New Storage

[JimKnopf99]

Hi,

we are changing our storage to a new NetApp. We are now creating our storage design and i wan´t to know if someone could share his experience with the different capabilities to configure the storage. Until now, we are not using Backup technics like snapshots.

Thin FlexVol -- Thin LUN -- Thin VMDK

Thin FlexVol -- Thin LUN -- Thick VMDK

Thick FlexVol -- Thin LUN -- Thick VMDK

....

I know that the best storage savings you are getting with all thin. But it is also a dangerous one.

For us, i think about the following options

Thick FlexVol -- Thin LUN -- Thick VMDK

     - Never overprovision Aggregat and therefor there is no posibility of all LUNS offline.

     - Good to save storage from LUNs you never touch. Like the last 10 - 15 % of space.

     - you are able to create new LUN´s in your FlexVol because of dedup saving.

Thin FlexVol -- Thin LUN -- Thick VMDK

     - Best to create new Vol and / or luns because of disk savings with dedup.

     - On the other hand, keep in mind to monitor your storage

     - Good to save storage from LUNs you never touch. Like the last 10 - 15 % of space.

Thick FlexVol -- Thin LUN -- Thin VMDK

     - What about performance with Thin VMDK? VAAI? Metadataupdate?

     - Good to save storage from LUNs you never touch. Like the last 10 - 15 % of space.

     - Until now, i am not often using Thin VMDK, only some Server.

Frank

[jdptechnc]

We use thin volumes and luns, and thick VMDKs, in general.  In general (whether NetApp or another storage vendor), most will recommend using thin provisioning on either the backend, or in vSphere, but not both.  Whichever place you decide to use it, make sure you are monitoring the environment and staying on top of things.

NetApp will also recommend creating separate volumes/luns to split off OS/System (C drive), data files, and page file onto separate VMDKs for windows, and using dedupe for maximum space savings (particularly on the system drives).

[JimKnopf99]

Hi,

thanks for sharing.

I wan´t to use it as the same way as you implement it.

But our vendor told me to use thick FlexVol, Thin Luns and Tick VMDK.

But i guess i wan´t to change it to Thin Vol, Thin LUN and Thick VMDK.

Also create seperate volumens for OS is on our list.

Frank