|
xen-users
RE: [Xen-users] My future plan
Hi Jonathan,
One other thing, check with the ISCSI guys as to if using 2 dual
port Intel ET cards might be better than a single quad port. Intel quad ports
use a PCI-E bridge to join 2 dual port chips so it might be faster and
definitely cheaper to use two dual port cards.
In my experience storage speed is very much a try it and see how
it goes type thing for smaller setups. After 2 years using Xen we run a mix of
15K SAS and consumer SATA. Generally small fast SAS drives are best for DB and Public/Pop
mail servers. Web, Exchange/IMAP and support servers (eg. Radius and DNS)
typically favour space over speed and hence better suit large SATA drives.
I would really consider a second storage server when you can,
lots of eggs in one basket although I know these storage baskets are quite
pricey. Join them by 20Gbit direct connect infiniband and run DRBD with SDP, it
make for very fast replication and you can still balance the reads using ISCSI
Active/Passive multipath between the two. I was considering this a week ago, we
currently run sets of Quad socket server joined by infiniband for DRBD
replication.
Rob
From: Jonathan Tripathy
[mailto:jonnyt@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 09 June 2010 09:39
To: Robert Dunkley; Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [Xen-users] My future plan
Thanks Rob for the tip on the NICs! This will come in handy.
My main area of concern was using Ethernet/Software iSCSI for my setup, but all
seems ok!
I'll remember to ask Broadberry about the new backplace and
RAID card for the storage server.
Do you think I'll be alright using just SATA disks for my
setup? I guess I could always change the disks if it became a problem...
From: Robert Dunkley [mailto:Robert@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wed 09/06/2010 09:36
To: Jonathan Tripathy
Subject: RE: [Xen-users] My future plan
Hi Jonathan,
There is nothing wrong with your plan just make sure you get the
SAS6G backplane and card for the storage, cost difference should be little or
nothing and you don’t want to be bandwidth constrained later by the raid
card if you choose to upgrade to 10Gbit for storage.
I could not see the dual port Pro 1000ET copper card on Dells
options so was just pricing those separately at about £100 each: http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=E1G42ET+Intel&cid=12126864948002960902&ei=b1EPTPKmFZ622ASGxYnUBA&sa=title&ved=0CAcQ8wIwADgA#p
The ET ones are the latest with multi-queue support so are the
ones to get IMHO.
Rob
From: Jonathan Tripathy
[mailto:jonnyt@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 09 June 2010 09:20
To: Robert Dunkley; Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [Xen-users] My future plan
Thanks for the link. I think very highly of supermicro gear as
well as their staff. However, since we wish to build up the solution slowly, we
can really only afford to start with the R210s. Once the initial 3 or 4 R210
general some revenue, then we could look into some beefier servers (As it would
be much cheeper in the long run as we could run more guests per node).
Please let me know if you think my plan is flawed from the
outset.
When you were spec'ing the R210, what NIC were you looking
at? Just the 2 on board ones?
From: Robert Dunkley [mailto:Robert@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wed 09/06/2010 09:13
To: Jonathan Tripathy; Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [Xen-users] My future plan
Hi Jonathan,
I was going to say buy duals but then I saw the price of the
R210s, tough call.
Good example:
http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/1U/6016/SYS-6016T-URF4_.cfm?UIO=N
18 Dimm slots and 4 of the latest Intel GBE Ports (Supports
Multi-Queue used in Xen 4.0). Just add some Quad or Hex core Xeons and as much
RAM as you need, no need for additional NICs. Depending on a internal policy
onsite rapid response support maybe less of an issue when you have a redundant
node type architecture.
I have to admit the R210s are a good price though and its a
tough choice:
R210 with 2.40Ghz QC and 8GB Ram and Pro1000 ET Dual port
– About £600
Supermicro Above with Dual 2.26Ghz QC and 24GB Ram – About
£1700
The dual options gives you full screen IKVM and redundant PSUs
along with with 12 spare memory slots (6 used) as opposed to no spare slots on
the R210. Alot of this depends on your RAM requirements and spare rack space I
suppose. Would be interesting to hear the opinions of others.
Rob
From: Jonathan Tripathy
[mailto:jonnyt@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 08 June 2010 16:20
To: Robert Dunkley; Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [Xen-users] My future plan
Since this is just an idea at this stage, and that we are
just starting out, we want to build up our rack over time. The Dell R210 is the
best we can afford at the minute. Maybe, after the first 4 or 5 R210, I could
look into getting servers with Dual CPUs in them so more guests can run. Initally,
each server will be handling its own storage using RAID1.
The Dell R210s do come with dual on-board NICs, however I
need one of them for the internet connection, unless of course I used VLANs and
just used the on-board NICs?
I'm very confused about the RAID cards. I've never really
worked with these before, so all advice is appreciated. With the number of
total VMs running around 100, do you think I'll notice much of a difference
between SATA and SAS?
From: Robert Dunkley [mailto:Robert@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tue 08/06/2010 15:56
To: Jonathan Tripathy; Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [Xen-users] My future plan
Hi Jonathan,
The NAS is using good components, make sure you get IPMI option
if this is going in a rack more than 5 minutes away from where you work. Ask
Broadberry if they can supply the newer SAS 6G expander version of that chassis
and the newer 9260-4I 6G raid card (I’m pretty sure it a Supermicro
approved card for that chassis), with 16 drives 6G SAS may remove a potential
bottleneck to the expander. Also, consider 15K SAS for your high IO
database and mailservers, a mix of 15K SAS and 7K SATA arrays might be
appropriate.
