Data stores per LUN

[boomam]

Hi,

Im just reconfiguring our SAN, and have setup one large array as a single LUN to ESXi 4.1.

I was under the impression that i could have multiple datastores on one LUN, with each host accessing a different datastore on that LUN?

Can somoene confirm?

Or will i have to carve the array up SAN side, and assign a chunk for each datastore i want, on a different LUN?

Thanks in advance all.

[idle-jam · Accepted solution]

normally it's 1 LUN = 1 Datastore, and multiple host can access the same datastore so that virtual machine can be migrate to different host (vMotion).

[PduPreez]

Hi

You need to do a 1:1 mapping with Datastores to LUNs

Never create multiple datastores on a single LUN

regards

Please award points if this is helpful or correct

[f10]

Hi,

You may create multiple datastore in a single lun using command line but this option is NOT recommended, this will lead to more SCSI reservation conflicts because for every option on those datastores the ESX hosts would have to place a lock on the metadata region of the LUN. This configuration will work but not recommended for production use case.

Regards,
Arun
VCP3/4, HPCP, HP UX CSA http://kb.vmware.com/

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[boomam]

Right, so ive split up the LUNs into 500Gb chunks, with 500Gb datastores per LUN.

Most logical way to do it?

Thanks for the replys everyone.

[PduPreez]

That is the most effortless way to do it and 500GB is conservative enough.

There are some considerations around Datastores but the main one is

- Number of VMs/vmdk's per datastore depending on workload

So creating a few 500GB Datastores will be fine, but try to spread the workload across them all.

In other words do not fill up the 1st datastore and then move to the next.

Also try to keep your high I/O VMs on separate datastores

I have attached a LUN size calculator just in case

regards

Please don't forget to award points for correct/helpful responses :smileycool:

We are not here to help, we are her for points - Just kidding

[boomam]

Points given 😉

Thanks for the help guys and gals.

[ggomez43]

PDUPerez,

Just curious did you create the LUNs calculator?

I am new to vSphere and in what scenario have you used the LUN calculator?