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On Tue, 19 Jun 2012 07:47:10 -0400 |
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Tanstaafl <tanstaafl@×××××××××××.org> wrote: |
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> Hi everyone, |
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> |
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> Ok, here's my dilemma... |
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> |
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> I have some new Dell R515 servers (12 bay versions). These do not |
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> have any Dell supported internal SD (or CF) card options for the |
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> hypervisor, but they do have an internal 2.5" dual SATA/SAS drive |
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> cage, for running a bootable OS (in my case the ESXi hypervisor)... |
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> |
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> Well, I really hate the idea of wasting money and disk space (for 2 |
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> 146GB SAS drives to be run in a mirror, what is being recommended to |
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> me) on something that only requires about 32MB to install (the |
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> hypervisor) when apparently there is a really cool option like: |
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> |
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> for CF cards: |
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> http://www.addonics.com/products/ad2sahdcf.php |
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> |
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> or |
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> |
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> for SD cards: |
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> http://www.addonics.com/products/ad2sahdcf.php |
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> |
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> I could get 2 of these for each server, each with a mirrored pair of |
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> CF (or SD) cards (mirror mode is defined by a jumper or switch on the |
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> adapter), then mirror those (in the BIOS), which would result in a |
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> total of FOUR CF (or SD) redundant cards (a mirror of 2 mirrored |
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> pairs) for the hypervisor... and I can do this for quite a bit less |
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> than even a SINGLE 146GB SAS drive... |
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> |
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> Is there any reason NOT to do this? |
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> |
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> What am I missing (other than the fact that Dell won't support this |
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> config, but I'm not using them for software support anyway)? |
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> |
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> Appreciate any/all comments... |
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> |
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> Charles |
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> |
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> |
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With my last batch of ESX hosts, someone "forgot" to order the R710 SD |
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internal add-on. But it has 8 x 600M SAS drives.... |
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So what I did is configured all drives as a RAID 10 and let ESX grab |
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enough for the hypervisor and leave the rest for regular storage. |
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I figured that ESX is an appliance anyway, there's nothing on it I |
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can't get back by running the installer again, I have backups of the |
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isos and templates. And if a drive pokes and takes out a guest, I still |
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equally screwed regardless of whether I gave some space away to the |
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hypervisor or not. |
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-- |
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Alan McKinnnon |
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alan.mckinnon@×××××.com |
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