XenSource v4 XenServer
So we got our 1 month eval license for XenServer and I just installed it on this Dell PowerEdge 2950 with dual quad-cores, 8 GB of RAM, and about 1.5 TB's of storage we had lying around. The install of XenServer was pretty boring: click, click, click, reboot, done (which, of course, is a good thing). The thing I really wanted to check out was their XenCenter Management client. The one bad thing is that it needs to run on Windows. I have a virtualized XP VM running via Parallels on my MacBook so it wasn't too big of a deal I guess.
The XenCenter interface looks like a typical Microsoft MMC plug-in. It was pretty simple to figure out how to do basic things like create new VMs, create Storage Repositories (this is an NFS share on the XenServer and I'm planning on storing all the VMs here to play with XenMotion), check the performance stats for the XenServer and its guests, configure network interfaces, etc. I have to say, so far this is looking pretty good for Xen. That was my one big beef with Xen versus VMware...their GUI was practically non-existent. I know some of you hardcore UNIX guys are scoffing right now. I don't mind the command-line...for most purposes I'll probably end up using it exclusively...but GUIs have their place like when you have multiple XenServers running multiple XenGuests and you want to do things to a subset of hosts.
I'm going to create several VMs (like 6 web servers and 2 database servers) and then load our site on them. Then we'll put them behind the load balancers and maybe run some load tests. It'd be nice to see how easily we can XenMotion VMs off of one physical server to simulate some kind of scheduled maintenance, and what impact a user would experience during the process.
2008-02-18
2008-02-15
Citrix NetScaler
So today the eval NetScaler arrived and the Citrix engineer went over some basic setup info with us, then turned it over into our eager hands. It's going to be really fun toying around with both the Big-IP and the NetScaler to see which one we like.
Performance isn't really that big of an issue for us (yet). We Akamaize a lot of our static content (to the tune of offloading about 40 Mbps of traffic on average). The main question is, can we SysAdmins figure out how to do what we need to do easily, and as quickly as possible? We want to see an easy to use CLI *and* a functional GUI. We also want to see statistics and detailed reporting, as well as the ability to create graphs in Cacti for as much useful data as possible.
The NetScaler quote came in at around $50,000 for a pair (we want redundancy of course). The Big-IP came in at about $35,000 a pair. We're not quite sure why the difference is so much, but hopefully after several days of tinkering and some help from our VAR, we'll get to the bottom of that.
So today the eval NetScaler arrived and the Citrix engineer went over some basic setup info with us, then turned it over into our eager hands. It's going to be really fun toying around with both the Big-IP and the NetScaler to see which one we like.
Performance isn't really that big of an issue for us (yet). We Akamaize a lot of our static content (to the tune of offloading about 40 Mbps of traffic on average). The main question is, can we SysAdmins figure out how to do what we need to do easily, and as quickly as possible? We want to see an easy to use CLI *and* a functional GUI. We also want to see statistics and detailed reporting, as well as the ability to create graphs in Cacti for as much useful data as possible.
The NetScaler quote came in at around $50,000 for a pair (we want redundancy of course). The Big-IP came in at about $35,000 a pair. We're not quite sure why the difference is so much, but hopefully after several days of tinkering and some help from our VAR, we'll get to the bottom of that.
2008-02-14
3PAR
So we went to 3Par Headquarters today and got our hands dirty with their storage systems. Overall I was pretty impressed. These guys know what they're talking about. It's refreshing to find a storage company that's focused on...storage. There are other high end storage companies that either get bored, or get greedy, or get stupid, but they start offering software and other products that, although they might be great products, have nothing to do with storing data. 3Par only has 3 models, but really they have 2 products (the E class and the S Class). The E Class is what we're looking at to start. It's no slouch though. It will store up to 96 TB of data and is wicked fast. They make it incredibly easy to create volumes, change RAID type (online), dynamically optimize the entire system, etc. either through their Java GUI (yuck) or their powerful CLI. Their system can use both Fibre Channel and SATA (they call it Nearline) drives, and you can mix and match as you please. They also invented "thin provisioning" of volumes which means you can export a volume to a host and the host will see, say, 100 GB's, but it's not really using all that space in the beginning. It gives out storage to the host little by little (I think the default is 30 GBs or something) but the host never knows. So if your users say they absolutely need 100 GB's of space, but you're pretty certain they don't, no need to argue. TP to the rescue!
