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joshp
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Too many hosts in DRS cluster?

I have 10 ESX 3.5 Update 1 servers and I am planning on placing all 10 hosts in a single DRS/HA cluster. Is there any reason I shouldn't place all the ESX hosts in a single DRS/HA cluster? Should I create multiple DRS/HA clusters?

Any help is appreciated!!

VCP 3, 4 www.vstable.com
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williamarrata
Expert
Expert

If your setting up all your hosts in 1 cluster, then all your hosts have to see the same LUN, Also setting up your resource pools is very important if your going in that direction. LAN is also a factor, depending on how you set up your network is a veriable that has to be designed correctly so that you don't have any hick-ups with VMotion DRS and HA, Also, getting back to your LUN's, how are you going to split up the load of your LUN's? You don't want to have 1 or 2 LUN's taking the load of all the VM traffic you going to have a bottle neck. You want to feather out your LUN structure so that the load is spread out and if a failure of a LUN happens, its not a dissaster and dose not affect alot of VM's.

Hope that helped. Smiley Happy

Hope that helped. 🙂
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joshp
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I will add some environment details.

  • 10 ESX 3.5 Update 1 servers

  • Clariion CX3-40 (160 x 146GB FC 4Gbps drives)

  • Heavy use of metaluns split across storage processors (LUN balanced over Storage Processors)

  • Redundant virtual networks using virtual switch tagging.

  • Each ESX box is zoned and masked to see ALL LUNS (that are used in our virtual environment)

We are most interested in determining if there are performance implications of having 10 hosts in a single DRS/HA cluster.

VCP 3, 4 www.vstable.com
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williamarrata
Expert
Expert

Joshp, to answer your question correctly, we have to dive down deep into many layers of questions, 1 basic question is , "What will that cluster be doing, apps, print & file, Exchange, Citrix, or multiple servers crammed in one cluster. But to just answer your question, "in determining if there are performance implications of having 10 hosts in a single DRS/HA cluster", I don't see any problems.

Hope that helped. Smiley Happy

Hope that helped. 🙂
mcowger
Immortal
Immortal

We currently have 16 hosts in a cluster and are about to add 8 more - no issues.

--Matt

--Matt VCDX #52 blog.cowger.us
amslife
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Just make sure the processors are all compatible or masked to be so. That's generally what defines the boundaries of environments' clusters.

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weinstein5
Immortal
Immortal

I am not aware of any performance hits for 10 hosts in a cluster - the vc maximum is 32 hosts in a cluster

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