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jackBN
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New ESX DEV/QA Environment Planning Suggestions

Hey all. Have some questions planning and sizing our new dev/qa environment

4 - servers current 47 vm guest servers

Current storage used is 867GB for C: drives - 346gb for 😧 drives - 1047GB for page files

We have a question on how the VMs would perform if these servers were now built with one vdmk file instead of 3? Would I take a hit in performance? would this scenario be better for replicating LUNS?

If I move to this new architecture with one vdmk,can i merge the existing 3 vdmks into one?

Thank you for your help in advance.

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Texiwill
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Hello,

For all new VMs there will be one LUN for one single vdmk (I was wondering if this is not good for performance?)

That is a waste of LUNs.

I would put 10-20 VMs per LUN. use a separate set of LUNs for data. I would not worry about the page file just the data LUNs. Your base OS can easily go on one LUN.

I would go through your VMs and determine if there is any high IO if not then it maybe safe to put everything inside a single VMDK and have multiple VMs per LUN.

1 LUN per VMDK is a BAD IDEA unless there is an absolute need to do so. I.e very high transaction rate database, then you may consider it.


Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009, DABCC Analyst
====
Now Available on Rough-Cuts: 'VMware vSphere(TM) and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment'
Also available 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise'
SearchVMware Pro|Blue Gears|Top Virtualization Security Links|Virtualization Security Round Table Podcast

--
Edward L. Haletky
vExpert XIV: 2009-2023,
VMTN Community Moderator
vSphere Upgrade Saga: https://www.astroarch.com/blogs
GitHub Repo: https://github.com/Texiwill

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Texiwill
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Hello,

4 - servers current 47 vm guest servers

Current storage used is 867GB for C: drives - 346gb for 😧 drives - 1047GB for page filesWe have a question on how the VMs would perform if these servers were now built with one vdmk file instead of 3?

I would run a test, but if you are paging a lot then you may need more memory in the VMs. However, if you go this route you will want to have multiple LUNs for each 12-15 VMs.

Would I take a hit in performance? would this scenario be better for replicating LUNS?

You may, not sure. Depends on how much paging you are actually doing. But this also depends on where the VMDKs live. If they all live on the same LUN then joining them together or separating them will make no difference in performance. You need multiple 'LUNS' for that.

If I move to this new architecture with one vdmk,can i merge the existing 3 vdmks into one?

Only from within the Guest OS not from within ESX.

We would need more about your configuration I think.


Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009, DABCC Analyst
====
Now Available on Rough-Cuts: 'VMware vSphere(TM) and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment'
Also available 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise'
SearchVMware Pro|Blue Gears|Top Virtualization Security Links|Virtualization Security Round Table Podcast

--
Edward L. Haletky
vExpert XIV: 2009-2023,
VMTN Community Moderator
vSphere Upgrade Saga: https://www.astroarch.com/blogs
GitHub Repo: https://github.com/Texiwill
habibalby
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Helo,

I'm using almost the same configuration, except the page file it's within the C:\ where it comes from BootLun that is Raid 1+0 "Raid 10". Before I made this configuration, all the VMs were on a LUN that is Raid 5. Performance was acceptable, but after migrating my VMs to different LUN, formatted the old LUN as Raid 10, the performance becomes much much better specially booting time.

VMs whose require a Data Drive such as Exchange, File Server, etc etc, the second vmdk i assigned from another Data LUN which provides only Data. No guest OS from this LUN.

Best Regards,

Hussain Al Sayed

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

Best Regards, Hussain Al Sayed Consider awarding points for "correct" or "helpful".
jackBN
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Thank you both for your answers I appreciate the feedback

To answer your question...some servers page but I do analyze them and allocate more memory if need be

Our configuration is as follows

4 - ESX 3.5 update 4 servers

32GB RAM

4 quad core procs

I am laying out the storage as follows (3PAR - RAID 5)

3 - 500GB LUNS for OS

6 - 500GB LUNS for DATA

3 - 500GB LUNS for Page

This configuration is for existing vm guests

For all new VMs there will be one LUN for one single vdmk (I was wondering if this is not good for performance?)

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Texiwill
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Hello,

For all new VMs there will be one LUN for one single vdmk (I was wondering if this is not good for performance?)

That is a waste of LUNs.

I would put 10-20 VMs per LUN. use a separate set of LUNs for data. I would not worry about the page file just the data LUNs. Your base OS can easily go on one LUN.

I would go through your VMs and determine if there is any high IO if not then it maybe safe to put everything inside a single VMDK and have multiple VMs per LUN.

1 LUN per VMDK is a BAD IDEA unless there is an absolute need to do so. I.e very high transaction rate database, then you may consider it.


Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009, DABCC Analyst
====
Now Available on Rough-Cuts: 'VMware vSphere(TM) and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment'
Also available 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise'
SearchVMware Pro|Blue Gears|Top Virtualization Security Links|Virtualization Security Round Table Podcast

--
Edward L. Haletky
vExpert XIV: 2009-2023,
VMTN Community Moderator
vSphere Upgrade Saga: https://www.astroarch.com/blogs
GitHub Repo: https://github.com/Texiwill
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jackBN
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thank you again

just so i have this straight i should do the following

1 500GB LUN for OS/PAGE

1 500GB LUN for DATA

10-15 VMs per LUNS

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Texiwill
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Hello,

1 500GB LUN for OS/PAGE

You will most likely have more than 1 500GB LUN, but yes that is a good mix.

1 500GB LUN for DATA

This also depends on the size of the DATA VMDKs if they are high transaction rates you may want to look into RDMs. But you may also have more than 1 of these as well.

10-15 VMs per LUNS

Usually best. Remember you really want the LUN no more than 80-90% full. I like 80% but others go as high as 90% do not fill it 100%, that would cause issues.


Best regards, Edward L. Haletky VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009, DABCC Analyst[/url]
Now Available on Rough-Cuts: 'VMware vSphere(TM) and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment'[/url]
Also available 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise'[/url]
[url=http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Blog_Roll]SearchVMware Pro[/url]|Blue Gears[/url]|Top Virtualization Security Links[/url]|Virtualization Security Round Table Podcast[/url]

--
Edward L. Haletky
vExpert XIV: 2009-2023,
VMTN Community Moderator
vSphere Upgrade Saga: https://www.astroarch.com/blogs
GitHub Repo: https://github.com/Texiwill
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