VMware ESXi 6.7 U2 – raid10 vs raid 1

[kungpow]

Scenario:

VMware ESXi 6.7 U2 Server

-2 x 8 core CPUs with hyperthreading

-64GB of memory

Virtual Machine 1:

-Domain Controller / file server

Virtual Machine 2:

-Terminal Server (remote desktop session host server)

-10-20 users

Storage setup for ESXi Server

Option 1. Go with 4 x 10K RPM drives in RAID10

-Virtual Machine 1: domain controller / file server

-Virtual Machine 2: terminal server

Option 2. Go with the following

2 x 7K RPM drives in RAID1

-Virtual Machine 1: domain controller / file server

2 x SSD drives in RAID1

-Virtual Machine 2: terminal server

For the storage setup, is Option 2 a better setup than Option 1? I’m not concerned about the file server drive speed but more concerned about the terminal server drive speed.

[IRIX201110141]

Well.... our DCs are around 25-40GB depending on the age and number of Windows patches. Such a small VM will easily fit on any of  the SSDs today so go for 2xSSD in RAID1 because the slowest SSD will out perform the fastest spinning drive(we leave sequential reading with huge blocksizes out of the game) so your Terminal Server VM will benefit.

We dont like that a Fileserver becomes part of a DC.  How much space you need for the File Server? If is will fit on the SSDs... go for SSD.

Regards,

Joerg