Last week I mentioned NPAR as a feature in most Broadcom like the ones found in the PowerEdge MX740c blade server. I realized although NPAR is nearly a decade old, it may not be well-known by readers, so I thought I’d take a few minutes to break it down for you. Continue reading
Category Archives: Virtualization
Want 400GbE in a Blade Server? Here’s How
A few years ago, the thought of needing multiple 25GbE ports on a blade server was not even a consideration. In fact, I did a survey 6 years ago and got an overwhelming response that only a couple of 10GbE ports was needed for VMware virtualization efforts. Today there is now an option to have 8 x 25GbE ports in a 2 CPU blade server – but there are some things you need to know. Continue reading
If You Have a Gmail Account You Could Be Helping Find A Cure for COVID-19
Over the years, there have been several community programs that were designed to help take the spare CPU cycles from your PCs or blade servers to build simulations or analyze data that scientists can use to find answers to challenging questions. Continue reading
What Workloads Are Running on Your Blade Servers?
Higher CPU core counts and faster memory speeds are expanding the use case for blade servers. In years past, a majority of users would say they use blade servers for a dense platform for virtualization. Today, I think there are more workloads than virtualization running on blade servers, but I need your help to decide if my speculation is true. Continue reading
Managing Server Hardware and VMs – You Need This Tool
If your organization has teams that are responsible for managing both the physical server hardware (rack or blade server) lifecycle and the virtual environment, there is a tool that is ideal for you. Continue reading
Blades vs Rack Mount -a podcast
In June of 2011, I had the pleasure of joining Nigel Poulton, Rick Vanover and Bob Plankers on the podcast, “InfoSmack Deep Dive” to talk about blade servers versus rack servers. In the 47 minute discussion we talked over the pros and cons of both types of server platform. I recently found a copy of the podcast in my Dropbox, so I listened to it and was shocked to hear that many of the same arguments and counter-points we reviewed almost 6 years ago still applies with servers today. If you are curious as to whether blade servers or rack servers are ideal for you, I encourage you to take some time and listen to this podcast.
Special thanks to:
Nigel Poulton (@NigelPoulton, http://blog.nigelpoulton.com/)
Rick Vanover (@RickVanover, rickvanover.com)
Bob Plankers (@Plankers, https://lonesysadmin.net/)
Podcast download: https://bladesmadesimple.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/infosmack_deep_dive_podcast_104.mp3
Listen here:
Kevin Houston is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of BladesMadeSimple.com. He has 20 years of experience in the x86 server marketplace. Since 1997 Kevin has worked at several resellers in the Atlanta area, and has a vast array of competitive x86 server knowledge and certifications as well as an in-depth understanding of VMware and Citrix virtualization. Kevin has worked at Dell EMC as a Server Sales Engineer covering the Global Enterprise market since August 2011 and currently works as a Technical Architect supporting the Central Region.
Disclaimer: The views presented in this blog are personal views and may or may not reflect any of the contributors’ employer’s positions. Furthermore, the content is not reviewed, approved or published by any employer.
Workload Acceleration Options for Blade Servers
I recently was asked what the demand for NVMe drives was, so I pinged my peers to see where they are seeing the adoption of NVMe (in rack or blade servers forms) and got a pretty interesting response. This got me wondering what the options were for NVMe, as well as other acceleration technologies, in the blade server world. Here is what I found.
VMware Virtual SAN Ready Node on a Blade Server
UPDATED I recently had to determine the best option for a customer from the Virtual SAN Compatibility Guide / Virtual SAN Ready Node guide and was a bit surprised to see only a single blade server vendor listed. When it comes to choosing a server form factor, there are many reasons to choose blade servers, and several reasons not to choose them (see “5 Reasons You May NOT Want a Blade Server – April 2013.”) If you think blade servers will fit for your infrastructure needs, here are a few options to consider.
POLL Results: How Many NICs Do You Use for Virtualization on Your Blade Servers?
Last month I ran a poll asking “how many NICs do you use for virtualization on your blade servers” and the results may surprise you.
Intel E5 2600 v2 vSphere Compatibility
One of the first questions I’ve received when I started discussing the new Intel E5 2600 v2 CPU is “will it work with my existing blade server VMware clusters?” The sales answer is YES, of course. The real answer is, it depends.