Server Consolidation Update
At the end of June I posted and entry outlining our Server Consolidation Project, and I thought that I would update you on our progress and touch on our struggles and accomplishments.
We introduced an IBM Blade chassis along with VMware ESX Virtualization software for both the Blade environment and a separate dedicated virtual server environment. We purchased a IBM Blade Chassis H with 4 servers, along with 2 IBM x366 servers which have 4 Dual Core CPU's and 16 gig of ram in each server. We have also reallocated 2 IBM x345 servers for use in the Virtual Space. From a Virtual Licensing perspective we have purchased 2 VMware ESX 4 CPU license keys along with 6 VMware ESX 2 CPU license keys.
We struggled with the initial setup and configuration of the Blade Chassis, however with a little help from IBM and a lot of troubleshooting and hard work, my team has stabilized the Blade environment and we have started a pilot project on the Blade Servers. Our strategy will be to test a couple of applications on Blade servers running Windows 2003 Server and test a couple of applications running on a VMware ESX - Windows 2003 Virtual Server.
On the Virtual side we started with the 2 IBM x345's and then introduced the 2 IBM x366's. What we have found is VMware ESX server performs better on bigger faster servers with a lot of memory, than on the smaller Blade servers, however knowing this gives us deployment options. Smaller, low cpu, low memory, low IO utilized server requirements fit nicely on the blades, whereas high CPU and high Memory requirements will be deployed on the IBM x366 servers.
Heating concerns with the Blade Unit forced us to reorganize our data center cabinet layout and move 2 cabinets directly in front of a large libert air conditioning unit. We move the blade chassis into one of these cabinets and we are considering moving the IBM x366's into the second cabinet.
Overall, I am very pleased with the VMware Virtualization results. VMware is very stable and works well, however I am not as pleased with the Blade Unit. I think the blade unit can be a great solution for smaller data centers that do not have a lot of space, however my initial impression is that it was costly, technically challenging and a little under-power for our needs.
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