What would it take to run vMotion?

C

Choder

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 14, 2000
Messages
1,276
Would really appreciate you guys weighing in on this. I've run vSphere4 Essentials Plus + ESXi 4.1 U3 on IBM x3650s DAS for a couple years and would like to migrate to shared storage where vMotion is possible.

Budget is $10k to experiment with and plan for a larger virtualization/shared storage plan for next year.

Want: Hardware-based solution. I'm a caveman when it comes to this stuff and software scares me.

Is there anyway to do this with an IBM DS3200? It's old but it's paid for.

Have:
VMWare vSphere4 Essentials Plus (supports vMotion)
Server 2012 Hyper-V (not in use, but is an option) (Is there a vMotion-like feature?)
3x IBM x3650
IBM DS3200 (dual controller, 1 Multilane SAS port, capable of 2 more SAS ports)
IBM EXP3000

Thinking of buying:
3x IBM BladeCenter HS21/HS22 2xQuad Core with CIOv card
IBM BladeCenter (E or H) with and dual 4x SAS I/O ports



At end state I'd like to be able to have one large shared storage pool (DS3200+EXP3000) for all the VMs and hosts to share and to be able to use vMotion.

Sorry for the stream of conciousness-type post! I am looking forward to hearing how bad my gear is!
 
I'm not wholely familiar with the DS3200, but *assuming* it has the ability to do FC or iScsi, you would be able to do vmotion simply by that.

If you can do FC, for optimal performance pick up a pair of qlogic FC controllers (4gb should be fine), for each server you will run VMs on. Grab 2 FC Switches from ebay. Run 1 FC connection to each switch and to the SAN Array. Should give you a nice redundant system without too much cost. :) Maybe $600-800 for the setup if you can get good switches that still have proper licensing on them.
 
It would be worth bearing in mind that vSphere 5.1 can do vmotion without shared storage.
 
bmh.01 said:
It would be worth bearing in mind that vSphere 5.1 can do vmotion without shared storage.
Click to expand...

Be careful there, you need the VSA in order to do what you are talking about. In the end it is shared storage that is mirrored to another host for redundancy.
 
zpackrat said:
Be careful there, you need the VSA in order to do what you are talking about. In the end it is shared storage that is mirrored to another host for redundancy.
Click to expand...

No..no you don't. The VSA is different. vSphere 5.1 supports "shared nothing" vMotion.
 
And on that note if you buy the Essentials Plus license you get the vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA) with it. It'll "pool" your DAS together as shared storage.
 
NetJunkie said:
And on that note if you buy the Essentials Plus license you get the vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA) with it. It'll "pool" your DAS together as shared storage.
Click to expand...

If some one has the the maintanence pack and they go from 4.1 to 5.1 do they get VSA?
 
NetJunkie said:
No..no you don't. The VSA is different. vSphere 5.1 supports "shared nothing" vMotion.
Click to expand...

This is simply storage vMotion then, and you loose HA. Cool I guess for small test environments. And this is not new, only included in lower licensing models now.
 
No it's new, you can vmotion powered on vms just like they are on shared storage. As you can with hyper-v hence it being added. No HA obviously but it does allow you to evacuate a host without powering down the guests, far more useful than just lab work for small environments.
 
bmh.01 said:
No it's new, you can vmotion powered on vms just like they are on shared storage. As you can with hyper-v hence it being added. No HA obviously but it does allow you to evacuate a host without powering down the guests, far more useful than just lab work for small environments.
Click to expand...

And you could storage vmotion/vmotion a running vm before, meaning you could move a running vm from host a to host b to a different vmfs volume. the only twist here is it seems is that the product definition is targeting local to local instead of shared.
 
Last edited:
zpackrat said:
And you could storage vmotion/vmotion a running vm before, meaning you could move a running vm from host a to host b to a different vmfs volume. the only twist here is it seems is that the product definition is targeting local to local instead of shared.
Click to expand...

You could storage vMotion before but not at the same time as a vMotion. You could not have Host 1 with only DAS and Host 2 with only DAS and move VMs between them. You can now. Correct...there is no HA but you can move VMs live between them.
 
zpackrat said:
Was over thinking it, got it, Thanks. Can't beleive I missed that feature in the release notes for 5.1.
Click to expand...

