UCS S3260 Storage server

[SubashSeer]

Dear All,

Currently we are using Cisco HX M5-240c cluster and we are going to buy a UCS S3260 Storage server if I buy this Storage server can i use this server for (NFS) or DAS activities an example I want to create a 100GB Vdisk on the S3260 Storage and assign that 100GB to one of the VM Machin that machine sitting in HX Cluster Environment is it possible ?

[Kirk J]

Greetings.

The S3260 provides storage and compute hardware.

In order to present storage from the s3260, you would have to have some sort of OS and services running that provide file/lun sharing capabilities.  For instance you can run some sort of Linux OS  sharing iSCSI targets, or NFS shares.

Ideally, you would want to create vnics specifically for carrying your s3260 storage traffic, and make sure that (vlan) is allowed on the vnics on hyperflex vnic templates, and then on port groups in the vswitches with the underlying vmnics that allow that new storage vlan.

The 3260 can be connected and discovered on the same FIs as the hyperflex servers.

Are you looking at this solution to increase your storage options outside of hyperflex?

Hyperflex does have iSCSI target capabilities, which can be assigned to supported guestVM OS's (https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/hyperconverged_systems/HyperFlex_HX_DataPlatformSoftware/AdminGuide/4-5/b-hxdp-admin-guide-4-5/m-hxdp-iscsi-manage.html)

Kirk...

[Luis Perez]

Hi @Kirk J actually im reviewing a similar scenario, the requirement is to add storage capacity to an existing Hyperflex Cluster. 

Actually 3-node cluster has 10TB free of 18TB total capacity, but we need additional 14TB to migrate an Oracle Database into Hyperflex nodes and have a storage solution for addtional future scalability , CPU and memory are below 30% for that reason we only need storage capacity. Do you think S3260 could fit to these requirement? 

[RedNectar]

Hi @Luis Perez ,

Firstly, you should ask this as a new question so that others who may have the same question will find the answer - it's unlikely that they'll find this answer because

1. You won't mark the answer as correct (you simply can't because YOU didn't ask the original question)
2. YOUR question is NOT the question that the search engines are going to pick up

But having said that, the answer is that the ONLY way you can add capacity to a HyperFlex cluster is to

1. Add more drives (exactly the same as the existing drives)
2. Add more HyperFlex Nodes (exactly the same or one generation later) with exactly the same drive configuration as the existing Nodes

The S3260 is not, and will NEVER be able to be used as a HyperFlex node, but it makes a perfect backup system for HyperFlex Clusters

[Luis Perez]

Thanks @RedNectar i am not trying to use the S3260 as a hyperflex node, im trying to use it as an external storage for the existing Hyperflex cluster, actually we only need storage capacity to the cluster, disk slots are full used in nodes and adding more nodes include not only storage. For that reason im asking if the S3260 could fit this requirement, i reviewed the use case for backup purpose but now im looking for some suggestions about using it as additional storage available to the hyperflex nodes

[RedNectar]

Hi @Luis Perez ,

---

im looking for some suggestions about using it as additional storage available to the hyperflex nodes

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then in that case I think @Kirk J 's answer above tells you all you need to know:

The S3260 provides storage and compute hardware.

In order to present storage from the s3260, you would have to have some sort of OS and services running that provide file/lun sharing capabilities.  For instance you can run some sort of Linux OS  sharing iSCSI targets, or NFS shares.

Ideally, you would want to create vnics specifically for carrying your s3260 storage traffic, and make sure that (vlan) is allowed on the vnics on hyperflex vnic templates, and then on port groups in the vswitches with the underlying vmnics that allow that new storage vlan.

The 3260 can be connected and discovered on the same FIs as the hyperflex servers.

So, yes you CAN add an S3620 for storage - you could even (in addition to Kirk's suggestions) run ESXi on the server and manage it in the same vCenter, create a storage volume on the s3260 and give your HX ESXi hosts access - like any other ESXi host.