Hi All, What is the best practices for implementing vSAN 6.5 using Dell PERC H730 or FD332-PERC storage controllers?
Good morning, as long as they are on the HCL; I would think all the general rules apply. Go with passthrough mode if possible. Disable all cache, or put it to 100% read if you cannot disable it. One controller per disk group if possible. The higher the queue depth, the better. I like to have the cache tier to be PCIe to get that IO off of the controller. If I think of anything else, I'll re-post. Thank you, Zach.
Along with Zach's recommendations and the kb article you referenced (kb 2109665 - these settings are set at the higher settings automatically in 6.0 U2 and later),
also be aware that you should NOT have any non-vSAN local disk(s) attached to the same controller that the vSAN disk-groups are attached to:
"When running vSAN with a Dell H730 controller and the lsi_mr3 driver, these additional best practice guidelines and restrictions apply:
-VMware do not support configurations where vSAN disks co-exist with VMFS volumes on the controller."
https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2136374
That driver family appear to just straight-out disagree with switching between virsto and VMFS volumes and it can lead to real problems.
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There are actually some recommendations with the H730 such as modifying Advanced Settings, firmware, drivers (LSI-MR3), etc. Please see this document in https://storagehub.vmware.com/#!/vmware-vsan/update-guide-for-dell-perc9-h730-controller-2