I'm setting up a new VM enviroment and I'm working on bumping up the SAN network to greater than 1Gbe speed.
I'll have 4 VM servers (2 ESXi, 2 ProxMox) and one SAN Server running NexentaStor (or other ZFS based OS).
At present I'm running quad 1Gbe NICs in each server and use iSCSI with Round-Robin MPIO to achieve greater than 1Gbe network speed. I like the simplicity of NFS but using ISCSI allows me additional performance boost via VAAI extensions.
I know that there are quite a few options. The only one I'm pretty familiar with is copper ethernet.
Based on some quick research, I could go to 10Gbe using 5x 10Gbe Nics (EXPX9501AT or XR997) for about $210 a pop average and XS708E switch for about $900. That would give me 10Gbe for just under $2K. Could also go with cheaper NiC like the RK375 for $150/ea though I don't know how good those cards are.
What other options are there within that budget? Fiber? IB? I don't have any experience in either and do not know the compatibility with ESXi or Nexenta/OmniOS.
Thoughts?
I'll have 4 VM servers (2 ESXi, 2 ProxMox) and one SAN Server running NexentaStor (or other ZFS based OS).
At present I'm running quad 1Gbe NICs in each server and use iSCSI with Round-Robin MPIO to achieve greater than 1Gbe network speed. I like the simplicity of NFS but using ISCSI allows me additional performance boost via VAAI extensions.
I know that there are quite a few options. The only one I'm pretty familiar with is copper ethernet.
Based on some quick research, I could go to 10Gbe using 5x 10Gbe Nics (EXPX9501AT or XR997) for about $210 a pop average and XS708E switch for about $900. That would give me 10Gbe for just under $2K. Could also go with cheaper NiC like the RK375 for $150/ea though I don't know how good those cards are.
What other options are there within that budget? Fiber? IB? I don't have any experience in either and do not know the compatibility with ESXi or Nexenta/OmniOS.
Thoughts?