Two-Node High Availability Cluster - planning

tommasch78

New Member
Jul 16, 2013
6
0
1
Magdeburg, Germany
Hi everyone,

glad to be here, i have some questions about planning a Two-Node High Availability Cluster with proxmox.
The plan is to use the following hardware:

2x Sun Fire X4450 4x Xeon Hex Core 2.40GHz 98GB RAM
CPU: 4x Intel Xeon E7450 - Hex-Core 2,40 GHz - FSB 1066 MHz - 12 MB Cache - VT-x - 64 Bit
RAM: 96 GB RAM (24 x 4GB) PC2-5300F (32 Slots - 8 Unused)
Hard Disk Controller: 8-Kanal-LSI SAS HBA (371-3255-03)
Hard Disk Configuration: 8 x 2,5 SAS / SATA Hot-Plug
Diskdrive: Slimline DVD
Network: 4 Ports, 10/100/1000 Mbps, Auto-Negotiation, 1x Sun Pro/1000 PT Quad-Port NIC (375-3481-01), 2x so QLE2460 Single Channel 4 GB Fibre HBA
Power: 2 x Hot-Swap-Netzteil 1100W
Interfaces: 5x USB 2.0, 4x Gigabit RJ45 Onboard-Controller, 1x RJ-45 SER MGT, 1x 10-MB-NET MGT, 1x HD-15 VGA
Remote Management: On-Board-Embedded-Prozessor LOM-Service - DMTF CLPCLI over SSH, Web-based Browser-Interface GUI, IPMI 2.0,SNMP (v1, 2c, v3), Remote KVM, Remote Storage-over-Ethernet

16x Seagate Constellation 7200.2 1TB, SAS 6Gb/s (ST91000640SS)
8x HHDs per server, 2x HHDs with RAID 1 for proxmox installation + 6x HHDs with RAID 10 as shared storage (DRBD) for VMs

1x USV APC Smart-UPS 3.000 VA SURTD3000RMXLI / APC Network Management Card / AP9630

Are there any known issues or problems using these hardware components to build a Two-Node High Availability Cluster with proxmox?
Is that kind of environment suitable for production use (virtualized machines are: 3x WS2008R2 - DC + Exchange2010 + Lexware, 3x Windows7 - Workstations, 3x Debian servers)?
To avoid major mistakes during planning any hint or suggestion about that setup will be helpful, thanks in advance.

best regards
tom
 
thanks for your links, marco an thheo...
yes, i plan to use DRBD, 6x HHDs a 1TB with RAID 10 per server as storage for VMs with DRBD setup. as far as i understand there is the posibility to setup a 2 nodes-cluster with DRBD without a quorum-disk, am i right? is this suitable for production use?

each server has 2x so QLE2460 Single Channel 4 GB Fibre HBA, so the plan is to use bonding to double speed of these interfaces for DRBD. in theory speed should be at 8 GB, is this enough for average use?

in addition each server has a IPMI 2.0 interface, i plan to setup these interfaces as fencing devices, are there any difficulties known about that?
 
You need to have fencing and quorum. Either with qdisk or with a 3rd not that can be used only for quorum.
 
thanks for response...in proxmox wiki "two node high available cluster" i found the section "Although in the case of two-node clusters it is recommended to use a third, shared quorum disk partition, Proxmox allows to build the cluster without it. Let's see how.". for me this means it is possible to setup a 2-node-cluster without a quorum-disk. so, is it mandatory to have a quorum-disk?
 
"Although in the case of two-node clusters it is recommended to use a third, shared quorum disk partition, Proxmox allows to build the cluster without it. Let's see how.". for me this means it is possible to setup a 2-node-cluster without a quorum-disk. so, is it mandatory to have a quorum-disk?

no, as you read there... it's recommended not mandatory
it all depends on how you wish to manage split brain situations...

here
http://forum.proxmox.com/threads/17950-Two-proxmox-ve-servers-with-DRBD-shared-storage

recently a user posted links to a bunch of videos he recorded, that cover that matter (very well done!)

Marco
 
Last edited:

About

The Proxmox community has been around for many years and offers help and support for Proxmox VE, Proxmox Backup Server, and Proxmox Mail Gateway.
We think our community is one of the best thanks to people like you!

Get your subscription!

The Proxmox team works very hard to make sure you are running the best software and getting stable updates and security enhancements, as well as quick enterprise support. Tens of thousands of happy customers have a Proxmox subscription. Get yours easily in our online shop.

Buy now!