Hi everyone.
i am new to vmware virtualization and have been tasked to look at new hardware that can take advantage of virtualization under vmware.
the hardware vendors are making their pitches and i lead a group of administrators that have their preferences, however i am not 100% convinced that what i am told by vendors and my team are fact or fiction.
cut to the chase..
i need to build out a ESX environment that will run only Linux guest (rhel5 currently). Applications will be websphere on some guest and Oracle DBs on others.
The hardware vendors that I have competing for this bid are IBM and HP.
The IBM model is the x3850 X5 (E7-8870 cpus 80 cores) and the HP model is the DL-980 G7 (E7-4870 cpus 80 cores). Number of these servers in my cluster will begin at six (and possibly more).
My senior admin staff have indicated that HP's iLO is what makes HP a winner, not to mention the great compatibility with RHEL vs IBM hardware.
My lead architects have indicated that IBM's hardware model with its cookie cutter design and expansion makes it a no-brainer.
I would like to ask the VMware community here which platform they went with and what head aches or pain points were experienced.
DarthVM