storage configuration booting to SAN

[dsmmh]

I am replacing my VMware host and have a question on the best practice to setup the local storage. Currently I have three Dell servers with embedded vmware 4.1. My new host have 4 300GB SAS 15k drives. I am currently booting directly to an EMC SAN using iSCSI. My plan is to continue to boot directly to a new EMC VNXe 3300 SAN using iSCSI. What is the best approach to using the local storage?

1. Create a Raid 5 but only use it for the vmware install?

2. Create a smaller Raid for the VMware then another one for space to be used latter?

3. Another option all together?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Don

[sumitpatel]

Hi Don,

You can continue booting your ESXi from SAN and can create raid 5 out of 4x300 GB SAS drives and create VMFS datastore from ESXi to leverage that local storage space available in that ESXi host.

Regards,

Sumit

[dsmmh]

This sounds like exactly what I want to do but how should I configure the space for the ESXi to be installed on? Can I have just one big RAID group that has EXSi and the rest available for storage?

Thanks for the reply.

Don

[lenzker · Accepted solution]

if you install your ESXi on this RAID group, the difference will be available as a local Datastore .