am working on another project but this one is related to my uni, i decided to use blade server with NAS and VMware where i install the server that i need.

what is the best brand in blade server ?

+ the operating system that on it the VMware will be installed (main OS) will it be isntalled on the NAS ? or on the harddisk of the blade boards ?
It is all depends on blade server. Some of them has own HDD's, some had fiberchannel ports linked to fiberchannel switch and NAS. Sometimes it is iSCSI, but it is rare.

You need to choose chassis and server, there is no best, all of them fine and very different.
nuclearcat wroteIt is all depends on blade server. Some of them has own HDD's, some had fiberchannel ports linked to fiberchannel switch and NAS. Sometimes it is iSCSI, but it is rare.

You need to choose chassis and server, there is no best, all of them fine and very different.
A blade usually has a small-sized hard drive. Of course it's not intended to be used for other than the OS and apps, but if he doesn't need much space, he may not need a SAN or a NAS.
longbit wroteam working on another project but this one is related to my uni, i decided to use blade server with NAS and VMware where i install the server that i need.

what is the best brand in blade server ?

+ the operating system that on it the VMware will be installed (main OS) will it be isntalled on the NAS ? or on the harddisk of the blade boards ?
I recently had to do a review on blade technologies and datacenter growth. the end result was that the cisco blades totally beat the rest by capacity and features. you would benefit of these only if you expect to have dozens of blades and all will be part of a virtual infrastructure using vmware vsphere. the second best are the HP and then DELL. IBM was the most horrific.
waw thanks for the replies, now for sure i will be using NAS 'cause i need w file server and the data base is huge so...
but the main OS will it be installed on the blades HDD or the NAS ? same for the vmware it self ?and the virtual machines to.
longbit wrotewaw thanks for the replies, now for sure i will be using NAS 'cause i need w file server and the data base is huge so...
but the main OS will it be installed on the blades HDD or the NAS ? same for the vmware it self ?and the virtual machines to.
what version of vmware, esx? if so, you have three several options, the best in regards to features, capabilities and performance is to use SAN. the closest you can get to a SAN is to make use of ISCSI.
NOTE:
SAN != NAS
SAN works at the block level, expensive but worth the buck if you know how to use it.
NAS works at a file level, basic bulk stuff.

ISCSI, is the next best thing to SAN in regards to features, but not necesserely performance, but it will get you arround and i would use it instead of NFS.

I definetly would not situate the DB on a NAS, that is the most stupid thing you can do. (well actually there is one DB setup that requires NAS shares but that is for a totally dedicated and simple usage, not to used for the DB data itself).

if you are using esx/esxi, the system gets installed on in the local drive of the blade. there is the possibility of installing on SAN block devices, hence boot from SAN, but i see no reason for such or even why you would want to do that. if you would use cisco blade technologies, it has a feature with which it would provide similar and more reliable feature to the likes of boot from SAN. CISCO basically would abstact the MAC/WWN from the hardware so that any blade could be any blade even at a "logical" hardware level.

NAS should be used for the likes of office file sharing and transit.
yet, a NAS is not an archiving solution. it is not the right tool for that. per application and technology, NAS method is one of the methods to use for connecting but it differs by adding retention for compliance.
in short, NAS is not for heavy duty use (or even average if you ask me) it is can be lousy on small files, runs better with larger files. NAS is not intended for archiving or backup. NAS has never been considered to be used for DB storage.
each blade has it's own HDD ?
and if the main OS was installed on the blade local drive, it doesn't not cost a single point of failure ? 'cause on san i can simply use RAID tech.
7 days later
i've been google'ng alot about blade servers technology, but still i didn't understand how the backplane of the blade server co-ordinate the task of the blades and manage the load balance between them in case of virtual machine installed on.
plus how the blade server boot ? is their something like a BIOS on the back plane that detected the blades in the chassis and load the OS ?

any help ?
Blade servers != cluster
Physically it is just separate servers, backplane usually contains power modules, network connection (sometimes fiberchannel), KVM for servers, and etc.