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February 15th, 2012 02:00
Hardware Advice
I am looking to build a Test Lab and need some expert adice...
We have £20,000 to spend and was thinking of the following.
2 x Dell R710 servers
1 x NX3100 with 4 x 2Tb Disks
What OS should we be using on the Hosts and what VMWare version Package should we be using... and do you think the the Budget is workable.
Finally any better suggestions as t the hardware we should use... I have heard that the Equallogic PS4100e would be better as a SAN than the NX3100.
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Origin3k
4 Operator
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2.3K Posts
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February 17th, 2012 15:00
The NX3100 is not on the vSphere HCL so i strongly suggest not to use it for virtualization in a VMware environment. For the most bang for the bucks you can get a Powervault MD3220 which is a SAS storage and you can connect up to 4 Hosts in a redundant configuration if you like.
If the hosts only used for testing vSphere virtualization get a DELL modell with the internal SD Cards so you dont need a local raid controller and disks. The R610 easily can take up 96GB of memory together with 2x6C x5645 XEONs. Keep in mind the the 4x1GbE are not enought for a redundant HA/vMOTION Cluster so you need an Intel 4 Port AddOn card as well together with SAS Card for the storage connection.
If you would go the iSCSI route there is the MD3220i.
For VMware the vSphere Essentials Plus Package brings you 3x2 CPU and vCenter Essentials.The Package also includes HA and vMotion.
Regards
Joerg
JOHNADCO
2 Intern
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847 Posts
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February 17th, 2012 11:00
I think you could swing an MD3220i and two hosts. Once you have shared storage, you can use less expensive hosts with more ram in them. We have been using R415's with excellent results. The hosts will run the hyperviser ESXi, The guests or OS's on the VM's are your choice.