VMWare direct path IO - dell cards?
i am researching options for some new Dell servers which will be virtualized using ESXI 5.1.
the R620 with the PERC H710P Integrated RAID Controller, 1GB NV Cache was what i was considering, to have 3 of these servers in a fail over / cluster for IIS servers we need to run.
Does the PERC H710P have support for direct path, Vmware compatibility website seems out of date and only lists the Dell R910 server in the vmware direct path IO search options.
http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php
the R620 with the PERC H710P Integrated RAID Controller, 1GB NV Cache was what i was considering, to have 3 of these servers in a fail over / cluster for IIS servers we need to run.
Does the PERC H710P have support for direct path, Vmware compatibility website seems out of date and only lists the Dell R910 server in the vmware direct path IO search options.
http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php
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.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
don't have any true I/O numbers currently but the hardware being looked at is far above what we have now.
i just wanted to make sure i do the proper configuration and had been told alot lately about making sure my raid cards supported direct path IO as if it was the next coming of Christ or something.
So knowing what i know now, if say i had a very heavy I/O server, that would be the more ideal time to use direct path, in order to squeeze out every last bit of performance?
and to keep the ESXi drive say on the onboard raid, or a separate card?
i just wanted to make sure i do the proper configuration and had been told alot lately about making sure my raid cards supported direct path IO as if it was the next coming of Christ or something.
So knowing what i know now, if say i had a very heavy I/O server, that would be the more ideal time to use direct path, in order to squeeze out every last bit of performance?
and to keep the ESXi drive say on the onboard raid, or a separate card?
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
Ahh, okay so i can not allocate it to multiple VM's!
today is a day of learning!
Another question then..
If a ESXi box dies then and i want to restore the VM to another server i would then need the same raid card in the other system to have it work?
or i could move the VM to a datastore instead with out the raid card?
today is a day of learning!
Another question then..
If a ESXi box dies then and i want to restore the VM to another server i would then need the same raid card in the other system to have it work?
or i could move the VM to a datastore instead with out the raid card?
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
ya, that is part of the plan.
the idea in my head so far is
3 identical boxes, each with some running VM's but enough resources to take the load of the other 2 servers if they go down.
Load balancing / fail over for IIS across all 3.
a back end storage as we also need to redo our MSSQL servers, that is my next step oncei get the IIS side sorted out and load balancers.
the idea in my head so far is
3 identical boxes, each with some running VM's but enough resources to take the load of the other 2 servers if they go down.
Load balancing / fail over for IIS across all 3.
a back end storage as we also need to redo our MSSQL servers, that is my next step oncei get the IIS side sorted out and load balancers.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
Exactly! a massive plug and play network basically so i can actually go on vacation!
ASKER
very good information all around for scenarios
ASKER
i was planning to set up ESXi with several hosts on it, and i wanted to be sure i had the best performance possible for I/O as the systems will run 2 drives in raid 1 + hotspare for ESXi installation and 6 to 8 Ent. SSD drives in raid 10 for the VM Hosts to run from.
The servers are not ordered yet and i will be making another question here about my layout to make sure i am not doing something wrong.