HP DL380 G5 - Configuring for ESX

[tegbakke]

Hello.

I am new to ESX, just completed VMware VI3: Install and Configure course

I am now going to install my first ESX server, and I have som questions that I hope that someone can answer for me.

Hardware:

HP DL380 G5 Dual QuadCore CPU, 16 GB Ram, 6 SAS disk on 146 GB

What will be best practise for configuring Array ?

Array A: Includes Disk 0 & 1 with RAID 0+1 - For ESX install

Array B: Includes all other disk with RAID 5 - For VM's, templates, ISO's and so on.

What is the best practise for installing and configuring partition schema for ESX

I guess it will be installed on Array A

I really hope that someone can clarify this for me, as I want to start out right.

Trond E. Gjelsvik-Bakke

[jhanekom]

I would recommend placing all the disks into a single Array, to allow you to get the performance benefit of using all six spindles.

You can then cut logical drives from this array as you need. Maybe one logical drive for the ESX installation, another logical drive for your VM's operating system disks, another logical drive for VM data disks and a fourth for ISO images.

This will also allow you to use either RAID1 or RAID5 for any of your logical disks.

[phenrichs]

that is a good point, using all discs on one array will allow you to utilize all the disc space

However, if this is a mission critical system or an ESX host that will host mission critical vm servers (as mine are) you may want two arrays. I use two smaller 72G drives with a mirror array for the ESX installation and a raid 5 with a hot-swap drive for the datastore array. I am also hounding HP to get us some 300G SAS drives so that this config will be more relevant in large scale installs.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Paul

[Rob_Bohmann1]

As to the partitioning part of the question here is what I have done in the past:

/boot 250 MB

Also, you should format the vmfs volumes using the VI client after you install ESX so the disk alignment is correct.

Search thru the forums and you will find some variations on the sizes above but generally I think there is agreement to adjust the defaults so the root partition and the logging partitions do not fill up and run you out of space. Using the above is about 24-25 GB so it easily fits using 2 36 GB drives and leaves you a little space if you want create a local vmfs for iso's if you want. (Better to put them out on shared storage but your scenario does not have that. You could use an NFS mount to do this also). Good luck and enjoy.

[phenrichs]

Rob I wish I could give you points for this answer. I have been testing a setup that is a bit beyond the dimensions of what vmware currently recommends for a configuration. It will be intended to be installed remotely in the field and needs to have minimal maintainance. I never thought of expanding the root and logging directories. Thanks man you probably just saved me many long hours on the phone for remote support!

Regards,

Paul

[rfunk · Accepted solution]

You might want to go with something like this:

2 mirrored drives for the ESX install

3 drives raid 5 plus 1 hot spare for data

This will keep your OS and data separate which is a big benefit in a disaster recovery scenario.

This would give you 483 Gig for VM and your templates. You might want to put your ISO images on the ESX drives as well. You will have plenty of space to do so, just create a VMFS3 volume on the ESX drives. This will give you more space on the data drivers for VM and templates.

A DL380 G5 server with your configuration will handle a good number of Virtual Machines. You will probably run out of data storage before maxing out the CPU's and memory.

If the funds are available it would be a good idea to purchase 2 additional drives to add to the data array.

As far as carving up the ESX partition, Vmware recommends using the default settings during the installation.

In my environment I go with something like this:

/ = 4096

/boot = 150

/home = 3072

/swap = 2048

/vmimages = 6144

/vmkcore = 100

Hope this helps

[spex]

If you do not use all your spindles in an efficient way, you will have a slow environment, since your disk will be the bottleneck.

Example:

your CPU/RAM will be able to handle about 16vm's

each vm does (if idle) about 3-5 io/sec per disk. (basic paging that windows does every time, registry io) not mentioned virusscan, sec. updates, backup, ....)

so you will have about 100 io/sec only for os many of them write.

write means in raid 5 : read old block first, calculate new parity, write parity and data block - so 3 io's per write

A fast fc disk 15k handles about 150 io random.

Regards

Spex