[steevojb]

Hello again

Unfortunately the budget was fairly tight on this project. I have 2 p550's with the below configuration

3 * HBA for SAN connectivity
1 * Quad Ethernet
1 * Single Ethernet
1 * Storage Controller
4 * 72gb HDISK
4 CPU
16GB Memory

I need to create

1 * Production Database server (8gb Mem) - 2 CPU
1 * Production ERP server (13gb Mem) - 3.5 CPU
1 * TSM Server (2gb Mem) - .1 CPU
1 * Test ERP Server (4gb Mem) 1 CPU
1 * Test Database Server (4gb Mem) 1 CPU

I have proposed to configured as below

1 * P550 With

1 * VIO Server (1gb mem) .4 CPU

The above with all hardware apart from 1 * HBA. Etherchannel with the quad card and single card for interface backup to create 1 Shared Ethernet presented to both servers

1 * Production ERP server (13gb Mem) - 3.5 CPU

The above with Virtual SCSI, rootvg from internal HDISK and SAN disk for ERP

1 * TSM Server (2gb Mem) - .1 CPU

The above with Virtual SCSI, rootvg and TSM vg from internal HDISK (not enough SAN disk) and a dedicated HBA for the 3582 Tape unit

1 * P550 With

1 * VIO Server (1gb Mem) - .4 CPU

The above with all hardware apart from 1 * HBA. Etherchannel with the quad card and single card for interface backup. 1 Shared Ethernet presented to each server

1 * Production Database server (8gb Mem) - 2 CPU
1 * Test ERP Server (4gb Mem) .8 CPU
1 * Test Database Server (4gb Mem) .8 CPU

Each client will have internal rootvg disk and SAN disk for application. I am proposing to give the production database server a dedicated HBA. Etherchannel with the quad card and single card for interface backup to create 1 Shared Ethernet presented to both servers

Can anyone make any suggestions on improving this configuration with what I have / doing it any different

TIA

Steve

[FASherman]

Are you using the internal dual-port Ethernet adapter?

[steevojb]

Hi There

Not at the moment, no. I was going to add this to the configuration but steered clear because I was under the impression they are not hot swap. I suppose they should be utilised though

Steve

[FASherman]

I've got to be honest, I'm not a big fan of this design. Whenever I'm virtualizing resources for production environments, I prefer to have two virtual I/O servers. But, as you say, budget was a consideration. Still, I can't help but to think for about the same cost, you could have gone with the quad core POWER 5+ in a p561 with two system drawers, and have been able to host all of your partitions in one server with the redundancy of two VIO servers and more hardware level redundancy.

But no use crying over spilled milk

With what you have, I really don't see a better way of doing what you propose. The memory requirements of your Production ERP server limits your flexibility.

[lawrenzo]

and you still look like Bradleys dad of eastenders ..........

[FASherman]

Originally Posted by lawrenzo

and you still look like Bradleys dad of eastenders ..........

No fair using references I don't understand!

[lawrenzo]

hehehe, sorry fasherman ......

I used to work with Steevo and he looks like someone off the tele.

[chanduamar]

yes,please design your environment using LPAR validation tool, Or new tool available from IBM is system planning tool, I don't think .4 cpu and 1gb RAM is enough to satisfy clients power hyperwiser context switching takes lot of cpu cycles and memory.

[cdelgadop]

Hi

I think is a good design that uses all the Virtualization resources. Only problem is: what happens if one of the VIOS just hang up? all your LPARs will be down.

I saw a banking client with a lot of LPARs running in VIOS that had to be rebooted cause some bugs in the previous version of the VIOS SW affected the performance of the VIOS LPAR. If they have had another VIOS we could had rebooted one of the VIOS without actually shutting down the clients (at least in theory).

On the other hand i agree with you in giving 1GB RAM to the VIOS if using Etherchannel and SEA. My recommendation is to assign more CPU power to the VIOS but you can also configure PLM (Partition Load Manager) in order to give CPU resources to the VIOS on demand.

Hope this helps

[sha012]

cdelgadop,

Correct me if I am wrong,

I think PLM cannot manage resources on VIO server....that is....VIO cannot be a part of PLM group

and also for PLM , the client partitions should only be a regular aix lpar....vio cannot be a client lpar in PLM