Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of ammounpierre
ammounpierre

asked on

SSD on HyperV VMs ?

Hello Gurus,

Knowing that SSD has write wear limit, but needing the speed, I am thinking of having my 4VMs running under SSD.
I would have a big SSD (around 512GB) and will install all VMs on it.
Does it make sense to put the Windows Pagefile on another Disk (SATA) as to prevent wear-off of the SSD ?
The VMs will mainly hold DC, SQL 2008 R2 DB (80GB) ,and file server...
What configuration could I use to benefit the max to my SSD ?
I could even have 4 SSD, 1 for each VM...
is there any whitepaper, any explanation as to how Windows (2008R2) behaves in terms of write/read on the HDD/SSD so that we can better determine where to put what ?
What about SQL ? any hint ? any recommendation ?

Thanks
Avatar of Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Flag of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland image

how long do you intend to keep this SSD in use before replacement?

I would not bother moving the pagefile, and replace the SSD after two years of use.

We still have Generation 1 SSDs in use with VMs with no issue.

If you want the VMs to Boot faster, put the OS drive on the SSD, to get the benefits of SSD performance, put the SQL DBS on the SSD datastore.

you will get better performance if your controller can manage it by using four SSDs in RAID10, or use two pairs of RAID1.
Why would you put your swap file on a slower drive? IE: an HDD vs. SSD? Keep your pagefile on the SSD.
Avatar of ammounpierre
ammounpierre

ASKER

My concern is about the wear factor of the SSD.
How can I measure my wear level ?
I mean I m ready to invest 10K in Super fast SSD provided they last 2-3 years..
Now if because of paging and too intense HDD write I get to change the SSD every year...then I am better off getting 10-15 SAS HDD in RAID 1+0.
Do You agree ?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Flag of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Check these guys out.
Met them at Vmworld.
I got free food and booze there,so I owe them a plug.

http://www.nexgenstorage.com/
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
You can just purchase a PCIe card from FusionIO we have been using FusionIO products for years.

No SAN or iSCSI required!