Integrated IT Infrastructure for SMB
Greetings, colleagues!
In the last article we talked about the main advantages of integrated solutions for the creation of IT infrastructure. I propose to continue the topic and discuss the infrastructure for SMB, which is dynamically changing, and various manufacturers are actively going into this segment with proposals for new solutions.
We will talk about them today.
What are the requirements for small and medium-sized businesses for IT infrastructure?
These customers are focused on the minimum price and the possibility of a simple installation, sometimes they add to this the possibility of scaling, but often forget about fault tolerance before the first failure. At the same time, many people have only two servers: small tasks are running on one server, while the second is more productive, it is used, for example, for 1C. And very often these servers are assembled either on their own or by a small local collector who, in the event of a failure, will say - bring, we will see. Even with backups, there is nothing to deploy a second server.
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A simple solution to this problem is to use virtualization with two servers and storage. When choosing such solutions, the majority of the budget is spent on storage, the final price is determined by the type of storage and data interface used.
The most common low-cost models now are QNAP, Synology, etc. Used as a NAS or iSCSI and represent the simplest rack case and software-implemented Linux-based raid. The presence of 1Gbit Ethernet makes it easy to use in existing networks, but provides not the highest speed. Also, often similar models are limited in scaling - in rare models (as a rule, the oldest ones in the line - and their price starts from $ 10k without disks) you can add additional shelves with disks.
A completely different approach is demonstrated by the initial storage systems from leading world manufacturers - full duplication of components, ease of scaling (supporting more than 100 disks in one system is not uncommon), the use of block architecture allows various data transfer interfaces (FC, SAS, iSCSI). FC SAN is an excellent standard, but its scaling capabilities are redundant in most cases for SMB, and SAS, which is very close in topology, but noticeably cheaper. Excellent level of service of similar systems.
However, the prospect of using original disks (“they give me disks twice as much as they sell on the market!”) Pushes the SMB segment away from such decisions. Moreover, without a drive, such systems are often cheaper than the first type, and sometimes offer more functionality.
Choosing between an expensive system with cheap disks and brand storage system, the customer can get a profitable offer if he chooses the storage system and servers of the same manufacturer, but this discount is not always enough to fit into the expected budget.
An interesting solution is offered by Fujitsu PRIMERGY CX420 - Cluster in Box. It is positioned by the company as a solution for the implementation of critical business problems. But no one forbids using this system in the SMB segment for the consciousness of a pool of virtual machines. The hardware platform consists of two two processor servers with an available shared disk pool through the SAS 6Gbit / s interface.
For ease of perception, the scheme for constructing such a solution is:
The solution comes fully assembled - and includes processors, memory sticks, hard drives, and Microsoft Server 2012 licenses, which implement all the necessary functionality, both virtualization and recovery in case of any failures:
Storage Spaces for creating logical volumes from storage pools
SMB 3.0 protocol (for example, for transparent file resource failover)
Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV 2.0)
Monitoring clustering processes and verifying the integrity of the infrastructure supported by Windows Server Standard
Hyper-V Replica (for DR scenarios)
Local disk drives are shared
Equipment provides two port access to SAS
Disk logical partitions are always available for two nodes in a cluster
The cluster synchronization system (heartbeat) is integrated as a Gigabit Ethernet channel on the backplane
Also, the storage subsystem can use multi-level data storage technologies and use deduplication, and scale it up by installing an additional JBOD array.
And one more important advantage of the system is that an affordable price is comparable to the cost of inexpensive Qnap.
In the last article we talked about the main advantages of integrated solutions for the creation of IT infrastructure. I propose to continue the topic and discuss the infrastructure for SMB, which is dynamically changing, and various manufacturers are actively going into this segment with proposals for new solutions.
We will talk about them today.
What are the requirements for small and medium-sized businesses for IT infrastructure?
These customers are focused on the minimum price and the possibility of a simple installation, sometimes they add to this the possibility of scaling, but often forget about fault tolerance before the first failure. At the same time, many people have only two servers: small tasks are running on one server, while the second is more productive, it is used, for example, for 1C. And very often these servers are assembled either on their own or by a small local collector who, in the event of a failure, will say - bring, we will see. Even with backups, there is nothing to deploy a second server.
')
A simple solution to this problem is to use virtualization with two servers and storage. When choosing such solutions, the majority of the budget is spent on storage, the final price is determined by the type of storage and data interface used.
The most common low-cost models now are QNAP, Synology, etc. Used as a NAS or iSCSI and represent the simplest rack case and software-implemented Linux-based raid. The presence of 1Gbit Ethernet makes it easy to use in existing networks, but provides not the highest speed. Also, often similar models are limited in scaling - in rare models (as a rule, the oldest ones in the line - and their price starts from $ 10k without disks) you can add additional shelves with disks.
A completely different approach is demonstrated by the initial storage systems from leading world manufacturers - full duplication of components, ease of scaling (supporting more than 100 disks in one system is not uncommon), the use of block architecture allows various data transfer interfaces (FC, SAS, iSCSI). FC SAN is an excellent standard, but its scaling capabilities are redundant in most cases for SMB, and SAS, which is very close in topology, but noticeably cheaper. Excellent level of service of similar systems.
However, the prospect of using original disks (“they give me disks twice as much as they sell on the market!”) Pushes the SMB segment away from such decisions. Moreover, without a drive, such systems are often cheaper than the first type, and sometimes offer more functionality.
Choosing between an expensive system with cheap disks and brand storage system, the customer can get a profitable offer if he chooses the storage system and servers of the same manufacturer, but this discount is not always enough to fit into the expected budget.
An interesting solution is offered by Fujitsu PRIMERGY CX420 - Cluster in Box. It is positioned by the company as a solution for the implementation of critical business problems. But no one forbids using this system in the SMB segment for the consciousness of a pool of virtual machines. The hardware platform consists of two two processor servers with an available shared disk pool through the SAS 6Gbit / s interface.
For ease of perception, the scheme for constructing such a solution is:
The solution comes fully assembled - and includes processors, memory sticks, hard drives, and Microsoft Server 2012 licenses, which implement all the necessary functionality, both virtualization and recovery in case of any failures:
Storage Spaces for creating logical volumes from storage pools
SMB 3.0 protocol (for example, for transparent file resource failover)
Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV 2.0)
Monitoring clustering processes and verifying the integrity of the infrastructure supported by Windows Server Standard
Hyper-V Replica (for DR scenarios)
Local disk drives are shared
Equipment provides two port access to SAS
Disk logical partitions are always available for two nodes in a cluster
The cluster synchronization system (heartbeat) is integrated as a Gigabit Ethernet channel on the backplane
Also, the storage subsystem can use multi-level data storage technologies and use deduplication, and scale it up by installing an additional JBOD array.
And one more important advantage of the system is that an affordable price is comparable to the cost of inexpensive Qnap.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/236103/
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