On Windows 2016 server is this possible?

[lablover58]

Good morning! A user has requested a VMware server (win 2016) have a RAID installed?

[sjesse]

Why? Technicall you can do software raid inside of a vm, but unless your using local disks any storage array in general would be using some sort of raid.

[lablover58]

Not sure, I was kind of thrown by the request.  I just wanted to know in regard to a 'software' raid. Doing research now in regard to this.

[sjesse]

I've done it, and it works, but I'm pretty sure you don't get any benefit and everything I've seen said its not a good idea.

[daphnissov]

You should never do software RAID inside of a VM. I can almost 100% guarantee you it's a terrible idea and there's no adequate justification for doing so.

[lablover58]

Please tell me the reasons why..thanks

[kenbshinn]

I mean you could do it.... it just sound like a lot of work (making extra VMDK's) for something that is probably not necessary in a virtual environment that is using shared storage. I would bet that there requirements came from a vendor spec sheet.

This might sound dumb, but you might want to check with whoever made the request and let them know that it will be a VM and make sure that the vendor will support their application while it is running on a VM. There are still a few out there that will not.