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stanj
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

StarWind

I have the 8.0 version of StarWind and have it installed on two Windows 2012 Server VMs on two ESXi Servers

Each ESXi Server has 5 2TB datastores available.

I added four 2 TB drives to the VMs and want to add all 4 drives to one pool so it appears as I have am 8TB storage available to share between the 2 ESXi Servers.

is this possible?

thanks

6 Replies
npadmani
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Create spanned volume (Or Disk concatenation)

Create a Spanned Volume

see if this helps.

Narendra Padmani VCIX6-DCV | VCIX7-CMA | VCI | TOGAF 9 Certified
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stanj
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

If this is similar to software RAID, then it will nto be an option.

StasrWind has a BIG warning not to use software based RAID when defining the StarWind Shared voulme

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npadmani
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Configure Passthrough-VMDirectPath in VMWare ESXi RAID USB

try to explore this and see if this helps.

if your VM has virtual disks attached then this is not an option for you, in that case you have only Spanned volume option available.

Narendra Padmani VCIX6-DCV | VCIX7-CMA | VCI | TOGAF 9 Certified
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stanj
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

ok,,it has Virtual Disk (4) attached to the VM

It looks like I can not pool the drives into one one 8 TB volume,,

I will have to use LSFS for each drive.

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stanj
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I will set up a 7.8 TB volume comprised of the 4 vmdk drives attached to the VM by using the MS 2012 Storage Spaces.

The question is, should the vmdk drives that are created by adding the VM be thin provisioned or thick?

Then, the Storage Spaces allows for thin or fixed...?

so, there can end up being a mix

VM vmdk = thin or thick

storage space virtaul disk - thin or fiixed (thick)

StarWind disk = LSFS or thick

Does it matter if there is a mix or will it be better performance for all thin?

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AnatolyVilchins

As far as I know according to all vendors best practices the thin provisioning should be enabled on one level only. I would recommend you to start with if you need LSFS of StarWind. The general information can be found here:

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/turning-tbs-into-iops

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/eliminating-io-blender

But making a long story short, it is designed to

  • Eliminate IO Blender
  • Significantly increase the speed of the storage system, especially when talking about the spindle-based systems
  • Provide complete Business Continuity

So, if you are not running spindles, then you can use Flat images of StarWind, and consider thin provisioning on the Storage Spaces or Vmware level.

Kind Regards, Anatoly Vilchinsky