Compute + Storage (Custom Build Recommendations)

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drmoore

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#233412 15-Apr-2018 11:38

Hi Team,

Am in the planning phase of installing a new server rack with a bunch of servers + storage. I have been looking around at HP, Dell etc. for a solution but have also thought about custom building servers.

Wanting to setup a couple of VM hosts with a bunch of storage. Have thought about a pair of servers with plenty of CPU, Memory access with a SAN for storage.

Anyone played around with a custom setup they want to share some insight on? Custom Server, with a Custom SAN.

amanzi

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#1996403 15-Apr-2018 11:48

What will it be used for? Production systems or just a lab for learning/experimenting? Part of your hardware decisions need to come from what OS/software you'll be running on top of it. Have you considered setting up an OpenStack environment? There's a reference architecture you could follow to create the hardware layer: https://docs.openstack.org/networking-ovn/latest/admin/refarch/refarch.html

Andib

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#1996405 15-Apr-2018 11:51

If this is for a homelab look at an AMD Ryzen or EPYC sytem, Lots of core for their price.

If this is for a business / production use, Buy a Dell or HPE Intel Xeon server,

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gehenna

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#1996406 15-Apr-2018 11:52

I can vouch for Cisco UCS and Pure Storage. It's rad tech.

drmoore

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Wannabe Geek

#1996408 15-Apr-2018 12:00

Will be a production system. Upgrade for existing system.

Windows Servers, Exchange Servers, Remote Desktop etc.

Also have few linux vm's which would like to migrate to this new infrastructure.

Thanks for your input, I will take a look over the options suggested.

gehenna

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#1996503 15-Apr-2018 15:47

Why bother running your own mail server anymore?

drmoore

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Wannabe Geek

#1996681 15-Apr-2018 22:48

Multi-Tenant Exchange and not looking at moving them elsewhere.

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billgates

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#1996702 16-Apr-2018 07:04

If it’s a production system then custom built server is a bad idea. You will get business support from HPE or Dell buying through them.

Do whatever you want to do man.

Lias

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#1996714 16-Apr-2018 07:34

I'm all about custom builds for home lab usage, but for production usage its add an unnecessary layer of risk. HPE is the gold standard here, and in my experience their support is second to none.. The only real gripe I ever have with HPE is their Cisco'esque infatuation with restricting firmware/bios updates to those with appropriate entitlements.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup. Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

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#1996757 16-Apr-2018 09:10

If you're after a couple of servers, you could always skip the SAN and use Storage Spaces Direct with Hyper-V - pretty nice solution to be able to create a fault tolerant cluster all using local disk!

Go Dell or HP, buy as much warranty up front as you can to save stuffing around with it later

drmoore

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1997351 16-Apr-2018 23:46

Thanks for the reply guys. Will look at my options.

gehenna

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#1997822 17-Apr-2018 13:46

Your options vary depending on the sort of architecture you want to support. I rate Cisco UCS + VMware + Pure Storage very highly, but that's mainly cost-viable if you want to design for virtualisation and resilient services and performance. If you just want to host a few single instance services then a well specced standalone Dell/HP/IBM/etc is fine. Hyper-V or VMware also depends on what you want to do, and your hardware needs may change with that decision.

Lots of options, lots to think about. Then again, if your roadmap is more SaaS/IaaS/Hybrid oriented the needs change all over again :)

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drmoore

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Wannabe Geek

#1997909 17-Apr-2018 15:28

gehenna:

Your options vary depending on the sort of architecture you want to support. I rate Cisco UCS + VMware + Pure Storage very highly, but that's mainly cost-viable if you want to design for virtualisation and resilient services and performance. If you just want to host a few single instance services then a well specced standalone Dell/HP/IBM/etc is fine. Hyper-V or VMware also depends on what you want to do, and your hardware needs may change with that decision.

Lots of options, lots to think about. Then again, if your roadmap is more SaaS/IaaS/Hybrid oriented the needs change all over again :)

I understand. I think I'll sit on my analysis for a little bit. Not so much that it's paralysis just enough to make sure I've ironed out what I want to do.

My original thinking was - build a scalable iscsi san storage with big disk array, then couple of hosts. Can add more storage, more servers as required?