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Server Recommendation Appreciated

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  • Infrastructure
  • Business Computing
  • Servers
Last response: in Business Computing
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April 29, 2014 5:56:29 AM

I've been at my new position for a week. Their infrastructure is a complete wreck. Luckily this is a small company (thus far) that is poised to grow.

They have a server in Los Angeles that I'm flying out to pick up and bring back to VA. This server serves zero function. However, I have some plans for it.

My boss wants me to order another server to go out in our Datacenter in Las Vegas. It has been ages since I've purchased a *server*. This server will perform the following roles (so far):

VMWare
- VM AD 2008 R2
- VM IIS
- VM SQL
- VM Website

So basically I just want to run the VM hypervisor and run my VMs on top. I'm talking them out of hosting their website on the server and put it somewhere elsewhere.

The server I'm bringing back to VA is an HP ProLiant DL380e Gen 8. What brands do folks go with now? The company is going to grow and I would like to maintain a standardized environment as far as hardware goes for the first year or two.

Thanks!

More about : server recommendation appreciated

April 29, 2014 10:46:24 AM

There are some more questions that I think need to be asked. How may users does your company have? Are you looking to use the HP server or are you looking to purchase a new one? What are the specs on the HP server? How many locations are there? Are there three locations for the company 1 in LA 1 in Las Vegas and 1 in VA. Do all the sites connect to the data center in Las Vegas?
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April 29, 2014 10:52:59 AM

You have the right idea. It is good to select a standardized environment as much as possible for many key reasons. First, you can narrow the scope of support contracts, so instead of having to keeping track of warranty coverage and information from Dell, HP, and a bunch of others, limit it to the key businesses you will be utilizing for purchases. Also, this helps to better ensure compatibility between devices. For instance, if you buy three identical HP servers, all the power supplies are identical in the event you need to purchase a single spare, etc. If they were each different brand, then they may all be different sizes, output, etc. requiring more parts on hand for spares if needed. And this also can help with purchasing power. Leveraging multiple system sales over time through a preferred vendor can mean better pricing for you in the long run!

I personally utilize the HP ProLiant server systems myself for the customers we work with. I've been very impressed with the quality of their offerings, it is easy to find spare hardware if necessary, and their support is pretty great as well. Honestly I haven't had to do much with their support though to know much about that side. But I think that also shows that their products run well with little difficulties because I have yet to mess with support except occasional questions and recommendations.

But in the end, the preference is going to fall to you and your co-workers or supervisors. Discuss your project, your needs, and your expectations with the vendors and see what they are have to say. It will never hurt to contact HP, Dell, etc. and bounce some ideas off of them to see what they would recommend, compare offerings, and see where they fall in prices.
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April 30, 2014 7:32:40 AM

jeff-j and choucove,

I appreciate the responses. I was hired on to do simple HelpDesk support but I've since learned I'm basically the only IT guy here. Luckily I'm pretty well versed in all versions of Windows, VMWare and etc., just not a hardware guy really.

The company is small. The total users are under 10 but I do want to futureproof a bit in the event the company starts growing. I am looking to purchase a new server; apparently I have an unlimited IT budget. There are 3 servers in Las Vegas which runs the company's product. I will be doing simple maintenance on those remotely and just make sure they are up and running and healthy.

I'm looking to purchase an HP server here for my office, run a hypervisor and then run VMs. Since my boss isn't technical (CIO?!) I need a recommendation on a specific HP server. At least 2 quad-cores, 64GB memory and a few SSD drives. What model of ProLiants have you gents had success with or would recommend?

Thanks!
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April 30, 2014 1:56:25 PM

It is kind of hard for me to make a solid suggestions since I don't know better details of exactly what you are needing to do with the server, space constraints or other requirements, etc. However, for running a VM hosting server, pretty much any HP ProLiant can do it.

I'd suggest looking at the P-Series ProLiant servers. This would be like the DL360p G8 or the DL380p G8 servers, or the ML350p G8 if you want a pedistal or tower form factor instead of rackmount. The nice thing about these servers is how expandable they are. Again, since I don't know exactly the amount of resources you are going to be needing for your workload, it's hard to say specifics, but I would say start with a single hex-core hyperthreaded processor and 32 GB of RAM for your first processor. You can do quite a bit with that much hardware! See how you are doing then on performance and available resources. If your normal running tasks are taxing the single processor pretty heavily and you are showing limited available RAM, then you can purchase the second matching processor and RAM and double your resources pretty easily if you need.

The HP P-series servers also come with the P-series Smart Array RAID controller, which is a more robust controller than the software based B120i or B320i controllers of the HP ProLiant E-series servers. For the best performance and stability I highly recommend ensuring you have one of the P420i with onboard cache installed. This also enables for more RAID levels than the non-cache controller which offers only 0/1/10.

Now storage is where it can get very expensive for you. The HP P-series Gen8 servers can handle doing lots of SSDs and plenty of throughput, but you want to make sure you get the right kind of SSDs to handle your environment. Most cheaper SSDs have a pretty limited write count meaning they will have a very limited lifespan if used in a very demanding server environment where there are constantly changes being written and modified on the drives. And if they are all set up in RAID it can mean they all wear out quickly together. There are only two solutions to this, and that is purchasing more expensive but more reliable enterprise SSDs, or replacing your SSDs on a frequent rotation. Depending on how your servers are running this could be every couple years to twice a year, it's hard to say. The other alternative is high speed SAS drives. It takes more drives to meet the speed of SSDs, though.
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