Best storage configuration

[taylorjonl]

I am building a VMware ESXi 4.1 system that will consolidate all my home systems.  The parts are below:

Xeon E5620(one right now but will do another after christmas)

12GB of DDR3 RAM(will double after christmas)

Tyan S7012 Motherboard

Areca ARC-1680ix-24

4x250GB HDD(RAID 10)

8x2TB HDD(RAID 6)

Initially I was attempting to setup a second system that would be an OpenFiler system that would expose iSCSI LUNs to VMware but I didn't like the performance.  I tried getting better ethernet hardware(2x Intel Pro/1000 dual port nics) and tried setting up teaming, but it didn't work out so well and me needing a SAN for home is really overkill since I don't need vMotion and 100% up-time.

So I am back to figuring out how to setup the DataStores.  The 500GB RAID 10 storage can be a single VMFS but the 12TB of RAID 6 storage will need to be spanned VMFS?  Should I make the 500GB a single VMFS?  Should I setup my RAID controller to expose 2TB LUNs then span those into a single VMFS?

I have a book that talks about LUN queues and performance but this book is really geared to the SAN storage spectrum.

I really just need some guidance, I want to get this setup ASAP so I can turn off several machines.  My current setup consumes around 600 watts, the current system consumes just 250 so far, I know this will go up as CPU utilization goes up but I would think it would save me a bit of money on the power.  I also want to be ready for my Ceton InfiniTV 4 to arrive in January so I can setup a virtual HTPC with pass-through

[Dave_Mishchenko]

> So I am back to figuring out how to setup the DataStores.  The 500GB RAID 10 storage can be a single VMFS but the 12TB of RAID 6 storage will need to be spanned VMFS?  Should I make the 500GB a single VMFS?  Should I setup my RAID controller to expose 2TB LUNs then span those into a single VMFS You'll want to keep the 500 GB datastore seperate from the rest of your storage.  Using extents is generally discouraged, but with your 12 TB array it'll be a fine way to go.  You'll still be limited to virtual disks of 2 TB and you'll want to format the datastore with an 8 MB block size. I don't believe the Areca drivers are included on the install CD so you'll have to incorporate those into the install CD.  For your tuner card you should ensure that the MB supports the option to enable Intel VT-d.

Dave

VMware Communities User Moderator

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[taylorjonl]

I planned on keeping the 500gb seperate.  My plan is this:

500gb VMFS for VMs plus ISOs/SUPPORT

12TB VMFS for data, like videos, recordings, etc

60GB SSD for page-files

I have heard mixed opinions about extents but in my situation I think it is my only option.  I am setting up LUNs of 2000GB size on my RAID controller.

I already resolved the issues with the drivers, booting off a USB drive that has the drivers.  Will booting off the USB drive affect performance once it is fully booted?  If so I need to integrate to the install CD, if not I will just plug this USB drive into the internal connector on the motherboard.

It does support VT-d, this is actually why I upgraded from my 2x4 Opteron system.  I already messed around, got an ATI Radeon 5670 pass-through working, it scored 6.9 out of 8.0 in the Windows Experience Index, just as good as my workstation

My current case has 24 drive bays, I have 4x for the RAID10, 8x for the RAID6, 1x for the SSD and I want 3x for some hot-spare drives.  This leaves 8x remaining slots for more drives.  My hopes are that as my storage needs increase in a couple years, I can buy 4x HDDs, create a new RAID6 array, and add new extents to my VMFS for data, is this a good plan?  Also I have more questions.  At this time I have 12000GB of usable, if I setup 5000GB VMDK(thin provision) for recordings and a 12000GB VMDK(thin provision) for other stuff, will that work?  Then as I approach full I need to add more drives through extents?  If in 5 years I have 24000GB, can I then expand both those VMDKs to larger sizes?  Or should I today plan for the future and make the VMDKs what I estimate my max, so maybe 19000GB for other and 5000GB for recordings?

[mcowger]

You wont be able to create VMDKs that large - max is 2TB, thin provisioned or not.

[ebaine]

Hy.

I do not agree with  mcowger.  With Esx/Esxi 4.0 and later, the maximun size of a VMFS Volume is 64 TB minus 16k. The LUNs are limited to 2TB-minus 512B. In order to exceed the limitation of a LUN you most use extents. You can use up to  32 extents in one volume.

You create a vmfs datastore on a LUN of 2TB minus 512B size , then you add an extent (another 2TB-minus 512B LUN) to the existing datastore. You can do this 32 times until you reach 64TB minus 16K.

by by

[taylorjonl]

This isn't too big of a deal, I can either expose multiple 2tb VMDKs to the VMs or I may setup a virtual OpenFiler instance that has multiple physical volumes then expose a single iSCSI target for the windows VM or even a SAMBA share.  I just need to do some tests.

[taylorjonl]

I think you are talking VMFS and he is speaking of VMDK.

[ebaine]

Yes I am sorry mcgower.

My fault.