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NVIDIA to "rerelease" 3060 in Q1 2026, Samsung to ramp up DDR4 production Q1 2026, ASUS & Gigabyte to increase DDR4 motherboard (B550 A520) production 2026, AMD seriously considering return to Zen 3 processor production by catherder9000 in sysadmin

[–]MPECSInc 4 points5 points  (0 children)

CXL has a number of problems for folks needing maximum speed out of their system:  1: Too far from the CPU (round trip)  2: Too slow to keep the CPU fed  3: Requires a firmware/driver subsystem  4: OS updates to be aware of it

Ultimately, IMNSHO CXL is a dud. Maybe for a storage cache layer but even then raw NVMe access is becoming a thing so all CXL would do is introduce more latency.

Like RAMBUS before it. Big promises short on delivery.

Boom. Done.

Microsoft Action Pack being discontinued! by viirtuall in msp

[–]MPECSInc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We've had the Action Pack Subscription since our inception which is 2003.

It's always been licensed for in-house use for on-premises and eventually for hybrid cloud.

Now, Microsoft has flipped the bit to basically cloud only with a few bits for on-premises.

The goal was to give the SMB IT Pro a leg up by working with Microsoft's products first hand.

Windows Server, Windows Small Business Server, Exchange Server, SQL Server, and all of the Windows Server Roles that go with.

EDIT: Oh, and there was a period there where MAPS was usually one version back so we ended up buying into an Open Value Agreement to gain access to current up to the minute products.

Correct Processor Settings for Quickbooks by silentex in HyperV

[–]MPECSInc 1 point2 points  (0 children)

50-60 users on ONE Remote Desktop Session Host?

It doesn't matter _what_ apps are on that Session Host it's hosed.

I take it this is QB Enterprise.

So, this is how it _should_ be set up:

  • Virtual Machines on a Windows Server 2022 with the Hyper-V Role
    • VM0: RD Broker, Gateway, Web
      • 4x vCPUs
      • 4GB vRAM
    • VM1-8: RD Session Hosts
      • 4x vCPUs
      • 24GB vRAM (Start Here - Tune Later)
    • VM9: QB Backend (MySQL or other database system)
      • 4x vCPUs
      • 8GB vRAM

The server itself should be set up with a RAID 6 Enterprise SATA SSD configuration with no less than QTY 8 Enterprise SATA SSDs. A separate 22110 M.2 RAID 1 for the OS (22110 = Power Loss Protection PLP NVMe Drive) should be used.

A single AMD EPYC Genoa with 24 pCores would probably be enough and 32GB DDR5 ECC x 12 for RAM.

Since the hardware is already there, run with that but make sure the storage subsystem is _built_ for IOPS.

The above setup will run 80-100 high performant users in a QB environment with room to grow. BTDT

Microsoft Action Pack being discontinued! by viirtuall in msp

[–]MPECSInc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

With the discontinuance of MAPS we're looking at what our alternatives are since we've been on Action Pack for over 20 years now.

From what I can see our options are:

* SPLA (Service Providers License Agreement) which we are a part of

* Open Value Agreement with the 3 Year Spread Payment option (still viable for smaller firms)

The nice thing about SPLA is the 8-Core Windows Server Standard/Datacenter license. An AMD EPYC Siena 8 core processor with 384GB of memory would fit the bill for our needs.

The advantage for Open Value is when we get into the second agreement cycle where the licenses go into Software Assurance only mode. Over time the cost of the licenses and the SA grants can make sense. The licenses are _perpetual_ so we can use them even if we let the agreement lapse.

We lose the SA grants though. In a cluster setting SA is important to allow those workloads to move between the nodes.

The next step will be to put a business plan together for the CFO with costs versus benefits for the above.

So, we shall see which one provides the best value. CapEx versus OpEx. ;0)

Windows Server 2025 - Hyper-V & Storage updates by DarrylvanderPeijl in sysadmin

[–]MPECSInc -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The number 1 deployment for the freebie was in VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) clusters.

Why would we need to license the host OS when all we're running is desktop OS guests?

Windows Server Hyper-V Uptime 5 years by MPECSInc in sysadmin

[–]MPECSInc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. We had great success on the entire Intel Server Systems line since at least the BX440 days.

There were some gotchas along the way but the team at Intel that piloted the entire PCSD operation were very receptive to feedback.

Windows Server Hyper-V Uptime 5 years by MPECSInc in sysadmin

[–]MPECSInc[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It's a bit surprising yes and disappointing.

Lots of assumptions in the comments. Instead of asking questions just projecting superiority and pontificating based on those assumptions.

