We've reviewed a laundry list of preparations required before going w long will it take to do all of that - and whatever else more that I haven't listed? I'm not sure, but it's likely measured in months rather than weeks.
If you started with one chassis, then you can expand, gaining more experience, and add more hardware. Other than inter-chassis switching, there isn't much new. You'll have to add (assign) another Management Node when you get past 100 blades or so. You'll find that the labor to run this expanded system hardly increases as you scale up - other than the labor involved in the blade/chassis/rack installations. Alternatively, you can assess whether the VCL approach is the right one for you. I may be sure it will be, but it's better for you to do your evaluation and make your decisions based on your situation. If you've started with one chassis rather than the 10, 20 or 50 you really wanted to buy to make a major impact, you've realized many important benefits. One significant one is that, while you've been learning and experimenting, the other blades haven't been using up their warranty time, haven't been getting older, and will come in brand new and shiny when they are delivered. You'll find it relatively easy to scale up. There is the nuisance of assembling blades, racks, etc. It's kind of similar to that Erector Set you had when you were a kid (or did you start with a Heathkit Electronics setup?) - so assemble everything - including providing all the power and cooling needed (by the way, we've found that the IBM Cool Blue Rear Doors help with respect to machine room cooling, and also with respect to the energy bill. This shouldn't be a surprise if you paid attention to that long-ago thermo course. :-) There are a number of products which improve the thermodynamics of cooling vs. the traditional hot aisle - cold aisle. There will also be the need to add network switches to allow inter-chassis networking and and you'll have to configure the switches. After those initial efforts, you'll find that the additional effort to keep the system running is very small. These are economies of scale, and they are more easily realized by doing the scaling after the startup system has been mastered. -- --henry schaffer
