Which iSCSI SAN for VDI

[ShaunDarkLord]

Hi all  I'm currently in the process of tendering for a pair of iSCSI SANs for our desktop virtualization project.  We're planning to virtualize up to 600 desktops, and want a fairly quick box.  I'm still waiting on prices on the HP Lefthand and EVA solutions, but I have had pretty much identical pricing on the IBM V7000 and NetApp FAS3210.  So as there is no price difference, it's all down to performance.  The v7000 has 22 SAS drives, 8GB cache per controller, and two very expensive 300GB SSDs to use IBM's easytier system.  The FAS3210 has the same number of disks, the same amount of cache and their dedupe aware flashcache........  So what to buy?  Has anyone used either of these solutions in anger?  Many thanks for any advice.

[Tigerstolly]

600 desktops is ~ 6k IOP's very roughly speaking whereas 22 SAS disks is around 3.2k IOPS (again roughly speaking) so you are really betting on that easy tier working out for you.

IIRC its automatic cache so you can't put your linked clones on there, you just have to wait for it to do its job.

For that many desktops, you need a lot of spindle, or SSD you can manually put your desktops on.  In fact i'd even put some Fusion I/O cards in the hosts and use them as local storage, don't worry about HA for pure VDI.  Thats just me though

[idle-jam]

http://myvirtualcloud.net/?page_id=1076 have a look at this can get your IOPS right then only get the right iSCSI SAN. Most importantly get those that have vStorage APIs for Array integration (or VAAI) that would make VM related operations faster.

[ShaunDarkLord]

The pair of SANs with 22 disks should in theory give me the 6k iops I need for normal running.  The question really is whether the IBM V7000 or the NetApp 3210 is a better solution. The V7000 looks to have more raw performance, but the NetApp seems to be a bit more clever.  I do have a company quoting on the Fusion IO solution. I've not seen the figures, but don't expect to be able to afford it.

[borsheimc]

I am using a Xiotech storage blade to run my vDesktops and I am really happy.

Here is url for Xiotech, I would check them out.

http://www.xiotech.com/solutions/virtual-desktop/

http://www.xiotech.com/products-services/ise-storage-blade/

[eeg3]

Dell has some solid options in the Equallogic line, including the PS6000XVS. They've always seemed eager to help plan rollouts including helping with sizing, so it might be worth reaching out to them if you haven't before. We've been very happy with the units.