We currently have (2) DELL R710 host servers running ESXi vSphere Essentials Plus 5.1 U1. Each host has dual quad core Intel Xeon E5620 processors. they are NOT currently clustered and EVC is NOT enabled. There are about 40 active VMs combined.
We will be adding a new DELL R720 with dual (10) core Intel XEON E5-2680 V2 processors.
It is our desire to cluster all (3) hosts and enable HA. In the past, when configuring clusters for other clients, I have had the luxury of all host being identical models and CPU generations.
How should I best approach setting up our new 930 host cluster? Should I:
- Enable EVC at the Westmere level on all three hosts?
- Roll without EVC enabled? If So, what are the ramifications?
- If going with EVC mode, how can I enable it without powering down VMs?
- What is the impact to existing VMs if I enable EVC mode? Will windows VMs see a "new" set of processors and require re-activation?
- Are there compatibility issues with common application servers such as SQL, Exchange, etc and EVC?
Quite a few questions I know, but I am reading a number of conflicting views about EVC and whether it is even worth the effort in smaller environments.
Any and all thoughts are welcome.
Regards,
Don