ESXi 4.1 installed on USB flash drive, life-time question

[Bolgard]

Hello,

I just installed a new ESXi 4.1 server on a USB flash drive (internal port). I've heard these USB flash drives gets worn out from a lot of writes; do I need to set any particular settings on the ESXi-host to maximize the life-time of the USB flash drive? Perhaps move logs to a datastore, if possible?

Anyone have any information on how long my USB flash drive with ESXi will last?

Thanks in advance!

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

... do I need to set any particular settings on the ESXi-host to maximize the life-time of the USB flash drive? Perhaps move logs to a datastore, if possible?

VMware optimizes the R/W access if you install ESXi on a flash drive/SD card. If I'm not mistaken, some of the changes are written only once in an hour. Depending on the size of the flash drive, you may want to configure the location of the scratch partition (which is used for support dumps etc.) to be on one of your datastores (HDD)

Anyone have any information on how long my USB flash drive with ESXi will last?

This mainly depends on the quality of the flash drive itself. Some Vendors (like Dell) offer server models with two SD cards for kind of a RAID1.

André

[Bolgard]

My flash drive is 8 GB. Do you have information on how to move the scratch partition after installation?

Thanks for the answer!

[a_p_]

Create a directory (e.g. "scratch") on your datastore and then configure the setting using the vSphere Client by navigating to ESXi host > Configuration > Software > Advance Settings > Scratch Config. There you have to enter the absolute path to the scratch directory you created. (e.g. /vmfs/volumes//scratch) Calculate with up to 4 GB of space for the "scratch" directory.

André

[mjpagan]

I primarily install my ESXi on USB media (IBM's key) and I was originally worried about that too. I have systems in the field that have been running for 3+ years with no issues. The best part of ESXi is that there isn't much to the config and if you remember you settings you can have a new one reconfigured in about 20 minutes. That plus building in redudancy (HA cluster) to begin with makes me think that the failure of one USB drive in a host is a relatively small concern.

Mike P

MCSE, VCP3/4

[Bolgard]

Thanks for all answers!

Mike, did you move the scratch directory?

[mjpagan]

I did now and until recently did not know that was even an option. I have been able to do various updates (U1, U2 and 4.0 to 4.1) without issue so I don't really understand why or if it is necessary. Maybe someday I'll find out the hard way, but as of right now it seems uncessary.

Mike P

MCSE, VCP3/4

[AlbertWT]

not a problem, I'm using Corsair Voyager GT 16 GB (overkill I know..) and so far so good all of the production ESXi is running very well.

[Bolgard]

Actually, it seems ESXi detects it is installed on a USB flash drive and moves logs (?) or some other files to the physical data store (I saw some files there which I didn't put there).