This might be a paradigm shift and also depends on the number of physical hosts and VMs, but why not consider running vCenter on a VM? That reduces the need for a physical server to host it and also provides some flexibility if you also have DRS, HA, etc.
Jeff Jeffrey Poling System Administrator | Information Systems Moody Bible Institute 820 N. LaSalle Blvd., Chicago, IL 60610 312-329-8968 www.moodyministries.net<http://www.moodyministries.net> >From the Word. To Life. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, January 10, 2011 10:07 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Recommendation for new server (or two) Nice to know - thanks! -- RMc "Don Guyer" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote on 01/10/2011 09:37:34 AM: > We have a quad-core blade handling both VCenter and CommVault. Our > environment is 100+ VMs and about 4TB of data. There's not a lot of > backups going on during the day when we are managing VMs, but we > always try to over engineer servers a little, if possible. > > Don Guyer > Systems Engineer - Information Services > Prudential, Fox & Roach/Trident Group > 431 W. Lancaster Avenue > Devon, PA 19333 > Direct: (610) 993-3299 > Fax: (610) 650-5306 > [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> > > From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> > [mailto:[email protected]]<mailto:[mailto:[email protected]]> > Sent: Monday, January 10, 2011 10:19 AM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: Recommendation for new server (or two) > > > Greetings! > > I plan on continuing my search on this issue (as well as contacting > the VMUser group forum), but as this group generally has somebody > giving a quick AND USEFUL response, I thought I'd post here... > ===== > Currently, we have an old PE-850 with one "Pentium III, 1.266 GHz" > and 3 Gb RAM. It runs two applications... > > UltraBac backup software (and it feeds a Quantum PX-502 tape library) > > VMware vCenter 2.5 > > We are looking to replace the PX-502. The library at which we are > looking requires an external SAS port. Given the nature of the > slots on the PE ("regular", circa 2003 PCI slots), we've been told > it is difficult to find a SAS adapter for these slots. Consequently > (and also due to its age), we are now server shopping. > > vCenter functions would be for management only. However, we will > need to go to VMWare products 4.1 and beyond (ESX would be on other > host servers). > > Specific questions: > > 1. Would it be a mistake to continue to use a single server for both > vCenter management and for running network-wide backups to the local > tape library? In other words, should we replace the PE-850 with two > servers instead? > > 2. For the vCenter, what would be an "optimal minimum" for CPU? > That is, how many cores in how many processors? (That is, single > quad, dual quad, single single core, etc)? > > We can't really "shoot the moon" on this as we do have a limited > budget for this. Thanks! > -- > Richard D. McClary > Systems Administrator, Information Technology Group > ASPCA(r) > 1717 S. Philo Rd, Ste 36 > Urbana, IL 61802 > > [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> > > P: 217-337-9761 > C: 217-417-1182 > F: 217-337-9761 > www.aspca.org<http://www.aspca.org> > > The information contained in this e-mail, and any attachments > hereto, is from The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to > Animals(r) > (ASPCA(r)) and is intended only for use by the addressee(s) named > herein and may contain legally privileged and/or confidential > information. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, > you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, > copying or use of the contents of this e-mail, and any attachments > hereto, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in > error, please immediately notify me by reply email and permanently > delete the original and any copy of this e-mail and any printout thereof. > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software. > com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to > [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software. > com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to > [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
