an additional host in the process.  So ultimately a single 10-host all-flash cluster.

So here are my questions:

1.     Is it ok to have 9 hosts with v3's and 1 with v4's in the same cluster?

2.     How will DRS handle VM placement, given that one host will have 20 cores while the others have 16 cores?

3.     Should I look into upgrading the processors on all the hosts?

I know that ideally with vSAN all the hosts are identical configs.  The storage config will be the same, just one host will have more (slower) cores.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Andy

1. I can attest to #1 being ok, we are at haswell levels of evc now, no issues.

2. DRS will balance based on performance and you (p:v) ratios.

3. I wouldn't say you HAVE to buy all new cpus. That is what EVC is for, to create a common baseline. Just keep circulating hosts and keep up to date with ESXi versions to get those new baselines.