Probably you know (if not check my LinkedIn profile) that I am a do-it-all dude when it comes to HPE servers and storage. I must admit I could make a job out of my hobby so I am not complaining… However my wife doesn’t see it like this… Why? Well read on…
When I am doing some presales, installation, updates, consultancy or other training stuff I like to test and/or demo it… Off course I cannot use my customer’s environment for that. So I started in 2007 with a personal small lab. I started with a second-hand DL380 G1 found on eBay which was OK for a few VM’s running VMware 3.5 or so… Then I found this really interesting (and cheap) second-hand C7000 enclosure with 1Gb Virtual Connect modules. Cool, since I teach these classes as well I took that one and replaced my 1 DL380 with 2 BL460’s. Damn that makes a lot of noise… And eats electricity!
So I kept searching and replaced those power-consuming G1’s with much more efficient (and faster) G6 blades. Since those blades have 10Gb connectivity I looked for 10Gb Flex10 modules… And found them!
Damn: HPE released HPE Oneview and this one supports only Gen8 blades and higher. OK let’s sell those G6 blades and buy 3 Gen8’s (more VM’s!) and put them under control of Oneview. Check!
One of the next things I found was a company that stopped business and sold their 3PAR 7400. I was looking already quite some time for a 3PAR but it was always too expensive even with the best discounts that I could get from my HPE contacts. Not now… So I went to Munich (that’s where the company was based), drank a good German beer (sorry but Belgian beers are better!), picked up my 3PAR, bought from that same company 2 FlexFabric modules that were there doing nothing and went back home.
Last treasure I found is this Synergy frame replacing my C7000 enclosure, including 2 Gen9 Compute Modules and the D3940 Storage Module, all under control by the Composer running OneView. Thanks to Tech Data Belgium for the opportunity!
Which makes I have a 42U rack in my garage (yep still the old ‘beige’ Compaq rack) full with a Composable infrastructure with a FCoE connected 3PAR to my Synergy frame managed by Oneview… For those who recognize this gear, they will see as well a new StoreVirtual 3200 as well… Hope I can change that one soon with a Nimble array!
What’s next? We’ll see… First have to convince my wife a bit more that I really need all this… 😉
Side note: yes I have a green datacenter since I have solar panels on the roof of my garage…
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