ESXi 4 iSCSI Questions

T

TechIsCool

Limp Gawd
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Aug 2, 2009
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Hey everyone new here but I am trying to build a Raid for storing of virtual machines on I have been trying out the Open Filer and like it but from what I read this is not the best thing to be running in a production environment. So I would love your input to let me know what I should buy for Hardware & what Software

Specs

Running 2 ESXi Servers that will be balanced between them
Then i need to setup the iSCSI host with 4TB in Raid 5 but understand that I do need a nice HW RAID card so that it does not lag
8 VM all Svr 2003 and one Exchange 2003

[Update]
Ok so I have been doing some more reading and see that the best route for a cheap Raid system would to buy the PERC 5/i

So this is what i was thinking


I can provide more information if needed

Thanks TechIsCool
 
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looks ok, make sure you get the perc 5 card with bbu so you can enable cache.
btw 4x 1tb drives will only give you ~3tb of storage.

another thing is what are the functions of those 8 srv 2003 machines? and what's the load of the exchange server? with only 4 drives in raid 5 you might not have enough I/O to handle 9 vms.

BTW there is a virtualization subforum, you might get more help there.
 
I am not sure what iSCSI host other OpenFiler you are looking at. There are some windows based software hosts available, but really if you aren't using OpenFiler, you are looking at buying a premade SAN.

Depending on your budget you might be able to get a Dell PowerVault MD3000i (the cheapest of their SANs)
 
Thanks for the Reply's

Lazn_Work said:
I am not sure what iSCSI host other OpenFiler you are looking at. There are some windows based software hosts available, but really if you aren't using OpenFiler, you are looking at buying a premade SAN.

Depending on your budget you might be able to get a Dell PowerVault MD3000i (the cheapest of their SANs)
Click to expand...

See this thread for the other diffrent iSCSI don't know if this is true or not
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1439621


axan said:
looks ok, make sure you get the perc 5 card with bbu so you can enable cache.
btw 4x 1tb drives will only give you ~3tb of storage.

another thing is what are the functions of those 8 srv 2003 machines? and what's the load of the exchange server? with only 4 drives in raid 5 you might not have enough I/O to handle 9 vms.

BTW there is a virtualization subforum, you might get more help there.
Click to expand...


This is what the Servers look like
Code: 
AV-Update          - Microsoft Update
Domain Control 2   - Second Domain Controler with Printer server
Exchange           - 140 mailboxes but 25 used activly
Fileserver         - about 200GB of Files Randomly accessed
Sharepoint         - Running Sharepoint Portal for Authorized users only
SQL                - Backing Sharepoint and one other software
Webserver          - Running LAMP for the main website with 200 hits a day maybe

and if i need to i can put the Exchange on its own local drive that's already in RAID 1

And is it better to go with 8 500GB drives and have more spindles?
 
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TechIsCool said:
Thanks for the Reply's

See this thread for the other diffrent iSCSI don't know if this is true or not
Click to expand...

Yes, you can do a "roll your own" iSCSI in Linux.. How well do you know Linux? I'd only recommend that if you are very comfortable with Linux..
 
Lazn_Work said:
Yes, you can do a "roll your own" iSCSI in Linux.. How well do you know Linux? I'd only recommend that if you are very comfortable with Linux..
Click to expand...

Not great mostly Windows host's on our network but I am very good with them

If its only a few MB/s per second on transfer then is it really worth it?
 
TechIsCool said:
Not great mostly Windows host's on our network but I am very good with them

If its only a few MB/s per second on transfer then is it really worth it?
Click to expand...

I think what they are worried about is not so much speed as data corruption with certain controllers. (though I could be wrong about that)

I am using OpenFiler at home and it is limited more by my RAID controller speed than by the Linux version under OpenFiler (software)

you could try http://www.rocketdivision.com/wind.html I have no idea how good it is though.
 
Lazn_Work said:
I think what they are worried about is not so much speed as data corruption with certain controllers. (though I could be wrong about that)

I am using OpenFiler at home and it is limited more by my RAID controller speed than by the Linux version under OpenFiler (software)

you could try http://www.rocketdivision.com/wind.html I have no idea how good it is though.
Click to expand...

Well I find Linux more stabled than Windows and I like the Idea of Starwind but then again I understand the Data corruption so does anyone know if the Perc 5/i has the problem?

And doe anyone have suggestions on what type of Motherboard and Processor I should be running
 
Ok I have Pictures of it full done :)

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That is a beautiful case wow. It's so nice I'm thinking of replacing my 4U norco with that.
 
Yah it is a nice case there are the problems with it but its nice the back plane lines up correct but they cables don't clip in very nice they do clip you just have to take them apart

{edit}

Oh yah and its noise very noise since you cant control the fan speed
 
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