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shebang
Contributor
Contributor

ESXi local storage recommendation

If using local storage for ESXi, should this be raid storage or is a simple harddisk sufficient. What is recommended? P.S. The VM's are on the SAN.

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krowczynski
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

If you are install on local hdd, choose an RAID1!

MCP, VCP

MCP, VCP3 , VCP4
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chrisaug
Contributor
Contributor

Aggreed. Definitely do Raid 1. I'd even set another disk up as a hot spare.

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AntonVZhbankov
Immortal
Immortal

As for me there is no need in local storage with ESXi, install it on flash drive.


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TobiasKracht
Expert
Expert

There is no need to install ESXi on RAID, moreover you can face with troubles if you will use not supported RAID adapter.

StarWind Software R&D

StarWind Software R&D http://www.starwindsoftware.com
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shebang
Contributor
Contributor

As far as I know, this isn't "officially" supported by VMWare? In case of HA, where is the swapspace located? (SAN?)

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TobiasKracht
Expert
Expert

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=100654...

ESX vs ESXi. Using ESXi you can`t make HA configuration, only if you will using clustering for VMs.

StarWind Software R&D

StarWind Software R&D http://www.starwindsoftware.com
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chrisaug
Contributor
Contributor

If you are running production VMs, why would you create a single point of failure by installing ESXi on a flash drive or non-raid configuration. I understand there is little configuration to ESXi but can you afford the downtime if something were to go wrong? Put it on a RAID 1. If a drive fails, you're still running while you replace it.

My config is, two 15K SAS drives in a RAID1 with a hot spare.

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AntonVZhbankov
Immortal
Immortal

Tobias, you CAN do HA configurations with ESXi. And it works fine.


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MCP, MCTS, VCP, VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

EMCCAe, HPE ASE, MCITP: SA+VA, VCP 3/4/5, VMware vExpert XO (14 stars)
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DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

If you are running production VMs, why would you create a single point of failure by installing ESXi on a flash drive or non-raid configuration. I understand there is little configuration to ESXi but can you afford the downtime if something were to go wrong? Put it on a RAID 1. If a drive fails, you're still running while you replace it.

My config is, two 15K SAS drives in a RAID1 with a hot spare.

Do understand that your drive controller is a single point of failure. ESXi on a flash drive is a good choice. There is very little writing to the flash drive. I don't think the server manufacturers would be selling servers with ESXi in flash if it was a big problem. The reason we have been using RAID for storage is because we know our rotating media WILL fail.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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TobiasKracht
Expert
Expert

For this you have to buy VI Standard, while using free ESXi in HA configurations possible in case of resource cluster

StarWind Software R&D

StarWind Software R&D http://www.starwindsoftware.com
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AntonVZhbankov
Immortal
Immortal

I understand, ESXi is often mistakenly judged as "Free ESXi" only - but ESXi is fully functional as ESX. Yes, full business license is needed for HA to work.


---

MCP, MCTS, VCP, VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

EMCCAe, HPE ASE, MCITP: SA+VA, VCP 3/4/5, VMware vExpert XO (14 stars)
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AntonVZhbankov
Immortal
Immortal

>In case of HA, where is the swapspace located? (SAN?)

It should be located not on flash disk, ESXi on local disks works without additional configuration and diskless ESXi have normal r/w access to SAN only, so in this case you place scratchconfig on SAN.


---

MCP, MCTS, VCP, VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

EMCCAe, HPE ASE, MCITP: SA+VA, VCP 3/4/5, VMware vExpert XO (14 stars)
VMUG Russia Leader
http://t.me/beerpanda
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TobiasKracht
Expert
Expert

Yes, I know the difference between`em.

StarWind Software R&D

StarWind Software R&D http://www.starwindsoftware.com
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chrisaug
Contributor
Contributor

Do understand that your drive controller is a single point of failure. ESXi on a flash drive is a good choice. There is very little writing to the flash drive. I don't think the server manufacturers would be selling servers with ESXi in flash if it was a big problem. The reason we have been using RAID for storage is because we know our rotating media WILL fail.Yes, and your USB controller could fail too. Although I have seen both failed disks and RAID controllers I have seen far more of the previous. My point is to limit the number of SPOF. Why create another one, and put production VMs on it?

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shebang
Contributor
Contributor

That's why I asked for the local storage recommendations. I don't like the increased I/O burden on the SAN

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AntonVZhbankov
Immortal
Immortal

As far as I understand there is very low level of IO, but flash disks are very sensitive to writes, and have limited amount of writes which can be exhausted really fast.

I haven't noticed any IO burden on entry level SATA disk shelf, so don't worry about it.


---

MCP, MCTS, VCP, VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

EMCCAe, HPE ASE, MCITP: SA+VA, VCP 3/4/5, VMware vExpert XO (14 stars)
VMUG Russia Leader
http://t.me/beerpanda
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TobiasKracht
Expert
Expert

Yes, USB has a small amout of data writes, but if there will be small I/O and also lets remember that it has a really big amout of data writes, but with insufficient write speed. So, I don`t think that if will store on SAN you will have big overhead.

StarWind Software R&D

StarWind Software R&D http://www.starwindsoftware.com
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DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

As far as I understand there is very low level of IO, but flash disks are very sensitive to writes, and have limited amount of writes which can be exhausted really fast.

Have a look at www.corsair.com/_faq/FAQ_flash_drive_wear_leveling.pdf

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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awliste
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Good link. Thanks!

- abe

Integritas! Abe Lister Just some guy that loves to virtualize ============================== Ain't gonna lie. I like points. If what I'm saying is something useful to you, consider sliding me some points for it!
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