Not to mention that you might want to take a look at the actual power consumption and BTU output of blade enclosures. You may be surprised how much heat they actually put out.
Those things can run up to 8 or 14 or so servers. So when you buy the chassis, it is built to support that many systems. Also unless you have a SAN, you are limited to the amount or drives you have on a blade. Usually 2 per blade but some of the higher end ones have 4. I have a Blade system and it's the bomb. Built in switch, KVM, web management of the servers if they are offline, easy expandability. Rocks. BUT, it uses a boatload of power (230v) and it puts out a ton of heat. And I only have 3 blades in it. I'm with Andy. If your company is willing to fork out the big bucks which it sounds like they are, get a nice server with dual procs, lots and lots of memory, and run ESX. From: Andy Shook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 4:54 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Need opinion on Blade Servers My opinion only. Blades are overkill for you situation. If the guy in charge wants expansion options, then look into virtualization. It sounds like you've got more than enough (physical) horsepower. Shook http://www.linkedin.com/in/andyshook _____ From: Sharie Breaux [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 7:45 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Need opinion on Blade Servers Our company is in the process of dividing the business into two. Two principals are staying at the current location and the other two are moving to a new location. It is my job to purchase the server for the two that are moving (of which I am going with them as well). We have four servers now: Primary (which is the one I am replacing now), SQL (of which I will replace in early 2009), Exchange & a Backup server. One of the principals is pushing blade servers. He feels there is a smaller footprint, more room for growth for the future, you only need one UPS and there is less power consumption. There is only going to be 8 people at the new company with room to expand to 4 more. The current Primary server is more than adequate for the 20 people that are at the company now. There is no temperature controlled server room. There is an "IT closet" where the wiring will be (Phone & Data) which is basically only 8' wide x 30" deep with louvered doors in the common supply room. He suggested putting the servers in the closet sideways of which I am against and said no. I will be putting them in my cubicle with me as it makes it easier to manage them. Since I do not know that much about blade servers, I need all of your opinions. Sharie Breaux Systems Administrator [EMAIL PROTECTED] ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~
