Which product to buy - How to allocate Hardware

I have 2 DL380 g5's That I can use for vSphere4. So far the only plans are to host a few non-critical services. Shares, voicemail, WSUS, etc... Plus future additional systems to save us from buying new physical boxes.
Id like to be able to move VM's between physical machines. For example I have WSUS on a VM and Id like to move it to the new servers (then reallocate that physical machine to be the vCenter server). Id also like to be able to migrate physical machines to VM's (voicemail server, print server).

What else should I do with said hardware? And what products should I buy for this setup (or recommended setup)?

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leefdaddy

You'll want some type of shared storage for the hosts to access and store the vms on... iSCSI or FC SAN of some sort...

nimrod.sixty9

leefdaddy wrote: »

You'll want some type of shared storage for the hosts to access and store the vms on... iSCSI or FC SAN of some sort...

Im not sure what you mean. Only thing I know about storage is Im setting them up as RAID 5.

Forsaken_GA

I'd separate your storage from your actual work machines, especially if this is mostly for lab work. Virtualization is a trend that's not going away, and being able to migrate storage as well as which machine actually runs the VM is a huge part of it. You'd do yourself well to plan out and build a proper remote storage solution.

I personally use a Synology DS1511+ with 2TB drives as my network storage. It's a bit pricey, but it's been worth every penny.

I have a pair of DL380 G5's as well (loud little bastards, ain't they?), dual quad cores with 16 gigs each, and the only storage I have in them are a pair of 37 gig scsi drives in RAID 1 to install and boot the hypervisor. All the rest of the storage is exported via iscsi LUN's from the Synology.

down77

To answer your question you have to ask yourself "how critical are these systems" and "what is my budget?." From the sounds of it, you may want to invest in a shared storage platform as leefdaddy mentioned. I would also make sure that you had redundant network adapters (minimum of 4 ports per server), a decent amount of memory, a backup solution that supports your efforts, and a capacity management plan to help avoid virtual server sprawl which is common on virtualized environments.

With local storage you do not have the advanced (and not free) features available for your vSphere environment such as vMotion, DRS, HA, etc. Think of this, what would you do if one of your HP servers bit the dust and your VMs were on DAS (directly attached storage)?

As far as software licensing, you may want to look into purchasing a vSphere Essentials Plus kit to get you started though I would not generally recommend going lower than vSphere Advanced.

Good luck with the DL380 G5s.. I used to maintain a respectable vSphere environment using those servers attached to an IBM XIV. We maintained a 30:1 consolidation ratio and could have easily gone higher.

Out of curiosity what part of Florida are you from?

nimrod.sixty9

I was thinking between the two boxes that VMware had some sort of product that would use the systems in a redundant way. I think the term would be resource pool. Wouldnt it be just as dangerous on a NAS? If you lose the NAS you lose all VM's. Correct me on my Noobish!
The only way I can sell this is if I use existing hardware. Each box has 8 36GB 15K drives. They both have 2 ethernet ports each. I already have about 18 GB of memory to add to the systems.
The systems will not be too critical other than the voicemail server (currently on an OLD beige box). If I can sell this I can pretty much get any software I want. The whole point is to be able to say that we dont need any hardware now and in the future we wont have to buy anymore physical servers for future needs (to an extent obviously).

Forsaken, I should have mentioned this has nothing to do with my other thread refering to my home lab. This one is production. And yes they are loud. I remember jumping the first time I powered one up HAHA.

leefdaddy

nimrod.sixty9 wrote: »

I was thinking between the two boxes that VMware had some sort of product that would use the systems in a redundant way. I think the term would be resource pool. Wouldnt it be just as dangerous on a NAS? If you lose the NAS you lose all VM's. Correct me on my Noobish!
The only way I can sell this is if I use existing hardware. Each box has 8 36GB 15K drives. They both have 2 ethernet ports each. I already have about 18 GB of memory to add to the systems.
The systems will not be too critical other than the voicemail server (currently on an OLD beige box). If I can sell this I can pretty much get any software I want. The whole point is to be able to say that we dont need any hardware now and in the future we wont have to buy anymore physical servers for future needs (to an extent obviously).

Forsaken, I should have mentioned this has nothing to do with my other thread refering to my home lab. This one is production. And yes they are loud. I remember jumping the first time I powered one up HAHA.

All of VMware's advanced features such as vMotion, Fault Tolerence, DRS, etc all rely on the "hosts" having shared storage available. With the servers alone you would only be able to setup local vm's on those servers.

Forsaken_GA

nimrod.sixty9 wrote: »

Wouldnt it be just as dangerous on a NAS? If you lose the NAS you lose all VM's.

It is, but it's no more dangerous than using direct attached storage. As others have pointed out, you lose most of your flexibility and redundancy options if you use direct attached storage. With shared storage, lets say you lose a server. Even if you're not using any of the HA options, you can still import the VM on another server from the shared data store and bring it up that way (it's better to vMotion, but import into inventory will work if no other option is available, or if you didn't license vmotion)

But yes, maintaining seperate network storage devices for redundancy is a good idea

nimrod.sixty9

Ok so I need a SAN. What are some HP options?

