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  1. #1
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    Nov 2004
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    Servers consolidation

    Hi,

    I would like to replace for of our oldest servers on 1 box.

    Each server is:
    P4 Pentium - 3.06 Ghz - 2 Gb RAM - RAID 1 (IDE HDs)

    Each server is used at its full capacity (load average btw 0.5 to 2)

    I would like to replace them with a single server with this configuration:

    2 x Xeon 3.0 - 800 Mhz - 2Mb
    6 GB DDR RAM
    RAID 10 (4 SATAII HD)


    This server will cost as much as any of these boxes to run. Which means I can split the cost of these servers by 4.

    The motherboard supports up to 12 Gb RAM, but has 6 RAM slots. As the 2 Gb sticks are too expensive, we are limited to 6 Gb assuming we put 1 Gb stick on each available slot.

    My question is: is the single server configuration enought to replace the 4 P4 servers?

    Thank you for your hints
    Enterprise Consultant
    CCNP Enterprise - CCNP Security
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  2. #2
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    Honestly I think you are going to be overloading the Xeon and most likely on disk I/O. Those P4's aren't a slouch and they sound like they are 100% full so you really want 400% of the power. I just can't help but things that you are putting to much on the box.

    Also there is the issue that if one of the P4's goes down you only get x unhappy customers. If the Xeon goes down you get 4x unhappy customers.

    Just my 2c
    Russ Foster - Industry Curmudgeon
    Freelance Sysadmin for Hire - email vaserv@gmail.com

  3. #3
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    Thank you Rus

    I can even use 2 servers to replace these 4. But I really need to have less boxes. I pay too much for licenses, maintenance and upgrading. May be I have to consider a RAID 10 with 4 SCSI HD
    Enterprise Consultant
    CCNP Enterprise - CCNP Security
    .:. Travels From West to East .:.

  4. #4
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    I think if you went with two dual xeons with the SATA RAID-10 you would be fine. The one box however would be overkill unless you looked at quad CPU's which would end up more than two servers.

    Rus
    Russ Foster - Industry Curmudgeon
    Freelance Sysadmin for Hire - email vaserv@gmail.com

  5. #5
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    Dual Xeon CPU will give you better cost/performance ratio in order to replace your P4's. A Quad is just going to demand too much of a price premium without any significant increase in performance for your application.

  6. #6
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    2 of the P4's onto one of the Xeons will be ok, but not 4 onto 1.
    Matt Wallis
    United Communications Limited
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  7. #7
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    I would go with two of those, maybe 4GB RAM each is enough.
    Ankit Gupta - Cernax Hosting
    "We're always second in the industry, the customer comes first."

  8. #8
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    Thank you for your help

    I consider to buy or build 2 servers each with 2 Xeon and 4 Gb RAM with SATAII RAID 1. If I look arround, I can end up with $2500 to $3000 a box.
    Enterprise Consultant
    CCNP Enterprise - CCNP Security
    .:. Travels From West to East .:.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    May 2004
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    Atlanta, GA
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    there are no hardware based 2-port SATA-II RAID card availabe. you still can use 3ware 8006-2LP for 2x SATA-II drives running h.w. RAID1, but it won't be 3G/s.
    C.W. LEE, Apaq Digital Systems
    http://www.apaqdigital.com
    sales@apaqdigital.com

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by UH-Matt
    2 of the P4's onto one of the Xeons will be ok, but not 4 onto 1.
    Agreed, having done a fair amount of consolidations, mergers, and tidy ups and split outs over the last few years, you will be killing the xeon by loading that much onto it.

    You should find that you can merge two of your P4's onto a better spec'd DualCore 830 unit, with 4Gb RAM, 3ware9600 cards 4 SATA in R10

    Being honest though - you're much better to have more smaller boxes than fewer larger units at those sorts of numbers, and should have a warm-standby, as part of the DR plan. With 4 fully loaded boxes, paying for 5 servers and licences *surely* isnt a problem
    Rob Golding Astutium Ltd - UK based ICANN Accredited Domain Registrar - proud to accept BitCoins
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  11. #11
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    How about a dual dual core Opteron system? I would think that should be able to handle the load without an issue.
    Karl Zimmerman - Founder & CEO of Steadfast
    VMware Virtual Data Center Platform

    karl @ steadfast.net - Sales/Support: 312-602-2689
    Cloud Hosting, Managed Dedicated Servers, Chicago Colocation, and New Jersey Colocation

  12. #12
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    As far as I have found, a server's price increases faster than its capablities.

    Very low specs servers are too expensive to operate

    High End servers are too exepensive to operate


    So, somewhere btw theses limits, I am sure, there is an area where the servers have the best ROI.
    Enterprise Consultant
    CCNP Enterprise - CCNP Security
    .:. Travels From West to East .:.

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