HP Proliant DL580 G5 w/VmWare

[Curiosityx]

Greetings, we have an upcoming project which will require the consolidation of two existing servers one being a AD/File/Print and Exchange Server the other being an SQL Server, in addition to this we are looking to provision two Citrix servers hosting 20 clients each. Overall there will be approx 150 network users.

Im currently looking at the DL580 G5 for the project but it has been a couple of years since working with the 500 range and id like to check the details below if someone has had experience with this model.

Server Specification

4 x Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® E7430 Processor (2.13 GHz, 12MB cache, 90 Watts)
16Gb PC2-5300 Memory Configured For Advanced ECC
16 x 146Gb SAS 10K Hard Disks
2 x P400i SAS Controllers w/512 bbwc
Dual Power Supplies
1 x NC382T Dual Port Gigabit Network Card in Addition to two on-board Nic's


In terms of storage i want to connect one of the backplanes to the first P400i controller and the second backplane to the additional P400i controller, i haven’t yet check whether you can split the backplane on this model but i don’t see why it wouldn’t be possible with the concept of internal storage boxes that HP refers to nowadays.


Im looking at provisioning four servers as below:

1st VM - Windows 2003 AD, File and Print
2nd VM - Exchange 2007 and SQL 2005
3rd VM - Citrix Presentation Server
4th VM - Citrix Presentation Server


Im looking at provisioning the storage as below:

First eight drives connected P400i controller configured in Raid 10, Four logical drives created out of this array to act of OS partitions for the four servers each being approx 146Gb each.

Second set of eight drives connected to second P400i Controller, out of this i would create two Raid 5 arrays with 3 Disks in each leaving two as global hot spares. This would give approx two 250Gb logical drives/partitions for both the SQL/Exchange Server and the File/Print server.

Im looking at provisioning the network connectivity as below:

There will be a total of four 1Gbit Nics available, each one will be dedicated to a VM.


Any comments/suggestions welcome, the other scenarios ive been playing with are the C Class Blade system or individual servers. I will also need to find an appropriate backup solution that can either be run of one of the VmWare servers or as a seperate entity.

Regards

 

[Curiosityx]

What virtualisation software you going to be using ?

Don't consolidate all those workloads into one physical host. I know you can do it, but it just sends a shiver down my spine. All it takes is one motherboard to go on the fritz and the whole lot is off.

Indeed i can understand your concerns it's principally why im looking at the 500 Series and will have a 24/7/4 Care Pack, im willing to look at alternatives though.

It will be running VmWare ESXi but it dependant on whether the free license covers all the sockets in the server otherwise it will be full blown ESX.

 

[Curiosityx]

How about 2 DL360's with 8Gb each ? You are going with a SAN storage solution anway. Even with ESXi you can just licence it for HA, and have that extra piece of mind of not having all the eggs in one basket.

Understood, i was trying to avoid using a SAN due to the fact that the DL580 supports 16 internal drives.

Going with two servers and an MSA Storage box is a good alternative though. I can drop two VM's on each server, HA shouldn't be needed.

 

[Curiosityx]

All good advice guys, ill go with the general perception that a single server is a bad idea and that splitting the Vm's between the two would be a better method, i haven't had experience of ISCI so id prefer FC.

 

[Curiosityx]

So a quick revision i would be looking at something resembling the following.

2 x DL380 G5's or DL360 G5's w/2 x Quad Core Processors, w/8Gb Memory, w/4Gb FC Adapters w/2-4 Hard Disks in Raid 1+0 each running two Vm's

Single HP StorageWorks 2000fc Modular Smart Array for Shared Storage between all Vm's

 

[Curiosityx]

For the two servers would we need to purchase two copies of VI3, im looking at the Enterprise Version which includes, HA/DRS/VMotion or does it work out cheaper to get either the starter/standard package and license these options separately?

Regards

There is a package on the Vmware site stating the following for arround 4.5k which looks ideal, if i could throw a DRS license in with this it would be ideal.



VMware Infrastructure Standard High Availability Acceleration Kit

Build Your Highly Available, Virtual Foundation for Less -- 2 Licenses of VI3 Standard, 1 License of VirtualCenter Foundation and Support for up to 20% Off!

VMware Infrastructure Standard High Availability (HA) Acceleration Kit includes:

* 2 Licenses of VMware Infrastructure Standard
o ESX Server 3
o VirtualCenter Agent
o Virtual Machine File System (VMFS)
o Virtual Symmetric Multi-Processing (vSMP)
o VMware Update Manager
o VMware Consolidated Backup
o VMware High Availability (HA)
* 1 License of VMware VirtualCenter Foundation
* Support and Subscription (SnS)




VMware Infrastructure Standard High Availability Acceleration Kit for 4 processors (2-VI3 Standard, 1-VirtualCenter Foundation) + Gold (12x5) 1 Year Support (details) - £4,910.96

VMware VMotion with Storage VMotion + Gold (12x5) 1 Year Support (details) - £2,724.25

VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler with Distributed Power Management for 2 processors + Gold (12x5) 1 Year Support (details) x 2 - £1,634.28

 

[Curiosityx]

I still think you should go and have a quick look at Virtual Iron

But what you've got there looks ok, might be worth checking on the cost of enterprise as I don't think its going to work out much more than that price anyway thou.

Indeed two copies of Enterprise come in nearly 1K cheaper. I can understand your reasoning behind Virtual Iron but i feel much more comfortable with VmWare