Hey guys,
We are currently in the process of adding 2 new hosts (HP BL460c G8) to our 4 hosts (HP BL460c G7) cluster. The hosts have the following configurations :
- 12 cores (2x Intel Xeon 6 cores)
- 192GB of memory (G8 have 256GB)
- 6 nics (2 + 4 with mezzanine)
- 2x 146GB mirror for OS
- 2 FC HBAs
I just upgraded vCenter, vSphere and Update Manager to the latest version (5.1 U1). We run on average from 40 to 60 VMs per host and never had a issue.... CPU is always around 15-20% and memory around 50-60%. Exchange and SQL are on physical servers.
We use 4 nics for VM traffic (4 VM portgroups (with 3 active nics) + 2 VMkernel portgroups(1 active nic + 1 standby) and 2 nics for V-Motion and FT.
I was recently asked to see if we could remove 2 switches (Cisco 3020) from the enclosure and have a viable environment with only 4 nics. The network guys are telling me that the traffic is really not that bad on 3020s... We have occasionnal peaks but average traffic for the past year in general is fairly low. This is all with 1GB nic and switches.
I was thinking of the following config if we go down to 4 nics :
- 2 active nics for VM Traffic (Ideally one onboard / one on the mezzanine)
- 1 active nic for vMotion / Mgt traffic with the other nic (used for FT) in standby
- 1 active nic for FT / Mgt traffic with the other nic (used for vMotion) in standby
Am I missing something? To be honest... I would rather keep the 6 switches/nics thinking we'll have the traffic for it in the future but the management here want to know if it's feasible with only 4 for the time being.
Thanks in advance.