Physical CPU choices

[SeanSD123]

I poised to purchase new hardware nodes and have 2 competing ideas

3 nodes with 2 CPU x 12 cores (72core)

vs.

4 node with 1 CPU x 24 cores  (96cores)

roughly 30 servers varying degrees of processor need

'4 node 1 CPU' winds up saving licensing cost from vmware but I lose a physical processor. 

We may have a need for a VM that requires 2 vCPU's and it was inferred having the 2'nd physical cpu would be beneficial vs only a single if the server requires it.  From reading however it seems vmware looks mostly at the cores.

Curious what issue would arise if I have multiple vm's requiring 2 cpu's for the OS?

Lastly, there's also the possibility with going flash drives for the vSan with the saving from only going 1 physical CPU.  Going flash would allow vSan dedupe.

 

I keep going back and forth, so some advice would be helpful.

Thanks

[compdigit44]

There are so many ways to look at this:

1) Scale up vs Scale Out. The large the server, the more VM's it can handle, but if an issue happens. It opens you up for the potential for a bigger impact.

2) Licensing is another factor as your pointed out.

2) With larger VM's make sure their vCPU config matches the NUMA layout of the host otherwise it will impact the VM's performance.

 

Would be interesting to see what others think about this as well.