FW: Somewhat OT: Virtualization and Cisco Nexus Switches

H-
We are not running Enterprise plus but we have had a similar setup for the past year: 3 dell 2950's now running vsphere 4, (about 50 VM's total), NETApp SAN storagae, Snap mirror replication across MPLS to a DR site with a similar setup. All Cisco backbone. I can say it's very stable once all the storage requirements are tweaked so LUNs are not going off line.

Frank

-----Original Message-----
From: nobody_at_groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody_at_groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of Haroon
Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 11:18 AM
To: Danshtr
Cc: Clay Parker; Muhammad Nasim; Cisco certification
Subject: Re: Somewhat OT: Virtualization and Cisco Nexus Switches

Thanks for the info guys.

Martijn, good info, thanks.

My main goal is to have:

Reduce number of servers and for that we are considering Dell Poweredge
2950s or D900/R900s with a SAN solution (Dell/EMC). Also, we are looking to
add high availability, auto failover within the internal cloud as as well
off-site replication to a DR site with same server setup, should the main
campus was attacked by aliens or something.

I plan on using third party DNS load balancing (or collocate F5 GTM some
where) along with the virtualization technologies to accomplish this.

Since main network backbone is all cisco so that should not be a problem.

If anybody else has any experience with vmware and xenserver and can help me
decide which one is best for enterprise, production environment, please
share.

Thanks,

Haroon

On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 9:07 AM, Danshtr <danshtr_at_gmail.com> wrote:

> Are you sure it replaces the built in switch.
>
> AFAIK, it extends the built in VDS, using VMWare's API. As I was told by
> VMWare, the underlying switching code is still the same VDS.
>
> Best regards,
> Dan
> http://dans-net.com
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 6:54 PM, Clay Parker <parkclay_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Also keep in minde 2 things.
>> 1. The 1000 is a virtual switch that runs on a VM host it also replaces
>> the
>> fuction of the VMWare Virt Switch.
>>
>> 2. It requires Enterprise Plus and also has a cost from Cisco to buy the
>> 1000.
>>
>> All of this said we have tested it and because of the features, are on
>> the
>> road to implentation in production.
>>
>> This is based on our multi customer model in the data center and being
>> able
>> to carve out space for each customer.
>>
>> Clay
>> On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 9:37 AM, Muhammad Nasim <muhammad.nasim_at_gmail.com
>> >wrote:
>>
>> > It really depends what you want to achieve with the virtualiztion
>> usually
>> > we
>> > are seeing that due to space issue , heat and management issues of the
>> > physical hardware (servers and others) universities are looking towards
>> > virtualization
>> >
>> > What you really want to virtualize this is the question , you want to
>> save
>> > some servers then I think vmware is the best option u can pick
>> >
>> > I would suggest do the demo first rather then becoming so convience by
>> just
>> > seeing the marketing material of the vendors
>> >
>> > HTH
>> >
>> >
>> > 2009/11/18 Haroon <itguy.pro_at_gmail.com>
>> >
>> > > Hello Group,
>> > >
>> > > We are in process of doing some virtualization on most of the servers
>> and
>> > > was wondering if experts here had any experience with different
>> > > virutlaization vendors? Namely, VMware, being the market leader but I
>> am
>> > > also seeing Xenserver has alot of features plus its free and open
>> source.
>> > >
>> > > What are your opinion on these technologies and would love to hear
>> about
>> > > any
>> > > in-production experiences as well? Is Vmware vSphere really worth the
>> > money
>> > > in enterprise (university) environment?
>> > >
>> > > On Cisco Nexus Switches, how are these switches different from other
>> > cisco
>> > > catalyst switches?
>> > >
>> > > Thanks,
>> > >
>> > > Haroon
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
>> > >
>> > >
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>> > >
>> > >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Muhammad Nasim
>> > Network Engineer
>> > Saudi Arabia
>> >
>> >
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>>
>>
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Received on Fri Nov 20 2009 - 10:19:29 ART