New Hyper Converged Systems from HP
A few months ago in our blog we talked about the HP Converged System 240-HC StoreVirtual (CS240) hyperconverged system , with which you can deploy a virtualized infrastructure in just 15 minutes (you can read about how this system is deployed here ).
The main scenarios for using the HP CS240 (and all other systems of the CS200 family) are the quick creation of a virtualized server infrastructure out of the box, which can be used to deploy new applications, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) for 500 - 2000 workplaces and build a private cloud. This boxed solution with minimal support and maintenance requirements is especially interesting for small companies and branches / remote offices of large organizations, where the entire IT infrastructure is served by one or two system administrators who have only basic knowledge of server virtualization and are not experts in storage systems .
The HP CS200 family of systems was introduced last fall. It used an HP ProLiant SL2500 eighth-generation server system with Intel Xeon E5-2600 v2 processors. Starting in September 2014, when the first ProLiant Gen9 models entered the market, HP is gradually updating all of its standard architecture servers. In August of this year, HP launched a new version of the hyperconverged system HP Converged System 250-HC StoreVirtual (CS250), the hardware basis of which was the ultra-dense server system of the ninth generation HP Apollo 2600 based on ProLiant XL170r Gen9 server nodes with Xeon E5-2600 v3 processors.
The HP Apollo 2600 is made in the same ultra-dense construct as the HP ProLiant SL2500 (2U chassis with four dual-socket computing nodes), but it uses the latest HP ProLiant Gen9 technologies, so the HP CS250 significantly exceeds its predecessor in performance and, therefore, copes better servicing a large number of virtual machines. If the HP CS240 system contains 64 or 80 Xeon E5-2600 v2 cores depending on the processor model, then the HP CS250 can have up to 96 processor cores (using 12-core E5-2680v3). The maximum amount of system RAM increased twofold (from one to two terabytes), and thanks to the use of DDR4 memory modules in the HP Apollo 2600, the RAM performance noticeably increased, on which the performance of virtual machines deployed on the HP CS250 also greatly depends.
Finally, although the possible configurations of the disk subsystem of the system, which is common to all four nodes, remained the same as those of the HP CS240 (24 hard drives of 1.2 TB each or a hybrid configuration of 18 hard drives and 8 SSDs of 400 GB each), but Due to the use of 12-gigabit SAS in ProLiant Gen9, the speed of data exchange with disks has almost doubled, which is especially important when using a hybrid configuration with SSD-drives to get the maximum IOPS.
The innovations of the HP CS250 are not limited only to the hardware of the system; it also supports the latest version of the VMware vSphere 6.0 hypervisor. Starting in late September, in addition to vSphere 5.5 / 6.0, the new system will also support the Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor. The use of Microsoft's hypervisor will make the hyper-converged system affordable for those customers who, due to IT budget constraints, could not purchase VMware licenses.
If the first generation of the system was available only in two rigid configurations, then the HP CS250, depending on the needs of the customer and budget constraints, can be ordered in different configurations, varying the number of disks, vSphere version (5.5 or 6.0), the number of Xeon E5 2600 cores installed in the nodes (eight or twelve) and the amount of RAM of a single node (128, 256 or 512 GB).
In addition, if the composition of the boxed solution for some parameters does not fit the customer, HP is ready to offer the same functionality, but already on the basis of a specially built system assembled from servers with any filling. The difference from the boxed version in this case is the lack of a quick deployment manager, all other options can be added separately. A key component of the hyperconverged system — the HP StoreVirtual VSA software storage system — can be installed on any x86 server at all. Moreover, a 1 TB virtual disk array license has been free with every new HP ProLiant server since 2013.
The new HP Converged System 250-HC StoreVirtual, a new hyperconverged system, not only provides increased productivity for applications deployed in a virtualized environment, but also lowers the initial price of boxed virtualization solutions and offers customers a flexible choice of configurations.
Have questions? Write in the comments.
The main scenarios for using the HP CS240 (and all other systems of the CS200 family) are the quick creation of a virtualized server infrastructure out of the box, which can be used to deploy new applications, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) for 500 - 2000 workplaces and build a private cloud. This boxed solution with minimal support and maintenance requirements is especially interesting for small companies and branches / remote offices of large organizations, where the entire IT infrastructure is served by one or two system administrators who have only basic knowledge of server virtualization and are not experts in storage systems .
The HP CS200 family of systems was introduced last fall. It used an HP ProLiant SL2500 eighth-generation server system with Intel Xeon E5-2600 v2 processors. Starting in September 2014, when the first ProLiant Gen9 models entered the market, HP is gradually updating all of its standard architecture servers. In August of this year, HP launched a new version of the hyperconverged system HP Converged System 250-HC StoreVirtual (CS250), the hardware basis of which was the ultra-dense server system of the ninth generation HP Apollo 2600 based on ProLiant XL170r Gen9 server nodes with Xeon E5-2600 v3 processors.
The HP Apollo 2600 is made in the same ultra-dense construct as the HP ProLiant SL2500 (2U chassis with four dual-socket computing nodes), but it uses the latest HP ProLiant Gen9 technologies, so the HP CS250 significantly exceeds its predecessor in performance and, therefore, copes better servicing a large number of virtual machines. If the HP CS240 system contains 64 or 80 Xeon E5-2600 v2 cores depending on the processor model, then the HP CS250 can have up to 96 processor cores (using 12-core E5-2680v3). The maximum amount of system RAM increased twofold (from one to two terabytes), and thanks to the use of DDR4 memory modules in the HP Apollo 2600, the RAM performance noticeably increased, on which the performance of virtual machines deployed on the HP CS250 also greatly depends.
Finally, although the possible configurations of the disk subsystem of the system, which is common to all four nodes, remained the same as those of the HP CS240 (24 hard drives of 1.2 TB each or a hybrid configuration of 18 hard drives and 8 SSDs of 400 GB each), but Due to the use of 12-gigabit SAS in ProLiant Gen9, the speed of data exchange with disks has almost doubled, which is especially important when using a hybrid configuration with SSD-drives to get the maximum IOPS.
The innovations of the HP CS250 are not limited only to the hardware of the system; it also supports the latest version of the VMware vSphere 6.0 hypervisor. Starting in late September, in addition to vSphere 5.5 / 6.0, the new system will also support the Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor. The use of Microsoft's hypervisor will make the hyper-converged system affordable for those customers who, due to IT budget constraints, could not purchase VMware licenses.
If the first generation of the system was available only in two rigid configurations, then the HP CS250, depending on the needs of the customer and budget constraints, can be ordered in different configurations, varying the number of disks, vSphere version (5.5 or 6.0), the number of Xeon E5 2600 cores installed in the nodes (eight or twelve) and the amount of RAM of a single node (128, 256 or 512 GB).
In addition, if the composition of the boxed solution for some parameters does not fit the customer, HP is ready to offer the same functionality, but already on the basis of a specially built system assembled from servers with any filling. The difference from the boxed version in this case is the lack of a quick deployment manager, all other options can be added separately. A key component of the hyperconverged system — the HP StoreVirtual VSA software storage system — can be installed on any x86 server at all. Moreover, a 1 TB virtual disk array license has been free with every new HP ProLiant server since 2013.
The new HP Converged System 250-HC StoreVirtual, a new hyperconverged system, not only provides increased productivity for applications deployed in a virtualized environment, but also lowers the initial price of boxed virtualization solutions and offers customers a flexible choice of configurations.
Have questions? Write in the comments.