[Info-vax] c-Class BladeSystem, HPE Synergy, Composable Infrastructure

[John H. Reinhardt]

On 6/26/2019 1:52 PM, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> On 2019-06-26 16:24:12 +0000, John H. Reinhardt said:
> 
>> It's possible now that by the time OpenVMS x86 is available, the C-Class blade may be irrelevant.
> 
> In a year or two, I'd bet on that.  Whether with the ~decade-old c-Class hardware, or more generally.
> 
> I'd bet that most of the existing x86-64 server and storage hardware will be irrelevant by the time we're running our apps in production on OpenVMS x86-64.
> 
> The hardware upgrade cycles are much faster in x86-64 than most OpenVMS folks are accustomed to, too.  Three to five years for servers, and gone.
> 
> And VSI will have specific supported and tested server and I/O configurations, and probably comparatively fairly few of those when they're just getting started with x86-64.
> 
> We'll be buying what's supported, either in terms of hardware or hypervisors.
> 
>> HPE c-Class Blades are going End of Life after Gen10, which also means End of Support for all previous generations. HPE will not be manufacturing Gen11 Blades, but instead move to a new technology that will replace and surpass blade infrastructure, HPE Synergy.
>>
>> I haven't looked into the "Synergy" product yet to see what it is.
> 
> It's all headed for what HPE refers to as "Composable Infrastructure". They've been marketing that concept heavily for the past several years now, too.  The Apollo cartridges were an early part of that.
> 
> Scrounge a copy of the _HPE BladeSystem to HPE Synergy Migration for Dummies_ book for a buzz-phrase-heavy and high-level overview of HPE Synergy.
> 
> For those folks running local blade hardware, an obvious HPE hardware replacement is the HPE Synergy Frame 12000 box.
> 
> https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c04815113.pdf
> 

Too big for me. I picked a C3000 because the 6U size worked.  There were C7000 cheaper but I didn't have that much room in my rack.


> For others, maybe HPE Moonshot blades?
> 
> https://www.hpe.com/us/en/servers/moonshot.html
> 
> Some parts of HPE Synergy will integrate with existing HPE hardware and software pieces, and some other existing hardware and software will be rather more "compostable" than "composable".
> 
> For those of you that might have seen the Microsoft Azure or Amazon AWS or similar hosting control panels, that's where HPE is headed with Synergy.  Software-defined hardware, networking, etc.
> 
> VSI will probably be tying OpenVMS into DMTF/RedFish, and with the intent to integrate with HPE OneView.  Or some analog.
> 
> As for some of the other server and blade hardware that's presently available, I find the ~960 TB SSD 1U servers now available from SuperMicro quite interesting.  Those "petascale" servers are... dense.
> 
>> At the very least though it should mean that C-Class blades will start to be available on the surplus market at much cheaper prices.
> 
> Prices dropping?  Don't bet on it.  Not in the short-to-mid range. Surplus c-class BladeSystem pieces and parts have been fairly cheap for a while, as compared with new.  But as the new hardware becomes unavailable, the prices on the functional used equipment tends to climb.  This as folks start seeking out spares and replacements.  If you do have to deal with a c-Class BladeSystem configuration, prepare for as much as ~200 kg per box, too.
> 
> 

Oh, I know.  I picked up a surplus C3000 enclosure a couple months ago from a liquidator in Dallas.  It had the chassis, 6 P/S, 6 fans, the KVM, the Admin module and 4GB FC I/O and 1GB Enet.  Basically everything but the CPU blades.  Cost me $500, no shipping because I picked it up in my mini-van.  Took it apart and hustled it upstairs to my office and put it in a rack.  I got a pair of i2 blades for $60 each plus shipping.  One with dual quad CPU and one with single dual CPU.

The Gen8 x86 blades aren't too bad.  You can pick up one with a reasonable number of cores and memory for around $300.  But the Gen9's are still $1500 - $3000 each on ebay.  I haven't looked for Gen10's - if they are even out.

I got dual 8GB F/C mezzanine cards for $5 each.  I had to buy a couple because the seller didn't package them right (padded envelope) and the USPS knocked some SMD components off the boards.  Oops.  I got 10GBE cards for about $10 each.  So in that respect prices can't go much cheaper.  It's the CPU blades that I imagine will come down some.

-- 
John H. Reinhardt