That would seem to support SAN booting, especially given our constraints.
How often does ESX use the swap partition? Is it only when memory resources are low?
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Question
VMware ESX4 - iSCSI SAN boot, or local storage?
We are about to buy:
2 of HP DL380G6 (2p 4c) - extra 2port gig ethernet
1 of Netapp FAS2020 (12x300gb)
to use with VMware 4 advanced.
We intend to connect the san to the servers via iSCSI.
Should we use local storage for booting ESX, or should we boot via iSCSI? If we drop the local storage from the servers we will be able to add more RAM to the spec..
Is there any reason why this is a bad idea? I found mixed opinions on the vmware site. What do you think?
Thanks for looking, any appropriate comments would be hugely appreciated :-)
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Answers
I will try below to consider the rack space.
As of today, a 2U server can handles up to :
- 4 nodes (Using 1U Twins) of [Dual 5500 Nehalem | 12x 4GB = 48GB | 3x Hot swap 3.5" SAS drives | Dual 10Gbe] : 8x Quad cores + 192GB + 12x 3.5" drives
- Dual 5500 Nehalem | 18x 8B =144G | 24x Hot swap 2.5" SAS drives : 2x Quad cores + 144GB + 24x 2.5" drives
I don't think the advantage of managing boot drives in one single place is really a cost advantage.
My personal experience is that ESX servers lacks of memory and I would go with the 1st kind of servers (Twins) like those
The cost of storage space on the SAN is not as relevant as the cost of the local storage. Given the choice between local storage and another 4GB of ram, I'm sorely tempted to go for the ram.
CptnTrips: Seeing as all the virtual disks will exist on the SAN, the local server is useless if the SAN goes down anyway. I don't see how it increases the risk. If I had two SAN's with storagemotion then maybe, but I don't... in any case, It's on 4hr support so assuming it doesn't keep on dying we'll be ok w/regard to SLA's.
BigSchmuh: we don't have any problems with density. our cooling can only support half filled racks as it is.
In spite of the above, I think we are going to go for local storage, if for no other reason then KISS methodology.
I would boot from local storage of the G6 HP's, easier to troubleshoot and easier to re-install the hosts, especially if you're using host profiles.
I just did some NetApp training and you may want to hold off on the FAS2020 and look at the FAS2040 because the new ONTAP 8 will not be compatible with 2020 or 2050. The 2040 just came out and will be able to use the ONTAP 8 when it comes out
Another note, you may want to switch to NFS on the NetApp vs iSCSI, you'll have much flexibility with the FLEXVOL and you will not need a full secondary LUN per iSCSI LUN (otherwise you'll need double the total storage)
NFS is faster and will give you more options on the NetApp in addition to providing thin provisioning on the SAN vs VMDK level
Its true server can become cheaper when you boot from san & booting from san means that less heat generated in the server since no heat from the physical drives you will also be able to replace dead server very quickly and you can also use san technology to backup the LUN...
But you becoz you are not booting from FC san, but tru iscsi san, hmmm....not too sure unless you really have dedicated gigabit network just for your iscsi otherwise you might increase IP traffic and impact overall network performance, in your case, i think booting from local disk(at least raid 1) is a better choice
The new Ontap8 will have many new features and unless you have something comptabile you will not have the same upgrade capability. I believe one of these is the capability for SAS shelves. The 7 code will probably be maintained for a while but NetApp will push you to upgrade the unit and use the 2020 as a shelf.
http://www.netapp.com/us/c
The 2040 is about the same cost as 2020 and is like buying next year's model vs previous year's model car
The boot from SAN requires iSCSI HBAs which are fairly expensive, with the DL G6 models you have plenty of capacity to run iSCSI initiator (at most you'll use 1 core worth of bandwidth). I would perhaps hold out for 10GB NICs so you'll be abl to use them for iSCSI and if you decide to go with NFS (NetApp's VMWare recommended) you'll have the capability to do so.
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by: CptnTripsPosted on 2009-09-29 at 06:38:00ID: 25448832
http://communities.vmware.