Amd and VMWare

[miikkeeb]

I was wondering if any one out there is running an AMD VMWare cluster? If so I would like to know your feelings on it. Has it been running good for you? Any drawbacks?

I currently have a 3 node cluster running Intel procs. How difficult if even possible would it be to add another node running AMD? Everything I have heard has said to keep my procs the same.

[weinstein5]

if you are running a DRS cluster you can not mix processor manufacturers or families - this is bnecause compatible cpus is a requirement of vmotion - if it is soley an HA cluster than yes you can mix processors

[admin]

Hello,

You can't mix processor family (AMD and Intel) in the same cluster because vMotion must be supported.

[Kevin_Gao]

I've got 2 HP DL385 G5's (quadcore AMD Opteron's) mixed with HP DL380 G5's (Intel's). Performance wise they're (the AMD's) working just fine for us.

We don't run DRS.

[buckethead]

We are running mainly AMD and have no issues at all. We have been using AMD over Intel for our VM Hosts almost 3 years. Honestly we have compared the AMD vs. Intel from a performance standpoint and we don't see a major difference. For us we just feel that the AMD works better with ESX. Our physical windows boxes are on Intel and our ESX/ Linux boxes run on AMD. There is no reason other than our personal feeling.

As for your ESX cluster follow the recommendations the others have made here. Do not attempt to mix and match processors in a cluster.

[kbk00]

I think if a poll was taken the majority of larger VMware deployments would be on AMD procs. Many people say the proc architecture of the opterons provides more bang for the buck. However, Massimo has had some interesting writing on the topic and in it says that there probably are thirty or forty people in the world that can truly have that argument and have it mean something. Most people don't have an actual clue (yours truly included).

If I were you, I'd think long and hard as to the reasons to switch from intel to amd. It's most likely a better solution to stick with what you have. If you will be tripling your capacity or something like that, it may be a time to rethink your vendors but if it's just adding a single box or two, then I'd stick with what you have today.

If you found this posting to be useful, great. I didn't waste your time.

Message was edited by: kbk00

note, when I got to my current position, there were 3 systems with 6 intel cores. we have gotten rid of those and now have around 300 amd cores.

[TCronin]

We are running several large clusters of both Intel and AMD. Going forward we are moving replacing our older Intel hosts with AMD. One of my major reasons to do this is processor compatibility. There is a better record of successive revisions of AMD processors being compatible with each other for VMotion. For example we are able to mix HP 585 G1, G2 and G5 servers in the same cluster, and also add in HP 385 G5. Some are dual core, some are quad core. On the Intel side I sometimes run into compatiblity problems within the same server family and generation due to a slight change in the Intel chipset.

For flexibility I'd go with AMD.