Please advise me to add a new shared storage in an existing infra

[Sanithsadananda]

Hi All,

    In our environment we are planning resizing activities, Now we have IBM storwize v3700 . I m looking for another shared storage , anyone please advise me which is best and we are using distributed switches . Anyone please give me how to add a new shared storage with existing networking option .

[a_p_]

It's pretty hard to give you any advice without knowing any details, like capacity, I/O requirements, mirrored solution, transparent failover, infrastructure (FC/iSCSI, speed, dedicated switches), ... Please provide as many details as possible to see what may fit. I assume that you are looking for a storage system that's supported for vSphere 5.5 and later!?

André

[Sanithsadananda]

Hi AP;

    I need for v 5.5 . We have 8 hosts ibm x240 and storage v3700. What are the things you need to clarify my question.our storwize almost reached the space. Also  some resizing activities are in prigress. If anyone asks me for another storage I hv no clue. Thats why . Also if we bought any san how can i configure . Need to create an additional vmkernal port or with existing should i abke to proceed.

[a_p_]

To properly size a storage system, it's necessary to know the requirements. As I mentioned in my previous post, you at least need to know

• the required capacity
• I/O requirements
• whether or not the storage needs to be mirrored to a second location (sync or async)
• whether you need automatic/transparent failover
• last but not least your budget
• ...

Assuming that you are using the software iSCSI initiator, you should be able to add an additional storage system in the same subnet as the v3700 (simply add an another iSCSI target in the host's configuration) and access the LUNs on it to migrate the VMs over to it.

André

[Sanithsadananda]

Hi AP

• the required capacity : Min 8 TB
• I/O requirements : I didn't get you.
• whether or not the storage needs to be mirrored to a second location (sync or async) : Prefer RAID option
• whether you need automatic/transparent failover :
• last but not least your budget : suggest me good model that suits my environment .

Assuming that you are using the software iSCSI initiator, you should be able to add an additional storage system in the same subnet as the v3700 (simply add an another iSCSI target in the host's configuration) and access the LUNs on it to migrate the VMs over to it.

I have attached the storage adapter portion with this . expecting your valuable suggestion.

,

[a_p_]

With I/O requirements I'm basically talking about the applications and their requirements on how much storage traffic they produce (IOPS = Input/Output operations per second). E.g. a high performance database has higher I/O requirements than an office application like Word or Excel. Think of this like a highway, too many cars at the same time will cause a traffic jam. To satisfy I/O requirements you'll need to properly size the storage systems, i.e. decide which disks (SSD/SAS/NL-SAS) to use and how many of them. Don't mix this up with bandwidth (with the 8GB FC HBAs you shouldn't have any issues). Btw. with FC in place - assuming you have FC switches in place - it's easy to attach multiple storage systems, by simply doing a proper zoning and presentation.

With my question about mirroring I was actually thinking of whether you need one or two storage systems, where data is synchronized between both of them to provide availability in case one of the storage systems should fail.

How is your current storage system sized, i.e. cache, number and type of disks, ...?

André

[Sanithsadananda]

Hi AP,

   Currently my storage is 10 tb . 6 tb for production and 4 tb for testing. Why we need another storage now is we have one more client . So they require  different storage . we are not planning to do with our existing data store. The new client not having high load related items . All are web related .I need 2 things mainly which is the good shared storage for my existing infra and how can i configure that in existing  . I think now you are more clear .