Storage Best Practices for VMware ESX Server 2.x
Bala Ganeshan Corporate System Engineer EMC Database Solutions Team
Agenda
Introduction ESX Servers on SAN Booting ESX Servers of EMC Storage Arrays Using ESX Server v2.x on EMC Storage Arrays Using ESX Server v2.x with EMC Symmetrix Arrays Backup and recovery considerations Related sessions Question and answer session
SAN Attached ESX Server Configurations
Best Practices For Using EMC Storage With VMware ESX Server
Recommendations to allow scalability Address potential performance limiting characteristics in the future May not be appropriate for all environments Recommendations enable optimal balance between performance, management and functionality
SAN Boot of ESX Servers
Booting ESX Server Off the SAN
ESX Server 2.5 and later supports booting off the SAN Refer to “EMC Host Connectivity Guide for ESX Server 2.x” for configuration details ESX Servers can be booted off both Symmetrix and CLARiiON storage arrays
Advantages
Boot device protected on enterprise storage x86 Servers become appliances (can be replaced in case of failures) Leverage best practices for backing and restoring off the SAN
Booting ESX Server Off the SAN
Disadvantages
Dedicated HBAs needed if RDM are to be used Two different type of HBAs would be needed Impacts VMkernel heap usage Not supported by EMC Can impact management functions if HBAs are shared with service console Potential performance impact if swap files are on the SAN disk If internal disks are available, the swap file can be on protected internal disks.
Using ESX Servers with EMC Storage Arrays
Storage Layout Considerations
Storage Layout Considerations
Do not present SAN storage to ESX Server farm as one big SCSI disk
Use multiple meta volumes or meta LUNs to present the storage Plan on presenting storage as 8-10 meta volumes or meta LUNs
Both meta volumes and meta LUNs can be grown non-disruptively Use of spanned VMFS with dynamic LUN growth mitigates risk

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