Upgrade to ESXi 5.5 vs Linux VM with software raid for >2TB LUN

[robertwidmer]

I have a Cisco UCS running ESXi 5.0.0 with 7 8TB drives in hardware raid 6, making a 22.74TB drive, and I would like to create a VM with a 20TB drive running Linux.

Would it be better to upgrade to ESXi 5.5 (or later), or create the VM in ESXi 5.0 with a bunch of 2TB LUNs and software raid them within the VM?

(I don't manage the server, so I would need to get approval to get the upgrade done, so I just want to make sure I have the necessary information)

[dekoshal]

You definitely need to upgrade as esxi 5.0 is end of life product.

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Best Regards,

Deepak Koshal

CNE|CLA|CWMA|VCP4|VCP5|CCAH

[robertwidmer]

Ideally, yes, we would be running the latest version of ESXi.

The system is running fine as is, so I was hoping for a little more justification (performance, features, fixes). The 2TB limit is the only thing impacting us, and software raid inside the VM gives us a workaround. ESXi 5.0 end of life is not impacting us operationally.