I’m so ready for the first Windows 2012 R2 preview bits. Yes that’s what our current setup looks like. Two RDMA capable NICs at the ready 
… let the bits come. I’m pretty excited to test Live Migration over Multichannel & RDMA.
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We choose to get RDMA NICs for new servers and replace non RDMA card in host where there’s a clear benefit. By the way have you seen the news on the Mellanox ConnectX®-3 Pro Single/Dual-Port Adapters => NIC support for NVGRE is here people!
Hi Didier,
Are you using one of the Mellanox switches to interconnect your RDMA cards?
No it’s DELL gear S4810, S4810 & PowerConnect 8000/8100 series. Mellanox seems to have a good reputation & has sweet pricing.
Gotcha, I forgot you run a full Dell/Compellent infrastructure. I mistakenly thought the Mellanox cards were proprietary, I didn’t realize they would work with any 10gb/40gb SFP+ switch.
I don’t know if they will work with any switch … it’s all still very uncharted domain with some successes & some misses 🙂
So are your Hyper-V hosts directly connected to your storage? Or is there a SoFS cluster in front of your storage?
For the moment not yet for production. That will take some time. We’re leveraging RDMA in the first phases for VM mobility & CSV. In W2K12R2 that Shared Nothing Live Migration (also for storage live migration if source/target are on SOFS/SMB3.0) and in W2K12R2 it’s also for state Live Migration. These are our direct wins that enable us to learn RDMA/DCB while preparing/Learning to leverage the hosts & RDMA in SOFS scenarios. It’s a step by step approach but I see great promisses for such transition in non green field scenarios or where the current SAN setup has life left in it or where FC ports are running out. SOFS will be test/lab for some time before we swap step by step when confident enough.
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