Posted on 05-02-2016 08:05 AM
We are looking at consolidating servers. Considering migrating our current CrashPlan PROe server install to a Mac Pro that is currently designated for our JSS. Since Jamf and CPPe are vendors for many, curious if others are successfully running the 2 services off of the same box?
Our Mac Pro that runs the JSS is:
MacPro (Late 2013)
MacPro6,1
3.7 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5
64.0 GB Ram
Also, we have 1050 licensed CPPe users
Posted on 05-02-2016 12:17 PM
Generally, businesses are moving the other way- a separate box for each function. This is done by spinning up a VM for each function. I would install ESXi server on that box, and run them both in a VM. :)
I would not combine CrashPlan and JSS on the same box. Those are very different apps and if you ever need to fight with one to downgrade or do maintenance, you'll be interrupting and potentially causing problems for the other service.
Posted on 05-04-2016 08:41 AM
Thanks for your thoughts @thoule . The ESXi option sounds interesting. The free version would work? Does the storage have to be directly connected or is network storage option possible?
We do have an enterprise version of ESXi that runs on 3 IBM hosts with an IBM DS3512 storage array directly connected to those IBM hosts but nearly enough storage on there. The question comes up again if network storage is an option for that?
Posted on 05-04-2016 08:45 AM
ESXi can use local storage, or can connect to NFS or iSCSI. Setup will be a little more complicated but you'll thank yourself later ;)
Posted on 05-04-2016 08:47 AM
The free version works well for me. Not certain, but I think the licensed versions are needed for advanced functions such as clustering.
Storage can be network connected. Previously I had a NAS on an isolated network directly connected to the MacPro (using the second network port). I believe it was an NFS mount, but don't remember. Again, not certain, but I think SMB shares cannot be datastores, but NFS can store VMs
Posted on 05-05-2016 05:42 PM
Are you looking at running the entire CrashPlan server on this host? database and storage? Your encryption, compression, and deduplication could have a pretty heavy overhead on CPU. Judging by your specifications, you've got a SAN set up... so disk I/O might not be an issue, but could be with 1050users depending on their daily deltas for data. Hopefully you've got a 10Gbit interface leading to your SAN or NAS. That's a lot of data.
If you are going to consolidate, you might want new hardware you could run ESXi on. Putting VMware on that machine to run 2 other OSes is going to create burdensome overhead....