General Questions. Section Specific Questions

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Hannah Parks
5 years ago
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1 General Questions Question: Do you have any historical performance trending information (primarily on CPU)? Or a screenshot of cluster CPU utilization from the performance graphs in vcenter? Answer: See included CPU and Memory images of the cluster usage for the last year. Please let us know if these are not sufficient. Question: Has a VMware Optimization Assessment or similar been performed? If so, can you share the findings? If not, would you be open to having one performed at no cost? Answer: We have not performed an optimization assessment in a number of years. Depending on timing and requirements we may be open to it. In addition, we would want the ability to share the data with other vendors. Question: Is there a need for multiple clusters or do you only have two clusters due to disparate hardware. Answer: One Cluster would be fine. We have multiple clusters in vcenter to keep the ERP system isolated from the main workload. This was done because of the increased hardware requirements of the ERP system. A new solution would allow us to have them in the same cluster, as all the hardware would support the ERP VM s. Section Specific Questions Question: Please describe your current data center switching topology that connects your existing server/san infrastructure. Answer: Currently, the fibre channel infrastructure is supported by two Brocade switches (fabric A and fabric B). Each SAN has one or more connections to both switches, as per their configuration best practices. Each existing chassis contains two fibre switches, each has one or more connections to the main Brocade switches, extending the fabric. BROCADE01 BCH1BRCD01 BCH1BRCD01 BCH3BRCD01 BCH3BRCD01 SAN1 SAN1 SAN2 SAN2 BROCADE02 BCH1BRCD02 BCH1BRCD02 BCH3BRCD02 BCH3BRCD02 SAN1 SAN1

2 SAN2 SAN2 We want to retire the BROCADE01/BROCADE02 with this upgrade. Any solution should describe how that will be possible and indicate the potential spots for downtime. The specifics of your solution will determine the number of ports per switch and the additional ports needed. If we were replacing with IBM BladeCenter H chassis, then each switch should have TWO empty licensed ports for adding another Chassis. Each switch should also have FOUR empty licensed ports for additional storage to be added at a later date. Switches should support Fibre channel 4/8/16 speeds. We are not looking to re-use our existing switching equipment except in the short term to migrate to the new solution. Question: Do you have an existing diagram that you can share detailing models and current connections? Answer: See included PDF files. Question: Are you looking to re-use any of the existing switching infrastructure related to the server/san environment? Answer: See above response. Question: How many ports do you require in each redundant switch (speed/type/protocol support)? Answer: See above response Question: What make, model and firmware version(s) do you have in your existing SAN s? Answer: We have a relatively up to date Pure M20 and a VNX2. We would prefer not to make specifics publically available. If they are needed please reach out directly. Question: Current network connectivity to each SAN (type/speed)? What cable lengths will you require for each connection? Answer: Network connectivity to the SAN s is 1gbps at this time. No cable lengths beyond what would be needed for infrastructure in three consecutive racks Question: All training options requested are available. Question: How many users would require training? Question: What level of training are you requesting?

3 Question: Please explain what you would like covered in the training so we can offer the appropriate training options. Answer: Training should cover any management and use of the blade chassis. Adding and removing blades, provisioning blades, configuring network or fibre switches to access storage. Adding and removing storage to the chassis (where applicable). 3 users for training Question: Are you looking for a Managed Service to provide product performance monitoring? Or are you looking to leverage on premises tools for monitoring? Question: If you are looking to leverage existing tools, please provide details on the performance monitoring tools in place so we can ensure compatibility and functionality. Answer: We would like to leverage on premise tools: VMware vcenter, SolarWinds Virtualization manager, SolarWinds Application Manager, SCOM Question: Are you looking for a Managed Service to provide reporting? Or are you looking to leverage on premise tools for reporting? Question: If you are looking to leverage existing tools, please provide details on the reporting tools in place so we can ensure compatibility and functionality. Answer: We would like to leverage on premise tools: VMware vcenter, SolarWinds Virtualization manager, SolarWinds Application Manager, SCOM Question: Are you looking for a Managed Service to provide alerting? Or are you looking to leverage on premise tools for alerting? Question: If you are looking to leverage existing tools, please provide details on the alerting tools in place so we can ensure compatibility and functionality. Answer: We would like to leverage on premise tools: VMware vcenter, SolarWinds Virtualization manager, SolarWinds Application Manager, SCOM Question: Are you looking for 36 & 60 month financing? If so, Fair Market Value or $1 buyout? Answer: No financing, purchase only. Question: Is there a minimum count of servers required? Answer: There should be enough servers so that we can have at least two host failures and not suffer any cluster downtime. Question: Could you please send us an RVTools export? Answer: Already sent. Question: Who is your current fiber channel SAN switch manufacturer and what is the firmware you re running on it?

4 Answer: Brocade and it depends. Fabric OS v7.01, Fabric OS v6.2.2d and Fabric OS v6.3.1b Question: Does that SAN switch support NPIV? Answer: We believe that the switches support it. Is there a command to test support? Question: What version of VMware do you intend to deploy in your new blade environment? Answer: 6.5 or the latest recommended by the vendor. If not the latest, we expect a detailed explanation of why and when the latest will be recommended/supported. Question: Can you please clarify section : What do you need for connectivity for this specific system? 10gig fiber? 10gig base T? Answer: The solution should support 1gb Ethernet, 10gb Ethernet, have the ability for 40gb Ethernet. It should also support 4/8/16 fibre channel connections. Question: In section can you specify cable type and length? Answer: Cable type is standard fibre channel cable, no long distances needed. Cables from chassis to provided switches would be in rack and need to be no longer than standard rack height. Uplink cables from existing Fibre would need to be no more than 20 feet. All of the equipment will be located in 3 consecutive racks. Question: Can you please clarify in section 4.3: What steps need to be taken for you to consider a full service implementation complete? Answer: Implementation would be considered complete after the new environment was online, we have migrated one or more virtual machines from our existing chassis to the new system, and validated that all storage connections to the new system were correct and redundant. VSC will perform the majority of the migration from existing systems to the new one.

5 Current Layout 1GB Ehternet Core 1GB Ethernet Chassis 1 Chassis 2 Brocade01 Brocade02 San 1 San 2

6 Proposed new layout Core 10 GB to SFP+ 10 GB to SFP+ New Switch 1 New Switch 2 10GB 10GB 10Gb 10GB Chassis 1 Chassis 2 San 1 San 2

7 CPU Usage for the last year

8 Memory usage for the last year

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