Virtual Ironport on Dell hardware

[bschimm]

Does anyone have experience running the Ironport ESA VMs on a Dell server compared to a UCS server? What kind of support do you get?

We would like to use Dell servers as that is our standard for our datacenter, but we're concerned about the level of support in this configuration.

We have no issues troubleshooting the Dell hardware, but need software support.

[dmccabej]

Hello,

I'm the admin for some of our internal lab virtual ESA/s and I run a few of them on ESXi on top of Dell hardware. I have not had any issues with them. Assuming you're running a supported Hypervisor that has sufficient resources (CPU / Disk I/O / RAM / ETC), you should not have an issue.

Supported Hypervisors can be found here : 

Cisco Content Security Virtual Appliance Installation Guide

Thanks!

-Dennis M.

[Ken Stieers]

I think it's crazily ironic that support is an issue at all since the whole Ironport line has been on Dell hardware until the x90 boxes came out.

[bschimm]

Thanks for the replies!

Dennis,

I will be using a supported hypervisor (ESXi) to host the VMs. I'm concerned with a case where I need to open a support ticket for a software issue. Will Cisco provide software support for the VMs if I'm using Dell hardware?

Ken,

I agree. What has been confused is the wording in the virtual machine installation guide https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/security/content_security/virtual_appliances/Cisco_Content_Security_Virtual_Appliance_Install_Guide.pdf

that states, "Cisco UCS servers (blade or rack-mounted) are the only supported hardware platform." and then in the next paragraph states, "Other hardware platforms are supported on a “Best Effort” basis: we will try to help you, but it may not be possible to reproduce all problems, and we cannot guarantee a solution."

[dmccabej · Accepted solution]

Hello,

Support is provided for the VM's (the actual virtual ESA/SMA/WSA running AsyncOS), yes; however, we do not provide support for ESXi.

Thanks!

-Dennis M.

[bschimm]

That's the answer I was looking for, thanks!

[dmccabej]

You're very welcome! Glad I could help. :)

-Dennis M.