Apparently what Im looking for is VMware High Availability
•Automatic detection of server failures. VMware HA automates the monitoring of physical server availability. HA detects physical server failures and initiates the new virtual machine restart on a different physical server in the resource pool without human intervention.
•Automatic detection of operating system failures. VMware HA detects operating system failures within virtual machines by monitoring heartbeat information. If a failure is detected, the affected virtual machine is automatically restarted on the server.
•Smart failover of virtual machines to servers with best available resources (requires VMware DRS). Automate the optimal placement of virtual machines restarted after server failure.
•Scalable high availability across multiple physical servers. Supports up to 32 nodes in a cluster for high application availability. VMware HA has the same limits for virtual machines per host, hosts per cluster, and virtual machines per cluster as vSphere.

What all do I need to buy to get this? The whole licensing thing is flat out confusing!

I want to take off the VMs on my current server (attachment) and then make it the vCenter server. Would this work? Im worried as Ill need vCenter to move the VMs on this system to the new boxes. Could I use the version on the new 4.1? OR?

Also, I have to ask that is there now other way of moving around VMs without having a SAN?

VMware.jpg

QHalo

VMotion storage requirements are shared storage between the hosts. Whether you get that from an iSCSI, NFS, or FC target it doesn't matter, but it has to be shared through one of those protocols and both hosts need access to the storage. Take a look at the VMware configuration guide for more help.

Plus no offense, but it sounds like you're being asked to manage this and you don't have much in the way of formal training. I'd suggest you discuss the option of going to training. It will clear many things up for you and provide a better forum to get your questions answered. I'm all for helping but you're not going to have much fun if you don't understand the fundamentals.

If they won't send you to training then I'd look at some books and free training to help you out.

http://www.amazon.com/VMware-ESX-ESXi-Enterprise-Virtualization/dp/0137058977/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1305499957&sr=8-2
http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-VMware-vSphere-Computer-Tech/dp/0470481382/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1305499957&sr=8-3
http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrreg/courses.cfm?ui=www_edu&a=one&id_subject=23970&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CFcQFjAE&url=http://www.vmware.com/go/esxi-free-training&rct=j&q=vmware%20free%20training&ei=WlnQTd6tEcXEgQerj9TBDA&usg=AFQjCNGfB90PqQ1IueoRs-IwoRDYcbkdLw
http://blogs.vmware.com/esxi/2011/04/become-a-true-esxi-expert-with-the-new-free-vmware-elearning-course-and-ebook-offer.html

VMware vSphere 4.1 Documentation: ESXi Installable and vCenter Server

dave330i

Based on your original post, you need vCenter, iSCSI, and vmware converter standalone.

With vCenter you can migrate VMs to different physical machines while VMs are powered off.

With iSCSI, you can migrate VMs while they're powered on (check out openfiler for iSCSI solution if you're on a budget).

VMware converter standalone will allow you to convert a physical machine to VM.

nimrod.sixty9

QHalo wrote: »

VMotion storage requirements are shared storage between the hosts. Whether you get that from an iSCSI, NFS, or FC target it doesn't matter, but it has to be shared through one of those protocols and both hosts need access to the storage. Take a look at the VMware configuration guide for more help.

Plus no offense, but it sounds like you're being asked to manage this and you don't have much in the way of formal training. I'd suggest you discuss the option of going to training. It will clear many things up for you and provide a better forum to get your questions answered. I'm all for helping but you're not going to have much fun if you don't understand the fundamentals.

If they won't send you to training then I'd look at some books and free training to help you out.

Amazon.com: VMware ESX and ESXi in the Enterprise: Planning Deployment of Virtualization Servers (2nd Edition) (9780137058976): Edward Haletky: Books
Amazon.com: Mastering VMware vSphere 4 (Computer/Tech) (9780470481387): Scott Lowe: Books
Transition to ESXi Essentials
VMware: VMware ESXi Chronicles: Become a true ESXi expert with the new FREE VMware eLearning course and ebook offer!

VMware vSphere 4.1 Documentation: ESXi Installable and vCenter Server

No offence taken. Its quite obvious Im in over my head. No one is throwing this one on me, Im wanting this for myself (and benefit the company). As I have a budget meeting coming up, this is my time to get numbers together and try to sell this project. That is why I have been pretty much asking for the spoon feeding, normally Ill have time to figure this out myself. But It will be quite some time before we ever get to actually implement this thing. So in that time, until then, while studying for my other certs Ill try to get in as much training as I can. And thank you very much for the links!

nimrod.sixty9

dave330i wrote: »

Based on your original post, you need vCenter, iSCSI, and vmware converter standalone.

With vCenter you can migrate VMs to different physical machines while VMs are powered off.

With iSCSI, you can migrate VMs while they're powered on (check out openfiler for iSCSI solution if you're on a budget).

VMware converter standalone will allow you to convert a physical machine to VM.

Will this enable the automatic allocation of VM accross physical servers if one of them goes offline/fails? Im really liking the HA stuff that VMware can do. Im looking at iSCSI as well but I really need to stay HP hardware as its pretty much the standard for the company.

dave330i

nimrod.sixty9 wrote: »

Will this enable the automatic allocation of VM accross physical servers if one of them goes offline/fails? Im really liking the HA stuff that VMware can do. Im looking at iSCSI as well but I really need to stay HP hardware as its pretty much the standard for the company.

For HA to work, VMs have to be stored on a network storage device of some sort. Also, each server has to have enough resources (i.e. CPUs & RAMs) to run all the VMs.

Openfiler supposedly can do HA, but I could never get it to work.

Also, vSphere 4.0 and later only support 64 bit hardware and only 2TB/LUN.