Nested ESXi 5.5 lab for SRM demo with iSCSI

[AlbertWT]

Hi All,

I was just wondering if it is possible to install ESXi 5.5 within ESXi 5.5 to do SME Tier-1 Microsoft server failover with Site Recovery manager ?

So the Tier-1 server apps are: Exchange Server, SQL Server, SharePoint Server and AD DC servers with 5x test Win 7 desktop.

The external data store for the VMFS will be hosted by iSCSI NAS connected to the physical server.

Any kind of suggestion and input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Datto · Accepted solution]

One thing you'll want to do is to make sure you use Distributed VSphere Switches on your nested cluster of ESXi hosts so you can utilize Network IO Control (NIOC). For me, I put the iSCSI traffic at High Priority and everything else at Normal Priority.

Using NIOC will allow your nested cluster to operate way more smoothly than without it.

My SRM 5.x lab is entirely nested -- probably not supported in a production environment where support from VMware would be required though.

Here's a blog article from Ather Beg on his results using NIOC and Nested ESXi hosts -- it's the reduction of spikes that Ather's blog article shows that makes networking of Nested ESXi hosts work so much better:

http://atherbeg.com/2014/02/04/why-enabling-nioc-network-io-control-in-a-home-lab-is-a-good-idea/

Datto

[AlbertWT]

DAtto,

thank you for the sharing and explanation. For the iSCSI NAS I'd like to leverage the freeNAS running on unused PC and another NAS from Synology NAS device.

would you be able to share your specs and config for the SRM lab ?