Good idea to use local Storage?

[ukdaz]

I would really appreciate some advice on this setup that I am thinking about.

We currently have 3 Dell 2950 hosts connected to a MD3000i via iScsi. We also have 2 file servers that have run out of space. I want to consolidate a number of boxes to reduce our Microsoft License requirement and have 6 x Datacenter License to cover the VM Hosts.

I am planning to purchase the following and use the local storage to host Windows 2008 r2 File servers and present the data via DFS thereby not having to worry should a host go down:-

3 x Dell R710 / 48GB 1333mhz Ram / Dual x5570 Proc / 2 x Quad Intel 1000vt Nics/ Perc Controller / 6 x 450gb Sas Local storage.(Mirror set and Raid 10)

My question is,......Is this OK to use the local storage for very I/O Intensive File servers?

Thanks in advance

Darren

[krowczynski]

>>My question is,......Is this OK to use the local storage for very I/O Intensive File servers?

Hi,

my answer is NO!

We are talking here about local storage, so if one of the hosts went down or corrupted, you data is no longer available, or in wrost case, all data is lost.

And if is your Produvtion enviroment, I would put it on you iscsi storage!!!!

MCP, VCP

[ukdaz]

Thanks for the prompt reply. I understand that should I lose a host I lose the file server on it...However that is why each file server will have the same data on it...or on at least 2 of the 3 local file Servers. I will use DFS to present the data so that should a host go down the users will fail over to another File Server on another Host. The actual DFS root server(but not the data) will be on the san so it will be redundant. I want to have at least 2 hosts for DFS and hosting nearly 2tb of data on the San is not an option at the moment.

My question was more from a Vmware Performance issue based on heavy I/O on the local storage system. Would this cause an issue with the hosts performance.

Thanks again

Darren

[krowczynski]

>>My question was more from a Vmware Performance issue based on heavy I/O on the local storage system.

Ok it depends, on many factors, what controller, what kind of disks (SATA or SAS).

But my opinion is, NO production data on local storage, but you must decide this on your own way!!!

MCP, VCP

[jayctd]

Personally I would use shared storage for this, though I am a fan of shared storage in general behind ESX, the feature advantages are worth it.

Getting down to brass tacks though I think the big consideration will be IOPS for this setup, I like that you are using DFS to overcome a single point of failure but in the end the file serving will be off of those set of spindles. 6 SAS disks in a RAID10 configuration should be able to give you quite a bit of IOPS (off the cuff estimation would be close to 1500-2000 random IO but there is a lot of room for variation in there) , I just don't know the size/usage of your file storage so it is hard for me to estimate if you will need more or less.

So basically I would still recommend shared storage but the big question really will be is HOW IO intensive your data is and the profile of it.

By the way I have used the 710's before ... they are a pretty sweet small to mid ESX host I think you will like them.

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[ukdaz]

Thanks guys for your responses. I agree i would prefer to put it on the San but we don't have the capacity at the moment....and our San upgrade will happen next year. Budgets etc. This will probably have to last me 12 months then will go mad and spend on a decent san with tons of space. In the meantime....will go with this solution as it's mostly file serving etc. Just was worried that i might cause esx performance issues.

Thanks again

Darren

[jayctd]

I think you will be alright, at least with storage vmotion when you do get that SAN the transition from local to shared storage will be seamless

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[Texiwill]

Hello,

Local storage is not a huge issue these days as you could get access to that local storage using software like Xtravirt Virtaul SAN or HP VSA. Or you could setup multiple virtual machines that replicate data between them.

The key is to determine how to establish your redundancy and as such ensure you have the necessary software or hardware to meet this plan.

Local storage is almost always your worst case business continuity case, so its not necessarily bad.

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009

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