Anyway, it was a very informative visit. We have Citrix coming in tomorrow to drop off an eval NetScaler. So next week I'll write about our experiences with using both the Big-IP and the NetScaler. Stay tuned.
So we went to 3Par Headquarters today and got our hands dirty with their storage systems. Overall I was pretty impressed. These guys know what they're talking about. It's refreshing to find a storage company that's focused on...storage. There are other high end storage companies that either get bored, or get greedy, or get stupid, but they start offering software and other products that, although they might be great products, have nothing to do with storing data. 3Par only has 3 models, but really they have 2 products (the E class and the S Class). The E Class is what we're looking at to start. It's no slouch though. It will store up to 96 TB of data and is wicked fast. They make it incredibly easy to create volumes, change RAID type (online), dynamically optimize the entire system, etc. either through their Java GUI (yuck) or their powerful CLI. Their system can use both Fibre Channel and SATA (they call it Nearline) drives, and you can mix and match as you please. They also invented "thin provisioning" of volumes which means you can export a volume to a host and the host will see, say, 100 GB's, but it's not really using all that space in the beginning. It gives out storage to the host little by little (I think the default is 30 GBs or something) but the host never knows. So if your users say they absolutely need 100 GB's of space, but you're pretty certain they don't, no need to argue. TP to the rescue!
Anyway, it was a very informative visit. We have Citrix coming in tomorrow to drop off an eval NetScaler. So next week I'll write about our experiences with using both the Big-IP and the NetScaler. Stay tuned.
2008-02-13
Vendor Evaluations
This month (and possibly running into next month) we're going to be evaluating different vendors for servers, load balancers, storage systems, data centers, and other cool stuff. Oh yeah, I work over at Trulia now as a Systems Engineer.
For servers we're checking out what Sun and HP have to offer. Having had my fair share of Dells, I'm happy for the change. The main thing we're looking for is good remote management. Both HP and Sun seem to know what they're doing in this area.
For load balancers we're checking out F5 Big-IPs and Citrix NetScalers. I've used the F5 back at MarkMonitor so I feel comfortable with them. But I always hear great things about the NetScalers so it's going to be fun checking them both out.
For storage systems we're checking out NetApp, Hitachi, and 3Par. I've used NetApps before and so the familiarity factor is there. We're going to the 3Par facility in Fremont tomorrow so I'm excited about getting my hands on some hundred thousand dollar hardware.
For data centers we're now down to either Equinix or NaviSite. NaviSite is within walking distance from our office, but Equinix is looking like the price winner (and Equinix is a pretty trusted name in the data center world so I feel pretty comfortable about that).
So stay tuned for some unbiased opinions on the above vendors.
This month (and possibly running into next month) we're going to be evaluating different vendors for servers, load balancers, storage systems, data centers, and other cool stuff. Oh yeah, I work over at Trulia now as a Systems Engineer.
For servers we're checking out what Sun and HP have to offer. Having had my fair share of Dells, I'm happy for the change. The main thing we're looking for is good remote management. Both HP and Sun seem to know what they're doing in this area.
For load balancers we're checking out F5 Big-IPs and Citrix NetScalers. I've used the F5 back at MarkMonitor so I feel comfortable with them. But I always hear great things about the NetScalers so it's going to be fun checking them both out.
For storage systems we're checking out NetApp, Hitachi, and 3Par. I've used NetApps before and so the familiarity factor is there. We're going to the 3Par facility in Fremont tomorrow so I'm excited about getting my hands on some hundred thousand dollar hardware.
For data centers we're now down to either Equinix or NaviSite. NaviSite is within walking distance from our office, but Equinix is looking like the price winner (and Equinix is a pretty trusted name in the data center world so I feel pretty comfortable about that).
So stay tuned for some unbiased opinions on the above vendors.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)