4U VMware cluster

Project: 4U VMware cluster
Featured:
State	Active
Members	Danny Witberg
GitHub	No GitHub project defined. Add your project here.
Description	Make a mini VMware cluster
Picture
No project picture! Fill in form Picture or Upload a jpeg here

VMWare and virtual computing in general had many benefits over a physical server farm. One VMWare host can accomodate multiple virtual servers. Shared resources means better use of the actual hardware. In a cluster of hosts, several automation processes can be achieved such as auto restart upon failed VM, and automatic recovery after a failed host. To experiment with such a system, you will have to have a minimum of 3 host servers, and a shared storage system or datapool. My goal with this project is to set up the hardware in a mini 4U cluster system.

The cluster is comprised of 4 HP DL360G5 1U servers. They are fairly cheap to come by, can easily be upgraded and are compact. This is an overview of the 4 systems:

1) DONE

• Hardware platform: HP DL350 G5
• CPU: 1x Quadcore Xeon E5420 2.5GHz 64 bit 6MB cache
• Memory: 20GB PC2-5300F ECC Fully buffered memory
• Harddisk: none installed
• Network: 2xBCM5705 gigabit Ethernet with offload engine + 2x dual gigabit Intel PRO1000PT
• Power: 2x 700W hotswap power supply
• Optical drive: DVD/CD rewriter
• Management port: ILO2 100Mbit Ethernet
• Boot disk: 32GB USB drive

2) DONE

• Hardware platform: HP DL350 G5
• CPU: 1x Quadcore Xeon E5420 2.5GHz 64 bit 6MB cache
• Memory: 20GB PC2-5300F ECC Fully buffered memory
• Harddisk: none installed
• Network: 2xBCM5705 gigabit Ethernet with offload engine + 2x dual gigabit Intel PRO1000PT
• Power: 2x 700W hotswap power supply
• Optical drive: DVD/CD rewriter
• Management port: ILO2 100Mbit Ethernet
• Boot disk: Todo: 32GB USB stick

3) Todo!

• Hardware platform: HP DL350 G5
• CPU: for now: 1x Quadcore Xeon E5405 2GHz 64 bit 6MB cache DONE
• Memory: 20GB PC2-5300F ECC Fully buffered memory DONE
Network: 2xBCM5705 gigabit Ethernet with offload engine + dual gigabit Intel PRO1000PT DONE
• Harddisk: none
• Management port: ILO2 100Mbit Ethernet

4) Todo!

• Hardware platform: HP DL350 G5
• CPU: ????? T.B.D.
• Memory: 16GB PC2-5300F ECC Fully buffered memory DONE
• Network: 2xBCM5705 gigabit Ethernet with offload engine + dual gigabit Intel PRO1000PT DONE
• Harddisk: 3-5x SATA 500-1000GB 7200RPM 2.5inch drive + 240GB SSD <-- Still open for suggestions
• Management port: ILO2 100Mbit Ethernet

Upgrades: Memory upgrades can be from 4x4GB+4x1GB = 20GB to a configuration of 8x4GB=32GB. CPU upgrade can be to a dual quadcore system. With purchase of a single E5405 CPU, two systems can already be equipped with 2xE5420 and 2xE5405 quadcores. I believe it's best to keep the storage server on a fast dual core CPU, like 3,7GHz, because the file server process is mostly single thread. 16GB should be plenty to run a good ZFS system to host all VM data storage with iSCSI connections. The 3rd and 4th are planned on 4xGbE as for now, but if two LP Intel PRO1000PT cards become available, they too can go to the 6xGbE.