Virtualization hardware specifications

[Howard Butler]

If someone has the time, interest, and is confident enough about  
hardware wankery, we need some specs and costs on a three well-
appointed servers to replace osgeo1, osgeo2, and a few blades.  Assume  
we would be wanting to run Xen (or something like it) for a number of  
server instances on each machine (more cores and more RAM, the  
better).  Assume we're running at OSL, 2U's would probably be fine,  
and at least one of the machines should have enough hd to run our trac/
drupal postgresql/mysql databases.

How much can we get for $20k USD?  Being the lazy and rather  
uneducated person that I am, I would head over to Dell's site and see  
what a tricked out dual-proc Nehalem with 8+ gb of RAM would be and  
multiply x 3, but I would suspect we could do better than that.  
Alternatively, should we just outsource the hardware procurement to  
OSL entirely, or is having our own physical hardware something we  
really want?

osgeo1 and osgeo2 on peer1 is not our hosting future, and we are  
continually getting requests for more and more services.  Unless  
someone has a better idea, I propose we start looking seriously at OSL  
for our hosting home and decide if we want to be having our own  
hardware or be completely virtual.  Let's try to have all of the bits  
in place by the New York sprint (February or March) so we can  
piggyback our buildout, development, and deployment with that event.  
Sound like a plan?

Howard


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[Alex Mandel-2]

Howard Butler wrote:

> If someone has the time, interest, and is confident enough about
> hardware wankery, we need some specs and costs on a three well-appointed
> servers to replace osgeo1, osgeo2, and a few blades.  Assume we would be
> wanting to run Xen (or something like it) for a number of server
> instances on each machine (more cores and more RAM, the better).  Assume
> we're running at OSL, 2U's would probably be fine, and at least one of
> the machines should have enough hd to run our trac/drupal
> postgresql/mysql databases.
>
> How much can we get for $20k USD?  Being the lazy and rather uneducated
> person that I am, I would head over to Dell's site and see what a
> tricked out dual-proc Nehalem with 8+ gb of RAM would be and multiply x
> 3, but I would suspect we could do better than that.  Alternatively,
> should we just outsource the hardware procurement to OSL entirely, or is
> having our own physical hardware something we really want?
>
> osgeo1 and osgeo2 on peer1 is not our hosting future, and we are
> continually getting requests for more and more services.  Unless someone
> has a better idea, I propose we start looking seriously at OSL for our
> hosting home and decide if we want to be having our own hardware or be
> completely virtual.  Let's try to have all of the bits in place by the
> New York sprint (February or March) so we can piggyback our buildout,
> development, and deployment with that event.  Sound like a plan?
>
> Howard
>

I can help with the research, and highly recommend silicon mechanics as
a possible vendor. I know for my lab we just got a beefy 8 TB (RAID 6)
plus 8 core, lots of ram machine for under $5000, and most of the cost
was the hard drives.

In talking with some people I know who do this kind of thing a lot, they
recommend kvm over xen these days, though I don't know the details both
are good options. Note: Ubuntu now includes software to create clouds,
it's on my todo list to investigate how it works.

Thanks,
Alex

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[Alex Mandel-2]

Alex Mandel wrote:

