Two host shared storage? MD3000 MSA2012sa

[nbarsotti]

Hello,

I work for a small business with a two host ESX 4.0 custer. I currently have a StoreVault (NetApp) S500 with 12 x 500gb sata drives. It is way under powered for the type of VM's that we are running and the performance my end users need. During these hard economic times we cannot afford a nice beefy fiber channel SAS SAN. Since there are only two ESX hosts that will ever need to access this storage I was hoping I could get a Dell MD3000, HP MSA2012sa, or similar. Can these devices be setup so that both ESX hosts have SAS connectivity to the same LUNs for vmotions and DRS? These direct attached arrays seem like the best way to get a shared storage (2 nodes) and 3 GB/s sas and 15K drives. Please share your thoughts.

[Husky50]

Hi All,

Just curious if anyone has heard anything definitive on VMware shared LUN / VMFS for VMotion and HA using MD3000 (not iSCSI). I was told by Dell Technical Support this is not supported, and was forwarded the VMware 3.x document that states this position very clearly:

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/solutions/esx_storage_deployment_guide_v1.pdf

The VMware HCL does not seem to make the distinction of stand alone server vs. shared storage support. Can anyone working for VMware or otherwise point us to a document that clearly states that VMotion and HA is supported with Dell MD3000? Or explain how to interpret the HCL or other documents to that end?

My Dell sales engineer claims that Vmotion HA is supported recently with up to 4 hosts on MD3000. However, he so forwarded me only the matrix showing VMware is supported in general, so I am waiting on a reply back from him.

Did something change with Vsphere?

I have a situation where I would like to use the MD3000 under Vsphere with only 2 ESX hosts. Buying a SAN for this would probably be a deal breaker.

Thanks,

Rich

[Husky50]

Yes, VMotion / HA under Vsphere ESX4 (but not ESX3.5) is officially supported by Dell for use with the MD3000 (not MD3000i). My rep sent me this link, and I forwarded it to the Dell tech support rep who told me it was not supported.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/eslvmwre/VS/AdditionalDocs/CompMat/CM_4.pdf

Have fun!

Rich

[cosy]

HI,

How do i connect 2 x IBM 3690 into one IBM DS3524 (SAS) ?

Thanks,

AS