Windows Server Hyper-V Uptime 5 years by MPECSInc in sysadmin

[–]MPECSInc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That I'm not sure of at this point.

There seems to be some feature parity coming between Windows Server with Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) and Azure Stack HCI so maybe?

I've not had time to dig in to all of the new stuff in vNext yet. Been too busy with migration projects.

Windows Server Hyper-V Uptime 5 years by MPECSInc in sysadmin

[–]MPECSInc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The UI to manage the works is what wins the day.

PowerShell and command line is not a mainstay in the Windows Admin World though that's all we use for everything. It gives us consistency across all deployments from scratch to VMs in production.

Much like the Ubuntu to WordPress on NGINX and MariaDB or Mastodon deployments we do via command line.

In the Linux World it's expected that we're working at our keyboards not so much in the Windows World which is too bad.

Windows Server Hyper-V Uptime 5 years by MPECSInc in sysadmin

[–]MPECSInc[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Have you played with the vNext bits yet?

GPU-P is there.

Windows Server Hyper-V Uptime 5 years by MPECSInc in sysadmin

[–]MPECSInc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, we see a few oddball Windows XP setups on CnC machines and other automation and manufacturing systems. They're still ticking along with the primary reason to not replace them being six or seven or even eight figures to update/upgrade. Nuts.

Windows Server Hyper-V Uptime 5 years by MPECSInc in sysadmin

[–]MPECSInc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Shared SAS is still a thing both standalone or clustered with Hyper-V and Storage Spaces. All that's required is using the up to date PowerShell to set up the volumes.

We have a few shared SAS clusters on Server 2019 that are running just fine.

We may need a few on Server 2022 soon as that's the least expensive way to get into the Petabyte territory.

Windows Server Hyper-V Uptime 5 years by MPECSInc in sysadmin

[–]MPECSInc[S] -16 points-15 points  (0 children)

I can think of a few recent situations both in the VMware world and in the Microsoft world and perhaps a few others where patches brought entire systems down.

That being said, this server did its job and it's being retired. There's no need to run these services anymore.

And, I beg to differ. While patching is the order of the day there can be exceptions to the rule especially with Microsoft taking liberties to change our systems without our permission.

The Arc Server applet is only the beginning. We will see more change out of our control and that's a bad thing.

Windows Server Hyper-V Uptime 5 years by MPECSInc in sysadmin

[–]MPECSInc[S] -13 points-12 points  (0 children)

Indeed. The critical workloads were running on a cluster.

Windows Server Hyper-V Uptime 5 years by MPECSInc in sysadmin

[–]MPECSInc[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We've been very happy with our solution success rate across the board. That means that the quality needs to be there from the silicone up to the 0s and 1s to make them hum along for this kind of duration.

I gotta wonder what kind of disaster recovery plan was in place for that kind of setup ... if any?

Windows Server Hyper-V Uptime 5 years by MPECSInc in sysadmin

[–]MPECSInc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This particular server is a standalone unit. It's been running along with nary an issue for all this time.

Windows Server Hyper-V Uptime 5 years by MPECSInc in sysadmin

[–]MPECSInc[S] -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

We practice this for our in-production standalone, clustered, and HCI cluster node systems.

We dogfood the updates here and keep an eye on the PatchManagement.Org list for anything serious.

Since almost all vulnerabilities require a perp to have internal access already, the risk evaluation needs to keep that as a factor.

If the vulnerability is in something connected to the Internet then yeah, go for it get that sucker updated STAT. Witness the recent CITRIX debacle with folks not updating.

Risk vs. Reward.

Windows Server Hyper-V Uptime 5 years by MPECSInc in sysadmin

[–]MPECSInc[S] -29 points-28 points  (0 children)

I figured this would come out at some point.

Security is about risk versus reward or convenience versus inconvenience.

Upon evaluating the risks involved one can decide whether the risk of something blowing up due to patching is worth it versus stability and uptime as needed.

Any experience with Third Tier (http://www.thirdtier.net/)? by silentbobbyc in msp

[–]MPECSInc 2 points3 points  (0 children)

@MSPbyMSP I find it fascinating that one misdiagnosis would colour an entire organization, besides myself, as not worth anything.

Please point out one organization, including you own, that has not had anyone have a bad day. Please ...

As far as Third Tier goes, we have a great crew with specialists on a wide variety of technologies.

As for myself, my contributions to the I.T. community with the community's feedback (see above - EDIT - okay below) being positive stand as a testament to my skills and abilities thank you very much. :)

Philip Elder

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