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You have a bit of a scary setup there. &nbsp;Your argument is simple, &nbsp;there is only one(1) server any failure will result in down time. &nbsp;Loose network, all are down, &nbsp;loose the MoBo- all are down. &nbsp;loose enough disks - all are down. &nbsp;ask them ( as its also an older server) if the server went south, would they be OK with being down for a week or more while you order replacement hardware and get it spun up?? &nbsp;even switching to something like the SCALE HC3 system might be a choice as it's less expensive than VmWare
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Hi guys<br />
<br />
I'm doing a document to prove that we need a cluster environment for our virtual machines, as we have only one IBM X650 M3 hosting a load of virtual machines at our datacentre. There is no SAN either. All of the disks being used are internal on the actual X3650 which I believe we have around 14disks. I'm about to find out what sort of RAID has been set up. <br />
<br />
I am making the documentation simple for board/management, but wanted to include 'what's wrong with his scenario' to show the sort of problems that could go wrong. <br />
<br />
The current X3650 M3 has dual power supply, so that can't be a reason. Storage though may be an issue as if more than two disks die, we would lose all virtual machines that are business critical. <br />
<br />
What other possibilities are there? Faulty Ram? Motherboard dying? Faulty RAM?<br />
<br />
Thanks for helping<br />
Yashy
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Hi guys

I'm doing a document to prove that we need a cluster environment for our virtual machines, as we have only one IBM X650 M3 hosting a load of virtual machines at our datacentre. There is no SAN either. All of the disks being used are internal on the actual X3650 which I believe we have around 14disks. I'm about to find out what sort of RAID has been set up. 

I am making the documentation simple for board/management, but wanted to include 'what's wrong with his scenario' to show the sort of problems that could go wrong. 

The current X3650 M3 has dual power supply, so that can't be a reason. Storage though may be an issue as if more than two disks die, we would lose all virtual machines that are business critical. 

What other possibilities are there? Faulty Ram? Motherboard dying? Faulty RAM?

Thanks for helping
Yashy

You have a IBM X3650 M3 host, with business critical virtual machines on it. What sort of hardware problems are possible?

Servers are computing devices that are similar to desktop computers in that they have the same basic components, but are significantly different in size, configuration and purpose. Servers are usually accessed over a network, and many run unattended, without a computer monitor, input device, audio hardware or USB interfaces. Many servers do not have a graphical user interface (GUI), and are configured and managed remotely. Servers typically include hardware redundancy such as dual power supplies, RAID disk systems, and ECC memory, along with extensive pre-boot memory testing and verification. Critical components might be hot swappable, and to guard against overheating, servers might have more powerful fans or use water cooling.

Server Hardware

RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks.

RAID is data storage technology that allows multiple drives to be used together as a single virtual drive for reasons such as fault tolerance, reliability and performance. 

There are several different levels of RAID that determine how the data is stored and the level of redundancy achieved across the drives.

RAID

VMware, a software company founded in 1998,  was one of the first commercially successful companies to offer x86 virtualization. The storage company EMC purchased VMware in 1994. Dell Technologies acquired EMC in 2016. VMware’s parent company is now Dell Technologies.

VMware has many software products that run on desktops, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS, which allows the virtualizing of the x86 architecture.  Its enterprise software hypervisor for servers, VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi), is a bare-metal hypervisor that runs directly on the server hardware and does not require an additional underlying operating system.

VMware

Hardware includes cell phones and other digital living devices, tablets, computers, servers, peripherals and components, printers and scanners, gaming consoles, networking hardware such as routers, hubs, switches and modems, storage devices and security equipment such as firewalls and other appliances.

Hardware

Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, is a technology consisting of computer components and recording media used to retain digital data. In addition to local storage devices like CD and DVD readers, hard drives and flash drives, solid state drives can hold enormous amounts of data in a very small device. Cloud services and other new forms of remote storage also add to the capacity of devices and their ability to access more data without building additional data storage into a device.