paulo999
asked on
Installing & Creating LUNs for VMWare
Hi. I'm installing VMWare on a single server that has two QLogic HBAs attached to a HP MSA 1000 SAN. This is the only server that will be connected to the SAN.
I've created a LUN to store my VMs on, and it has formatted in VMFS OK (as far as I can tell). However, I want to create more LUNs for storage for my VMs. My question is, how do I create more LUNs and only allow the relevant VMs to access them? If I allocate each LUN to a specific WWN of a HBA, then because each VM is really using the same two QLogic HBAs, will they all see it? Or is there another way?
Also, I wanted to store ISO images of Win 2000 and 2003 server, for additional builds in the VMIMAGES partition. When I install VMWare in GUI mode there doesn't appear to be a VMIMAGES partition, however when it's installed and I do a vdf command (I think that was the command anyway) I can see a VMIMAGES partition. And the partition already has sonme ISO images in there (some Linux and Windows ISOs from what I can tell). Is this correct? Thanks.
I've created a LUN to store my VMs on, and it has formatted in VMFS OK (as far as I can tell). However, I want to create more LUNs for storage for my VMs. My question is, how do I create more LUNs and only allow the relevant VMs to access them? If I allocate each LUN to a specific WWN of a HBA, then because each VM is really using the same two QLogic HBAs, will they all see it? Or is there another way?
Also, I wanted to store ISO images of Win 2000 and 2003 server, for additional builds in the VMIMAGES partition. When I install VMWare in GUI mode there doesn't appear to be a VMIMAGES partition, however when it's installed and I do a vdf command (I think that was the command anyway) I can see a VMIMAGES partition. And the partition already has sonme ISO images in there (some Linux and Windows ISOs from what I can tell). Is this correct? Thanks.
First of all, you know that ESX 3.5 is out already? JFYI...
As robocat already said, the VM does not see the LUN, and from the ESX server's point of view, it's just storage (and in a one server setup, it's treated like local storage, so think of it as multiple partitions on a standard client PC or server).
How large are your LUNs? There are performance limitations on how many VMs you should put on a VMFS datastore (especially if the VMFS resides on a SAN LUN). The rule of thumb is to have not more than 10 to 15 VMs per VMFS volume (but that mostly depends on the hardware used).
You should not create a LUN/VMFS store per VM as you might feel the need for doing backups, snapshots, etc. and that will take up additional space on the same VMFS datastore the VM sits on, so f.ex. if you're going to have 10 VMs each having 15GB of virtual disks on a single VMFS store, it should at least be 10*15+20% (180GiB) big to make sure that there's enough space for logfiles, snapshots, backups, etc. on this VMFS storage.
/vmimages on ESX 3 contains the VMware tools iso images as well as the SCSI driver disks used during windows installations. As you can have multiple VMware ESX Server versions in one farm that store needs to reside locally on your servers to be sure that all servers have the correct versions of VMware tools and the driver disks in place.
It makes sense to create a separate VMFS store that holds the operating systems ISO images although (if your SAN space is limited or expensive) it does not need to be on a SAN volume, you can even create an iSCSI or NFS share that holds the ISO images.
As robocat already said, the VM does not see the LUN, and from the ESX server's point of view, it's just storage (and in a one server setup, it's treated like local storage, so think of it as multiple partitions on a standard client PC or server).
How large are your LUNs? There are performance limitations on how many VMs you should put on a VMFS datastore (especially if the VMFS resides on a SAN LUN). The rule of thumb is to have not more than 10 to 15 VMs per VMFS volume (but that mostly depends on the hardware used).
You should not create a LUN/VMFS store per VM as you might feel the need for doing backups, snapshots, etc. and that will take up additional space on the same VMFS datastore the VM sits on, so f.ex. if you're going to have 10 VMs each having 15GB of virtual disks on a single VMFS store, it should at least be 10*15+20% (180GiB) big to make sure that there's enough space for logfiles, snapshots, backups, etc. on this VMFS storage.
/vmimages on ESX 3 contains the VMware tools iso images as well as the SCSI driver disks used during windows installations. As you can have multiple VMware ESX Server versions in one farm that store needs to reside locally on your servers to be sure that all servers have the correct versions of VMware tools and the driver disks in place.
It makes sense to create a separate VMFS store that holds the operating systems ISO images although (if your SAN space is limited or expensive) it does not need to be on a SAN volume, you can even create an iSCSI or NFS share that holds the ISO images.
Oh, another thing: As local disk space on the ESX servers is usually not an issue, you could even create a VMFS datastore on the local disks and store the ISO images on this partition. I used to do that some time ago, but that depends - as I said above - mostly on the hardware you're using and the possibilities you have in your environment.
ASKER
That's great, thanks for all the info.
I have created one 180GB VMFS LUN on the SAN for the VM files to be stored (planning on 10 VMs, I though 15GB per VM plus some spare room for loss after formatting). So I got that bit right! :)
What I'm not clear about is how I create, for example, a datastore for a file server. Say I have the file server runnning as a VM, I want to create say another LUN of say 200GB and have that as drive D: on the VM File server. I originally thought that I would create this as a normal LUN, allow the VM to pick it up after installing the HBA drivers and then format it etc. in the usual way from Windows.
But looking into it I now think I would have to either make it VMFS and somehow allocate this to the VM, or make it a raw disk and use a raw disk mapping file with VMWare...? Is this correct? If I need to use a VMFS file, then would I create a seperate LUN for each server I want to give space to, or create one large VMFS LUN and have the various files altogether in there? What is the correct 'standard' way of doing this? I'm going to need some rather large storage areas (some servers will need a drive with say 250GB). Thanks again.
I have created one 180GB VMFS LUN on the SAN for the VM files to be stored (planning on 10 VMs, I though 15GB per VM plus some spare room for loss after formatting). So I got that bit right! :)
What I'm not clear about is how I create, for example, a datastore for a file server. Say I have the file server runnning as a VM, I want to create say another LUN of say 200GB and have that as drive D: on the VM File server. I originally thought that I would create this as a normal LUN, allow the VM to pick it up after installing the HBA drivers and then format it etc. in the usual way from Windows.
But looking into it I now think I would have to either make it VMFS and somehow allocate this to the VM, or make it a raw disk and use a raw disk mapping file with VMWare...? Is this correct? If I need to use a VMFS file, then would I create a seperate LUN for each server I want to give space to, or create one large VMFS LUN and have the various files altogether in there? What is the correct 'standard' way of doing this? I'm going to need some rather large storage areas (some servers will need a drive with say 250GB). Thanks again.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
Just the info I was after, thanks guys, I've split the points.
>My question is, how do I create more LUNs
the same way as the first one
>allow the relevant VMs to access them?
VMs don't "see" or "access" the LUN (or VMFS volume). A VMFS volume is a kind of storage pool onto which you create the VMDKs (virtual disk files). You assign a VMDK to a certain VM. To the VM, the VMDK appears as a disk drive. The VM has no idea this disk is sitting on a LUN and does not see the LUN, only the virtual disk.
>Also, I wanted to store ISO images of Win 2000 and 2003 server, for additional builds in the VMIMAGES partition.
Don't use the /vmimages partition, it is obsolete. You could create a separate VMFS LUN to store your .iso images.