Vmdk tiered storage best practices

[hbertz]

Im in a debate with a colleague on the best design for using tiered storage. We are debating on placement the vmdks for a virtual machine. Would it be better to keep all vmdks (OS, data) on the same LUN (datastore) or separate the OS into slower speed drives and data on higher speed drives. I don't think there is a true right or wrong answer here just opinions.

[depping]

There is no right or wrong in this case as it just depends. It depends on how you do your troubleshooting / operational management etc. In many cases customers chose to keep VMs together as that simplifies their provisioning and management process. Also when troubleshooting it can be really challenging when a virtual machine is spread across 2 or more datastores. I guess you will need to ask yourself how often this happens and if that is a risk / cost you are willing to incur. I know many customers doing this though and from a support perspective it is absolutely no problem.

It is up to your preferences in the end,

[hbertz]

Thank you. Your insight is very helpful. My take away is that separating vmdks only really introduces complexity. In a tiered storage solution it can help reduce cost on storage but then cost versus complexity will need to be considered. If possible to keep it simple we should as simplicity is usually the best course to take.