4 Replies Latest reply on Dec 21, 2019 3:37 PM by Amin Masoudifard

VMware Disk Provisioning with SSD Flash Storage

Shepcon Nov 7, 2019 6:33 AM

I'm building a new VM that will be used as a SQL 2019 Standard server running Windows Server 2016 Standard. Very small environment with only 5 or fewer users connecting to the SQL server for use with an accounting application and small DBs. My single ESXI host is running 6.7 and all flash SSD storage on a Dell PowerEdge R740. RAID6 with 6 SSDs on a Perc H740p controller.

My question is regarding disk provisioning and best performance (Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed, Thick Provision Eager Zeroed, Thin Provision). I know in the past for best performance with SQL and Exchange setups, Thick Provision Eager Zeroed was considered best even though the space required. However, I am reading about the different disk provisioning setups when using all flash SSD storage and the differences appear to be somewhat the same now with the benefit of SSDs.

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks.
Ken

1. Re: VMware Disk Provisioning with SSD Flash Storage

sk591 Nov 7, 2019 6:54 PM (in response to Shepcon)

The following guide outlines all the performance impacts and the vmdk types concerning SQL DB deployment over ESXi: https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/solutions/sql-server-on-vmware-best-practices-guide.pd…
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2. Re: VMware Disk Provisioning with SSD Flash Storage

scott28tt Nov 7, 2019 11:46 PM (in response to Shepcon)

Moderator: Moved to vSphere Storage
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3. Re: VMware Disk Provisioning with SSD Flash Storage

H1tester Nov 7, 2019 11:53 PM (in response to scott28tt)

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4. Re: VMware Disk Provisioning with SSD Flash Storage

Amin Masoudifard Dec 21, 2019 3:37 PM (in response to Shepcon)

The Exchange Server writes its data and also creating new items like email to the transaction log files before committing them to the information stores. So each of the mailbox database modification/paging will be written to a memory cache, and after a time duration, the Exchange server will commit the cache contents into the related information stores (of course operation like application-aware backups will do it too). Then we could say for better performance of the Exchange server, SSD disks that is used as a flash-based datastore for keeping the only dedicated VMDK for the storing of transaction logs will be a good best practice.

Please mark my comment as the Correct Answer if this solution resolved your problem
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