New Server - which CPU?

[VGBH]

We want to buy new Server and we can choose which CPU to build in.

Which one is the best choose for Proxmox VE? We want to use up to 40 VM´s. Mostly Windows Machines.


Intel Xeon Silver 4310 2.1G, 12C/24T, 10.4GT/s, 18M Cache, Turbo, HT (120W) DDR4-2666

Intel Xeon Gold 6326 2.9G, 16C/32T, 11.2GT/s, 24M Cache, Turbo, HT (185W) DDR4-3200

Intel Xeon Gold 5317 3G, 12C/24T, 11.2GT/s, 18M Cache, Turbo, HT (150W) DDR4-2933

Intel Xeon Gold 6338 2G, 32C/64T, 11.2GT/s, 48M Cache, Turbo, HT (205W) DDR4-3200

Intel Xeon Gold 6354 3G, 18C/36T, 11.2GT/s, 39M Cache, Turbo, HT (205W) DDR4-3200

Intel Xeon Platinum 8368 2.4G, 38C/76T, 11.2GT/s, 57M Cache, Turbo, HT (270W) DDR4-3200

 

[cwt]

Depends on your workload. If you run 30 Windows VMs the minimum would be 30x4 vCores. I wouldn‘t assign less than 4 cores to a Windows VM. Next question would be how many concurrent sessions will run during a work day. If all VMs are in permanent use for the usual stuff (office, browsing, etc.) you‘ll have a pretty good load on your host. Some more details of your usage scenario would be helpful.

 

[VGBH]

Thank you for your help!

We have ~80 Clients and 20 x Windows Server and the rest is running on Linux.
At the moment most of the Windows VMs are running with two Cores. This are the VM Server with separate installed Applications for each department. The Server with two Cores doesn´t have much workload.
EMail Server, Server for Accounting, FileServers, Nextcloud are the ones with mostly more workload and are in permanent use.

At the moment we use two ESXI Hosts with 2x Intel(R) Xeon(R) Silver 4116 CPU @ 2.10GHz 12/12 cores; 24 threads as a Cluster.
The Workload of each ESXI Host are mostly at 30% and at heavy workload at 65%.

Our plan is to switch from VmWare to Proxmox. We have to buy new Server anyway, because the old ones will run out of warranty. I hope, this are enough details.

Edit: We also want to buy two Server and want to run Proxmox as a Cluster.

 

[leesteken]

I don't expect Proxmox VE to need better CPUs than you currently have for VmWare, for the same work load.

Edit: We also want to buy two Server and want to run Proxmox as a Cluster.

Either use three servers or use a QDevice: https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/pve-admin-guide.html#_quorum

 

[VGBH]

I don't expect Proxmox VE to need better CPUs than you currently have for VmWare, for the same work load.

Either use three servers or use a Q Device: https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/pve-admin-guide.html#_quorum

Thats a very good Information.

The solution with a Q Device and two nodes is the low budget solution and with 3x same nodes is the best solution?

But why is it better to have a third Server with the same Hardware when another Hardware can also do the Quorum job?

3x same nodes: When one node Fail, does the VM´s will split to the another two nodes because you have the same Hardware?

2 nodes + qdevice: When one node fail, the QDevice and the running node will decide that all VMs will run on the running node?

Is the solution with the QDevice a common solution?

 

[jdancer]

2-node clusters will need a QDevice or any even number of hosts in a cluster. The QDevice will provide a vote to break a tie since each host will vote for itself.

Ideally, you want an odd-number of servers for quorum, ie, 3, 5, 7, etc.

QDevice can be any device. For example, I use a bare-metal Proxmox Backup Server as a QDevice. Even a Raspberry PI or a crappy laptop can be a QDevice. I'm sure a smartphone can be a QDevice if you can make it work. LOL.

 

[sb-jw]

If you're not worried about up to 65% load, you can actually stick with the CPU.
If you really want to buy a new one, I would advise against the Silver (too weak) and Platinum (too expensive). My personal preference would be the Gold 6354, which gives you a higher clock speed and a higher number of cores.

Otherwise, maybe just an upgrade to Scalable v2 would do the trick?

 

[Dunuin]

The big question for me would be how you plan your storage? Ceph, for a proper shared storage without SPOF, for example wouldn't work with 2 nodes.

 

[VGBH]

Thanks everyone. The question is answered. We will take the 6354 CPU.

The big question for me would be how you plan your storage? Ceph, for a proper shared storage without SPOF, for example wouldn't work with 2 nodes.

Our concept would be:

2 x Server (local storage) with Proxmox VE in a Cluster with Support
1 x Device as QDevice
1 x Server as Proxmox Backup Server with Support

Why no external storage?
This would be too expensive for us and Proxmox can Storage Replication like Veeam. And yes, I am aware there is a risk of some data loss when one node will fail. But I think, this is just right for us.

Do someone has experience with this