RAID Configuration on ESX Server 3i

[dannewton1]

I am relatively new to VMWare and Virtualisation, but I would like to setup a HP Proliant Server as a Host, and am unsure how to take advantage of or use the Hard Drive configuration it has.

Should all the drives be configured as a single array , or can they be separated so that ESX sees them as separate arrays that different Virtual machines can use?

The server is a HP Proliant DL380 and the drives are 2 x 72.8GB and 2 x 36.4GB . What I would like to know is how is it best to configure the drives in terms of RAID and at what stage this is done. Is it when I install ESX 3i on the server - does this allow for RAID config or do I need a 3rd party application to do this.

Any help or advice is very welcome.

[Kevin_Gao]

You configure the RAID in your HP RAID config. i.e.: Wait for it to boot up and it will ask you to hit CTRL + A (or something like that) for RAID config.

Drive's are kind of small but will work in a pair of RAID1's. You can install ESXi on the small RAID and then format the 73GB as VMFS (done through ESXi) and store your VM's in there.

[Texiwill]

Hello,

Moved to ESXi forum.

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009, DABCC Analyst
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[kjb007]

RAID has to use drives of same size, so the best you can do here is two RAID 1 sets. You may be able to put all 4 drives into a RAID 5, but then you would only use half of your 72 GB drives. ESXi needs very small footprint, so you can pretty much use all of the space as VMFS, except for 1 GB for ESXi. So this would leave you with 1x72 GB VMFS, and 1x36 GB VMFS, with 3 or 4 small partitions for ESXi that equal ~ 1 GB.

-KjB

VMware vExpert

[dannewton1]

Thanks Kevin. I plan to sit down and look at this next week, so I will use the advice you give.

[dannewton1]

Thanks kjb. I will look at the config next week. - using yours and kevin's advice which have both been helpful.