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HP vs. Dell server for VMWare ESXi and SAN Melody

Hello,

I know similar questions have been asked in the past, but I'd like to get a fresh take on this.

We are in a virtualization project (VMWare ESXi4) for a mission critical environment and I had planned a full HP solution: 2 x DL380G6 servers with their Lefthand P4300 G2 SAN, but another SAN option came up in the 11th hour, which is SAN Melody from Datacore, and the reseller usually use Dell servers for their installations (due to a very substantial price difference).

Comparing the Dell servers (PE R510s) to the ProLiants, the price difference is about $2,000 / server. The specs are more or less the same.

With the SAN Melody solution (with 2 servers for the ESXi and 2 servers for the SAN), the price difference is about $8,000, which is quite substantial.

We currently have a couple of HP servers and are happy with them. But if the Dell servers have the same quality and offer the same quality of support, I find it hard to justify the extra cost.

So to summarize:
* Are today's Dell servers as robust and reliable as HP's? This is the most important part, of course.
* Is their support as good? Getting replacement parts quickly without hassle?
* Does Dell have something equivalent to HP's ILO2 with Advanced pack (=full KVM functionality and remote disk mounting, etc.)? If so, is it as good?

Lastly, if you have experience to share regarding SAN Melody (especially versus on HP's Lefthand SANs), it would be much appreciated. I have more research to do on SAN Melody, but one thing that stands out is that the reseller quoted 3 days of professional services for setting this up (something I would prefer to do myself, using support as needed). If it takes 3 days for a SANMelody expert, it might be a more complex SAN solution than we are looking for (we need something that is easy to setup and manage).

Thanks,
Lars

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Gregory_V

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Paul Solovyovsky

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Matthew England

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Lars007

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Regarding HP vs. Dell Servers: I guess I'll get views and experiences in both direction. I just find it hard to understand how Dell can sell the same quality hardware for $2K less ($8K for the same specs as HP is charging $10K for - and I am talking HP prices direct from Ingram Micro, not via reseller). There has got to be a reason for the $2K difference, and I can't help thinking that it has to do with the quality of build (and if it is not in the quality of the build, then what?). Some more feedback on this from people with experience with both would be great.

Regarding SANMelody and what their reputation is and so forth: This is one thing I am trying to find out more about. They seem to have been around for a while. They apparently won the
"Virtualisation Product of the Year 2008" (whatever that really means): http://www.networkcomputingawards.co.uk. Ikea is using them: http://howto.techworld.com/storage/2320/case-study-flatpack-san. Here is a link from a VMWare forum: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/144664 (which also links to http://sanmelody.blogspot.com, probably not very unbiased, though).

I want to make sure I understand SANMelody enough, including peoples' experience, how widely deployed it is, etc., so that I can make an educated decision about it. Hopefully someone here has some experience to share on it...

Thanks,
Lars

Paul Solovyovsky

If you're using this for vmware and you have a SAN why not go with the DL360? Same memory and CPU capacity and you can put 2 dual quad port nics for 10 nic port capacity.

Paul Solovyovsky

My understanding is the Dell R710 is direct competition to the DL380

http://www.bladewatch.com/2009/07/20/reviewing-the-dell-poweredge-r710/

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Alex Galbraith

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exx1976

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mr_road

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exx1976

> the old adage was no-one ever got fired for buying IBM

There's a reason that's the old adage - because it's true.

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lrpage

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Lars007

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Thanks for all the input on the Dell vs. HP. One more factor on this is that the quality difference might not be as relevant in a fully redundant environment. Anyhow, I think I have enough info on the Dell Vs. HP. Why not IBM? We already have a couple of HP servers and they work great. There is no cost benefit to IBM.

I'll open a separate post to continue on the SAN Melody topic.

Thanks,
Lars