Datastores

[jpoling]

I've posted previously in a different context that I am adding four additional hosts to our ESX environment. Our plan is to go from having a mix of production and dev/test VMs in the same cluster to having a separate production cluster. As i move forward I am realizing that this stretches my knowledge of ESX and best practices for architecting the environment.

So, another question: If you have multiple clusters, do they all have to share the same SAN storage? Or can I present different LUNs to the production cluster?

• Follow up: In an EMC clariion SAN, do I need all hosts regardless of the cluster in the same storage group? Or can I ahve a production storage group and a dev/test storage group?

Thanks for any insight

Jeff

[Leafy911]

I would suggest that you have a different LUN for your dev/test environment as you dont want unecessary activity from the dev/test cluster affecting the performance of your production LUN/s. You won't be able to Vmotion because they are on different LUNs but then would you want do that in the first place. You would have to create another storage group as all hosts that belong to a storage group can see all LUNs that are allocated to that storage group. In the end its best to keep both environments as seperate as possible for security, admin, backup purposes.

Regards

Leafy911

(Dont forget you recieve points when you award points)

[jpoling]

Thanks for the response. . .regarding VMotion. . .I was not planning on being able to vmotion anyway because our new hardware is a different CPU family. But, can I do cold migrations of production VMs to the new environment even if different LUNs are involved?

Thanks,

Jeff

[Rubeck]

Sure... We do it all the time.. When customers order a VM, it¨s being build in our own datacenter, and afterwards cold- migrated to the cutomers datacenter... And no datastores are being shared among us and the end customer..

/Rubeck

[proden20]

I would use different RAID Groups, LUNs, and storage groups, on your Clariion. Use different storage groups for different DRS/HA clusters. No need to see LUNs that you won't use....

[Leafy911 · Accepted solution]

I think as long as the source and destination ESX servers can see each others VMkernel port addresses then this is possible (not a 100% on this).

You could also use something like Veeam FastSCP as well.

Regards

Leafy911

(Dont forget you recieve points when you award points)

[proden20]

Not sure how Rubeck is doing it but you could use VCB or another exporting measure to move the machine to the new cluster. SV/Vmotion would be out of the question.

[Rubeck]

How... ? By runniing ESX 3.5 all over and managing everything witth VC 2.5....

From http://www.vmware.com/support/vi3/doc/whatsnew_esx35_vc25.html

Provisioning across datacenters—VirtualCenter 2.5 allows you to provision virtual machines across datacenters. As a result, VMware Infrastructure administrators can now clone a virtual machine on one datacenter to another datacenter. You can also clone a virtual machine on one datacenter to a template on another datacenter. Templates can now be cloned between datacenters. You can also perform a cold migration of a virtual machine across datacenters.

/Rubeck

[jpoling]

In our environment, the clusters are within the same datacenter. . .maybe that does not make the most sense? This is new ground for me as we've always had just four esx hosts, one cluster. . .

Jeff

[Rubeck]

Well, it all depends... If it wasn't because we our selves, were dealing with regulated and non- regulated enviroments we would also have only one datacenter...

Touch the datacenter marked GxP (regulated) and everybody knows this requires alot of paper work....

And ofc customers have their own..

/Rubeck

[Leafy911]

Not sure how Rubeck is doing it but you could use VCB or another exporting measure to move the machine to the new cluster. SV/Vmotion would be out of the question.

That works for me in, I have a cluster connected to a SAN in one datacenter and an ESXi server with local storage in another datacenter. I can cold migrate between the two because they are manged by the same VC.

Regards

Leafy911

(Dont forget you recieve points when you award points)

[proden20]

Thanks for the reminder Rubeck, we've only got one DC as well.