Anything but LSI cards often have issues with the LSI based
expanders in those Supermicro chassis, Areca do work with the SAS1 expander as
long as SAFTE is disabled but considering the expander I think LSI is the only
advisable card brand.
Any reason you aren’t considering 1U servers with
integrated Intel NIcs for nodes? Often the best band per buck for nodes is with
1U Dual Xeon E55XX quadcore or the new Opteron Octal/Dodeca core systems.
Rob
From: Jonathan Tripathy
[mailto:jonnyt@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 08 June 2010 15:38
To: Robert Dunkley; Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [Xen-users] My future plan
Do you have any links or anything for cards that you
suggest? I'm just a start-up to low cost is very much a good thing here :) But
then again, so is having my cake and eating it as well!!
That's a fantastic idea about the PXE booting! The only
thing though, is that Dell supply their server with a minimum of a single HDD
as standard, so there would be no cost saving there. And also, all the servers
would have to be the same.
My idea is that if this was to work out properly, I would
get servers better than R210, as these are limited to 16GB of RAM max..
From: Robert Dunkley [mailto:Robert@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tue 08/06/2010 15:36
To: Jonathan Tripathy; Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [Xen-users] My future plan
Hi Jonathan,
Might be worth considering a different raid card, even with
simple raid 1 I did not get proper raid 1 random read interleaving performance
with an LSI 1068 based controller (Assuming the 1078 is very similar), an IOP
based Areca card behaved properly (Only 30% improvement over single drive with
LSI but 80% better with Areca, simple Bonnie testing). I was using Centos 5.2
at the time (Integrated drivers).
If you are feeling brave maybe a PXE boot could work to save the
need for any system drives on the nodes.
Rob
From: xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jonathan
Tripathy
Sent: 08 June 2010 13:56
To: Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Xen-users] My future plan
My future plan currently looks like this for my VPS hosting
solution, so any feedback would be appreciated:
Dell R210 Intel X3430 Quad Core 8GB RAM
Intel PT 1Gbps Server Dual Port NIC using linux
"bonding"
Small pair of HDDs for OS (Probably in RAID1)
Each node will run about 10 - 15 customer guests
Some Intel Quad Core Chip
LSI 8704EM2 RAID Controller (Think this controller does 3
Gbps)
Battery backup for the above RAID controller
4 X RAID10 Arrays (4 X 1.5TB disks per array, 16 disks in
total)
Each RAID10 array will connect to 2 nodes (8 nodes per
storage server)
Intel PT 1Gbps Quad port NIC using Linux bonding
Exposes 8 X 1.5GB iSCSI targets (each node will use one of
these)
HP Procurve 1800-24G switch to create 1 X 4 port trunk (for
storage server), and 8 X 2 port trunk (for the nodes)
What you think? Any tips?
The SAQ
Group
Registered
Office: 18 Chapel Street, Petersfield, Hampshire GU32 3DZ
SAQ is the trading name of SEMTEC Limited. Registered in England & Wales
Company Number: 06481952
http://www.saqnet.co.uk AS29219
SAQ
Group Delivers high quality, honestly priced communication and I.T. services to
UK Business.
Broadband :
Domains : Email : Hosting : CoLo : Servers : Racks : Transit : Backups :
Managed Networks : Remote Support.
![SAQ Group]()
ISPA
Member
The SAQ
Group
Registered
Office: 18 Chapel Street, Petersfield, Hampshire GU32 3DZ
SAQ is the trading name of SEMTEC Limited. Registered in England & Wales
Company Number: 06481952
http://www.saqnet.co.uk AS29219
SAQ
Group Delivers high quality, honestly priced communication and I.T. services to
UK Business.
Broadband :
Domains : Email : Hosting : CoLo : Servers : Racks : Transit : Backups :
Managed Networks : Remote Support.
![SAQ Group]()
ISPA Member
The SAQ
Group
Registered
Office: 18 Chapel Street, Petersfield, Hampshire GU32 3DZ
SAQ is the trading name of SEMTEC Limited. Registered in England & Wales
Company Number: 06481952
http://www.saqnet.co.uk AS29219
SAQ
Group Delivers high quality, honestly priced communication and I.T. services to
UK Business.
Broadband :
Domains : Email : Hosting : CoLo : Servers : Racks : Transit : Backups :
Managed Networks : Remote Support.
![SAQ Group]()
ISPA Member
The SAQ
Group
Registered
Office: 18 Chapel Street, Petersfield, Hampshire GU32 3DZ
SAQ is the trading name of SEMTEC Limited. Registered in England & Wales
Company Number: 06481952
http://www.saqnet.co.uk AS29219
SAQ
Group Delivers high quality, honestly priced communication and I.T. services to
UK Business.
Broadband :
Domains : Email : Hosting : CoLo : Servers : Racks : Transit : Backups :
Managed Networks : Remote Support.
![SAQ Group]()
ISPA Member
The SAQ Group
Registered Office: 18 Chapel Street, Petersfield, Hampshire GU32 3DZ
SAQ is the trading name of SEMTEC Limited. Registered in England & Wales
Company Number: 06481952
http://www.saqnet.co.uk AS29219
SAQ Group Delivers high quality, honestly priced communication and I.T. services to UK Business.
Broadband : Domains : Email : Hosting : CoLo : Servers : Racks : Transit : Backups : Managed Networks : Remote Support.
![SAQ Group]()
ISPA Member
|
_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
|
|
|
Home