Probably because no one cares about it. :) It was put in (as said above) to check a box on a feature list against Hyper-V.
 
NetJunkie said:
Probably because no one cares about it. :) It was put in (as said above) to check a box on a feature list against Hyper-V.
Click to expand...

I am just unclear if the VSA/VCenter would need a tie breaker host. 4 host to host vcenter. I am confused if you can run vcenter inside the three hosts.. What happen when the host with vcenter fails does your vsa fail as well?
 
Wrench00 said:
I am just unclear if the VSA/VCenter would need a tie breaker host. 4 host to host vcenter. I am confused if you can run vcenter inside the three hosts.. What happen when the host with vcenter fails does your vsa fail as well?
Click to expand...

you can run vCenter in local storage if needed, it would sit side by side with the VSA virtual applicane. However it will not be supported by any HA functionality. This is supported in a 3 node cluster but not a 2, in a 2 node cluster it should be outside the cluster because vCenter runs a service to prevent a split brain environment that would case the VSA to shut down.
 
zpackrat said:
you can run vCenter in local storage if needed, it would sit side by side with the VSA virtual applicane. However it will not be supported by any HA functionality. This is supported in a 3 node cluster but not a 2, in a 2 node cluster it should be outside the cluster because vCenter runs a service to prevent a split brain environment that would case the VSA to shut down.
Click to expand...

Essentially if you got a 3 Host cluster best to run a 4th just for vcenter or 2 host cluster with 3rd outside to run vcenter?
 
For vMotion, you need two things:
  • Shared storage (NAS, SAN, etc.)
  • 2 or more ESXi hosts
I would hang on to your current IBM server, and pickup a rack-mount Synology box. Use the remaining funds to buy two Dell servers with sufficient RAM. Keep in mind that you may have issues performing vMotion from systems with dissimilar CPU architecture. Leverage NFS for you VM storage.
 
The VSA is junk for that reason..you can't run vCenter on it. So in a small shop you end up with vCenter on local DAS or on a 4th server. Useless.
 
REDYOUCH said:
For vMotion, you need two things:
  • Shared storage (NAS, SAN, etc.)
  • 2 or more ESXi hosts
I would hang on to your current IBM server, and pickup a rack-mount Synology box. Use the remaining funds to buy two Dell servers with sufficient RAM. Keep in mind that you may have issues performing vMotion from systems with dissimilar CPU architecture. Leverage NFS for you VM storage.
Click to expand...


Okay....everyone together now. Let's review again. :)

With vSphere 5.1 you can now do "shared nothing" vMotion. No shared storage required. Of course you don't get HA since the VM is stored on only one server at a time and if that one fails you can't move it...but you can move a VM live between hosts without shared storage.
 
NetJunkie said:
Okay....everyone together now. Let's review again. :)

With vSphere 5.1 you can now do "shared nothing" vMotion. No shared storage required. Of course you don't get HA since the VM is stored on only one server at a time and if that one fails you can't move it...but you can move a VM live between hosts without shared storage.
Click to expand...

While it is feasible with vSphere 5.1 to perform a "full vMotion" (i.e., vMotion + Storage vMotion in one), there are considerations to be aware of like vMotion execution time, HA requirements, etc.

OP: Please make sure you focus on getting a NAS setup for shared storage among ESXi hosts.
 
The VSA is junk for that reason..you can't run vCenter on it. So in a small shop you end up with vCenter on local DAS or on a 4th server. Useless.
Click to expand...

Agreed...I know of no production environments that I have had the pleasure of supporting using the "Shared Nothing vMotion," it is still good practice to have shared storage.

I'm also not a fan at all of the current VSA, however, that's not to say what's coming is not noteworthy, very excited to see what "it" brings to the table....lol.

I shouldn't do that...lol...too many beers today..first nice day of the year so far..may break 60...lol.

Anyone else like Blue Moon...love it..my new favorite beer....

We should have a vBeers post..!!
 
REDYOUCH said:
While it is feasible with vSphere 5.1 to perform a "full vMotion" (i.e., vMotion + Storage vMotion in one), there are considerations to be aware of like vMotion execution time, HA requirements, etc.

OP: Please make sure you focus on getting a NAS setup for shared storage among ESXi hosts.
Click to expand...

NEver said there weren't things to consider....but shared storage isn't a requirement.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top