> Howard Butler wrote:
>> If someone has the time, interest, and is confident enough about
>> hardware wankery, we need some specs and costs on a three well-appointed
>> servers to replace osgeo1, osgeo2, and a few blades.  Assume we would be
>> wanting to run Xen (or something like it) for a number of server
>> instances on each machine (more cores and more RAM, the better).  Assume
>> we're running at OSL, 2U's would probably be fine, and at least one of
>> the machines should have enough hd to run our trac/drupal
>> postgresql/mysql databases.
>>
>> How much can we get for $20k USD?  Being the lazy and rather uneducated
>> person that I am, I would head over to Dell's site and see what a
>> tricked out dual-proc Nehalem with 8+ gb of RAM would be and multiply x
>> 3, but I would suspect we could do better than that.  Alternatively,
>> should we just outsource the hardware procurement to OSL entirely, or is
>> having our own physical hardware something we really want?
>>
>> osgeo1 and osgeo2 on peer1 is not our hosting future, and we are
>> continually getting requests for more and more services.  Unless someone
>> has a better idea, I propose we start looking seriously at OSL for our
>> hosting home and decide if we want to be having our own hardware or be
>> completely virtual.  Let's try to have all of the bits in place by the
>> New York sprint (February or March) so we can piggyback our buildout,
>> development, and deployment with that event.  Sound like a plan?
>>
>> Howard
>>
> I can help with the research, and highly recommend silicon mechanics as
> a possible vendor. I know for my lab we just got a beefy 8 TB (RAID 6)
> plus 8 core, lots of ram machine for under $5000, and most of the cost
> was the hard drives.
>
> In talking with some people I know who do this kind of thing a lot, they
> recommend kvm over xen these days, though I don't know the details both
> are good options. Note: Ubuntu now includes software to create clouds,
> it's on my todo list to investigate how it works.
>
> Thanks,
> Alex
>

I should clarify I believe we bought 4-8 quad core cpus.

More to come later,
Alex

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[Alex Mandel-2]

Just some ideas to get us looking at options.
-Alex

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Your Silicon Mechanics Quote:  #172754
Date: Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:03:36 -0800
From: Silicon Mechanics <[hidden email]>
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  Confirmation:  858253732
   Description:  OSGeo Example
       Created:  11/06/2009
       Expires:  12/06/2009

=================================> Notes <================================



===============================> Contents <===============================

#  Qty  Name                                               Price  Subtotal
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.  1   Rackform nServ A2121 "OSGeo Example"            $4614.00  $4614.00

    Details:
    Shared Chassis:  The following chassis resources are shared by both
compute nodes
    External Optical Drive:  No Item Selected
    Power Supply:  Shared, Removable 980W Power Supply with PFC - 92%
Maximum Efficiency
    Rail Kit:  1U Sliding Rail Kit Included
    Compute Node 1:  The following choices apply to Compute Node 1 (Left
side when viewing chassis from the front)
    CPU:  2 x Opteron 2374 HE (2.2GHz, Quad Core, SktF, 512KB/Core L2
Cache, 6MB L3 Cache) 55W 45nm
    RAM:  32GB (8 x 4GB) DDR2-800 Registered ECC - Interleaved
    NIC:  Dual-Port nVidia MCP55V-Pro Gigabit Ethernet Controller
    Management:  No Item Selected
    Low-Profile PCIe x16:  No Item Selected
    Hot-Swap Drive - 1:  500GB Seagate Barracuda ES.2 (3Gb/s, 7.2Krpm,
32MB Cache, NCQ) SATA
    Hot-Swap Drive - 2:  500GB Seagate Barracuda ES.2 (3Gb/s, 7.2Krpm,
32MB Cache, NCQ) SATA
    OS:  CentOS 5 - 64-bit - Preload, No Media
    Compute Node 2:  The following choices apply to Compute Node 2
(Right side when viewing chassis from the front)
    CPU:  2 x Opteron 2374 HE (2.2GHz, Quad Core, SktF, 512KB/Core L2
Cache, 6MB L3 Cache) 55W 45nm
    RAM:  2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2-667 Registered ECC - Interleaved
    NIC:  Dual-Port nVidia MCP55V-Pro Gigabit Ethernet Controller
    Management:  No Item Selected
    Low-Profile PCIe x16:  No Item Selected
    Hot-Swap Drive - 1:  500GB Seagate Barracuda ES.2 (3Gb/s, 7.2Krpm,
32MB Cache, NCQ) SATA
    Hot-Swap Drive - 2:  500GB Seagate Barracuda ES.2 (3Gb/s, 7.2Krpm,
32MB Cache, NCQ) SATA
    OS:  Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server Edition - 64-bit - Preload, No Media
    Warranty: Standard 3-Year Warranty

    Configured Power:  585 W, 600 VA, 1996 BTU/h, 5.5 Amps (110V), 2.9
Amps (208V)

==========================================================================
                                                   Tax (0%):  Unavailable*
                                                         Total:   $4614.00


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