ESXi Installation with RAID 5

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KapsZ28

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So, I will be getting this motherboard, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131670 with this RAID controller, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115063.

I plan on attaching 4 SATA hard drives to the RAID controller and setting it up in RAID 5. Now, do I create a separate volume for the ESXi install, or just 1 volume and separate it with a partition?

Also, if you are using a RAID controller, are any of the onboard SATA or SAS connections available to use on the motherboard?
 
Thanks, but I already ordered my RAID controller and I am not planning on installing ESXi on a flash drive.

What is the standard in an enterprise enviornment?
 
Personally, I just make one large volume. At the same time, it can't be too big or you could have issues with the VMFS partition ESXi will create for you. I'd use your raid controller to create multiple volumes if you have over 2 TB of space, but if you have less than that, then one large volume will work. ESXi will install and will use the remaining space within the LUN for a VMFS volume. You can manually format remaining LUNs with VMFS using the vSphere Client later on.

The enterprise setup as you are asking about varies greatly. Local space is almost never used for virtual machines because it cannot host VMs if you intend to use vmotion, ha, or any other feature which would require sharing the VMFS volumes. ESXi is really small, so people tend to save space if using local disks, maybe a couple of 72GB drives (which is still mega-overkill) are in the server. That of course is enterprise SAS drives, but you said enterprise so that is what you're going to get. A lot of the "virtualization blades" I see come through here have a single SSD in them. The last 2-3 places I have been I've pushed for the use of diskless servers with either usb drives/sd cards to boot, or more recently boot from SAN.
 
Thanks for the info. As far as my other question, can you use a RAID controller and also use onboard SATA or SAS connections from the motherboard?
 
I have that HBA. Make sure you update the firmware before you start partitioning arrays.
I have 3 2TB arrays on 4 disks, and ESX wouldn't see more than the first array until I updated the firmware.
 
True. I'm sure I'll update the firmware anyway.

So....can you use a RAID controller and also use onboard SATA or SAS connections from the motherboard?
 
KapsZ28 said:
True. I'm sure I'll update the firmware anyway.

So....can you use a RAID controller and also use onboard SATA or SAS connections from the motherboard?
Click to expand...

You cannot use the onboard for RAID, you can use standalone drives though. Well, I've had good luck anyway.
 
Last edited:
defuseme2k said:
You cannot use the onboard for RAID, you can use standalone drives though.
Click to expand...

That is fine. I don't want to use the onboard RAID. I will use my RAID controller for that, but would like to hook up a SATA DVD-ROM and possibly a couple extra hard drives for storage and installing ESXi. So if they work as standalone drives while the RAID controller is in use, then that is perfect.
 
That board specifically has an onboard USB port for a flash drive, use it.
 
Except I have plenty of spare drives and could always use additional storage especially for ISO files.

Besides, I tried a USB drive in the past for ESXi. Same 4GB Lexar drive that I would use for installing Windows 7. It made the Windows 7 install extremely fast. When I installed ESXi on it, it was somewhat slow connecting through vSphere and using vShere in general. When I switched to a laptop drive, ESXi was much faster and more responsive.
 
Is RAID definitely possible with the free edition of ESXi? When I go to install ESXi, I don't see the RAID array. The directions I read said that you need to load drivers during the ESXi install, but it does not appear to be an option.

I just installed ESXi on a single hard drive and would like to setup a datastore on the RAID array to install the VMs on, but I still can't see the RAID drive. I copied the zip file with the RAID drivers to the datastore and tried to run esxupdate, but it didn't work.

I just hope RAID is definitely available with the free edition.
 
KapsZ28 said:
Is RAID definitely possible with the free edition of ESXi?
.....
I just hope RAID is definitely available with the free edition.
Click to expand...

The free version of ESXi definitely supports hardware raid.

According to the reviews on NewEgg for your card, it's "iffy".
One reviewer says he got it to work doing what you described.

I have only used RAID cards (PERC/LSI/Adaptec brands) specifically listed
on the ESXi HCL on vmware's site.
Never needed to load any drivers going this route.
 
Netwerkz101 said:
The free version of ESXi definitely supports hardware raid.

According to the reviews on NewEgg for your card, it's "iffy".
One reviewer says he got it to work doing what you described.

I have only used RAID cards (PERC/LSI/Adaptec brands) specifically listed
on the ESXi HCL on vmware's site.
Never needed to load any drivers going this route.
Click to expand...

Yeah, checking the HCL would have been a smart move. I unfortunately went by what it said on NewEgg that the HighPoint is ESXi Certified. Funny how it is not even on VMware's HCL.

So, how about this one? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118105

It is on the list, and I figure I can get 4 more hard drives for a total of 8.

When using 8 hard drives, would it be better to use RAID 1 on the first 4 and RAID 0 on the other for? Or would it be better with a 2x2 design. 4 drives as 1+0 and another 4 drives as 1+0?
 
KapsZ28 said:
So, how about this one? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118105

It is on the list, and I figure I can get 4 more hard drives for a total of 8.

When using 8 hard drives, would it be better to use RAID 1 on the first 4 and RAID 0 on the other for? Or would it be better with a 2x2 design. 4 drives as 1+0 and another 4 drives as 1+0?
Click to expand...

That LSI 9260-8i is the PERC H700's 1st cousin (if not twin).
I have the Perc H700 and it is plug-n-play with ESXi.
That is a steep price though .... check your local eFleaMarket or eList for-sale
sections for the cards.

As far as RAID config, it depends on your storage capacity needs, performance needs, fault tolerance needs, etc.

For a home ESXi lab, I have found that RAID 5 works fine across all available drives because
I boot from USB and wanted to maximize storage while allowing for a single drive failure.

The only other config I considered was the RAID 10 - but it takes half the storage away.

In a production environment, I'm used to using RAID 1 for the OS and then RAID 5 for data.
 
Netwerkz101 said:
That LSI 9260-8i is the PERC H700's 1st cousin (if not twin).
I have the Perc H700 and it is plug-n-play with ESXi.
That is a steep price though .... check your local eFleaMarket or eList for-sale
sections for the cards.

As far as RAID config, it depends on your storage capacity needs, performance needs, fault tolerance needs, etc.

For a home ESXi lab, I have found that RAID 5 works fine across all available drives because
I boot from USB and wanted to maximize storage while allowing for a single drive failure.

The only other config I considered was the RAID 10 - but it takes half the storage away.

In a production environment, I'm used to using RAID 1 for the OS and then RAID 5 for data.
Click to expand...


Good to know about the RAID card. Capacity isn't a big concern but I would like to get the best performance possible. I know that Exchange datastores are setup in RAID 10, and I was reading somewhere that it is best to use VM's on RAID 10.

I was thinking of two arrays in RAID 10 with possibly 5 VMs on each. I would just hate to use RAID 5 and then start seeing performance decrease after adding many VM's, but I don't have any experience with that. Prior to getting a RAID card, I had VMs running on several separate hard drives.
 
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