VMware Cloud Community
ESXi35
Contributor
Contributor

Need a quick help in choosing the Hardware

Hi

Basically, I'm planning to install vCenter 4.0 in a physical box and then I'll install one more

physical box for the VCB Proxy Server which will be presented

with the LUN's(Shared with ESX).

For the vCenter 4.0, I have a dilema on the Hardware that I should use. I have 2 brand new servers(DELL 2970). I have two options to go with. One server which has an Emulex HBA and another without a HBA. I need to know if a HBA is really required for the vCenter 4.0. Should I need to give access to the LUN's that are presented to the ESX boxes ?

I know for sure that the vCenter 4.0 will work but for the backup solution to work, Should i need to provide access to the shared storage(LUN's Presented to ESX) have access to vCenter4.0.

Please clarify me in taking this forward.

Thanks in advance

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weinstein5
Immortal
Immortal

HBA is not needed for vCenter as long as another box will be your VCB server which which will need an HBA -

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chill
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Hi: You do not need an HBA in the physical VCentre server. The luns are presented to the physical ESX boxes and Virtual Centre reads that information when the hosts are added into VCentre.






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kac2
Expert
Expert

we are planning for vSphere here right? I am a big fan of virtualizaing your vCenter server. what are the reasons to NOT virtualize it?

also, VCB is going away soon and being replaced with VDR. so I don't know if VCB is something you want to continually support.

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JohnADCO
Expert
Expert

I like to keep a few machines including the Vcenter Server off of the produciton ESX hosts.

With that said. It's a no brainer with the upped requirements for Vcenter 4.0...

We ended up with a 2970 6 core off of the Dell outlet store for under a grand.

Loaded up ESXi 4.0 on it and now we have so much more capability than the dedicated box running Vcenter Server. Taking the last few physical boxes out of the rack and loaded up the new Vcenter on a Server 2008 x64 VM.

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AndreTheGiant
Immortal
Immortal

As written on previous posts the HBA is needed only on VCB proxy if you want to use san transport mode.

For vCenter Server consider also the option to have it into a VM:

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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