Virtual Appliance Question

[t_jolt]

Ok so we are currently running 8 esxi 3.5 hosts, with a isci backplane. Currently we are planning on deploying 4 new virtual web servers. I want to get this guys load balanced, but the software they run require that the load balance supports sticky sessions. So software load balancers are pretty much out of the question. Also the goal of the boss is to cut out a rack. I was thinking that using a virtual load balancer here would be best. Anyone have any experance with a virt load balancer? Im thinking of heading towards a 7500 series net scaler (as we are a citrix shop). And i know these come as a virtual appliance. Just wondering if anyone has any idea's, thoughts or experiance they would like to share.

Thanks
Tyrel

[Devaclis]

I have nothing to help you with but DAMN I wish I got to do the fun stuff you do in IT. I am bored :(

[TurboGizzmo]

I have nothing to help you with but DAMN I wish I got to do the fun stuff you do in IT. I am bored :(

+1 :(

[DorJammer]

If it doesn't have a throttle your in the wrong place

VROOM VROOM :hump:

[Ricky]

I don't know what you mean by a "virtual" load balancer, if it's not software based.

[t_jolt]

I don't know what you mean by a "virtual" load balancer, if it's not software based.


Actually creating a virtual piece of hardware the os of the load balancer would load on. Much like having a virtual cisco switch. Or a virtual CAG (citrix access gateway) if that helps at all

Thanks
Tyrel

[DevilsTonic]

I have nothing to help you with but DAMN I wish I got to do the fun stuff you do in IT. I am bored :(+10000000

[TurboGizzmo]

Field trip to your work please :)

[SumoWeezle]

T,

the virtual netscalers work identically to the standalone devices. Whats your availability req's? personally, i'd setup two virtual Netscalers, each one on a seperate ESX host (setup your vmotion rules so they cannot live on the same host at the same time). After that you should be golden.

[SumoWeezle]

I don't know what you mean by a "virtual" load balancer, if it's not software based.

what he means by this is that its a hardware based load balancer but its run on a virtual slice within ESX. Basically an appliance but run vitually. Not the same as a software based LB (Microsoft's NLB, Veritas, etc.)

[RajunCajun]

T,

the virtual netscalers work identically to the standalone devices. Whats your availability req's? personally, i'd setup two virtual Netscalers, each one on a seperate ESX host (setup your vmotion rules so they cannot live on the same host at the same time). After that you should be golden.

WTF!?!?!:wtf:

[SumoWeezle]

its geek talk... move along.. nothing more to see here. T knows what im talking about.

:doublefinger:

[t_jolt]

Field trip to your work please :)

Done, now things i need you to get done for me:

Redeploy our aix server
Fix exchange enviroment (sorry leah, just dont have the time for this anymore) or at least architect it for me, with exchange 2007, the san, and lun distro's
Architect out the new file servers, I/O with san. Compare to performance as if they were virtual.
Build out the new virtual citrix farm
Redo GPO's
Finish the ADUC cleanup
Finish pushing out all the windows updates, and testing
Redeploy my entire ehr medical records application. (ugh... cant wait)
etc
etc


Yup your more then welcome to come help :)

[Devaclis]

I am cheap at $160 an hour. Lemme at it!!!

[RajunCajun]

its geek talk... move along.. nothing more to see here. T knows what im talking about.

:doublefinger:

http://www.amoeba.com/dynamic-images/blog/Sarah/urkel.jpg

Yeah, guess I'm not helping you guys out anyway.

I don't have to take this, I'm going home!!

[SumoWeezle]

I said geek talk.. not nerd talk.. big difference.

for example, I am a geek. Dana is a nerd... :doublefinger:

any questions? :D

[t_jolt]

T,

the virtual netscalers work identically to the standalone devices. Whats your availability req's? personally, i'd setup two virtual Netscalers, each one on a seperate ESX host (setup your vmotion rules so they cannot live on the same host at the same time). After that you should be golden.

availability well probably be 6am to 8pm. Not a huge deal. But we are seeing 500 concurrent user connections to an iis app that only supports 200... The fun im having :banghead: took a week to get that tid bit of info... but the company may be doubling depending talks currently. But looking at it, the 7500 series supports 3k connects a min. so that more then this company will ever need. I was think the same about setting up rules. Did the same with the infrasturce manager :) so you recommend using a net scaler then? Speaking of which, Dont know if this matters to you, but i found a way to virtualize the CAG! in esx host. Pm if you want to talk about it. as it may be breaking the EULA. But i just found out how to do it. This company would never let it run like that :wink:

[SumoWeezle]

you know you can get a CAG virtual slice directly from Citrix, right? They make them specifically to run on their version of Xen and ESX. just sayin ;)

[t_jolt]

yeah, but they want money... :( so i did it myself.

[Devaclis]

IT is the cost of doing business. Some companies try to make satellites out of sticks and mud. They usually scrape by or do not make it at all.

[t_jolt]

Most things have to wait now till next year. As we just did a vericept install that ate the rest of the budget for this year. sad day...

[Devaclis]

We just got our budget cut by 75% for next year :(

No GB switches, virtual license servers, training, or server OS upgrades :(

Fuckers.

[t_jolt]

Yeah that sucks, thank the lord we got our data center editions of 08 this year :)

[Nick_Ninja]

Our IT department has put the brakes on the W7 roll-out --- due to their inept ability to work with CISCO on a compatible VPN solution .......... and we pump a tone of cash into the CISCO machine.

[Devaclis]

1 word: Nortel Contivity VPN Client.


AWESOME stuff.

Or just go SSL.

[t_jolt]

I like cisco, and what they offer. you just cant be stupid and you have to think things out.

[Devaclis]

CISCO is the MOPAR of the IT industry :)

I love the CISCO stuff. It is just over priced and a PITA to work on.

[Nick_Ninja]

1 word: Nortel Contivity VPN Client.


AWESOME stuff.

Or just go SSL.

Yeah --- that's what we're doing --- using the campus IP VPN addressing schema.

[Nick_Ninja]

CISCO is the MOPAR of the IT industry :)

I love the CISCO stuff. It is just over priced and a PITA to work on.

Our CISCO hardware works fine. It's the damn third party crap that interfaces with it that sucks ballz.

[fook]

Done, now things i need you to get done for me:

Redeploy our aix server


you ever get that thing fixed? it was you that i sent some instructions to a few months back wasnt it?

never seen virtualized load balancers, ive always been stuck in using nortel alteons(for hw based) or ibm's old network dispatcher balancers on linux.

[t_jolt]

yeah we got it taken care of. But now GE has release a new version of their software that fixes a bunch of issues, but it requires more server. so my boss is moving it to a rack mountable 2u unit with 4 sockets, i think is what he said with some ungodly amount of ram... so we just going to do a fresh reload on it. make things as clean and easy as possible.