SD card for Dell dual sd-card solution - esxi

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Jannis Jacobsen

Active Member
Mar 19, 2016
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I just ordered the dual sd-card module for my esxi lab server.
I have issues with the usb stick I'm using today, it get's disconnected, so vsphere cannot save configuration to disk.

Are there any sd cards that are better suited for this use, as esxi do write to the sd card pretty frequently?
I was looking at the Kingston Canvas React 64GB SDXC, but I have never used this card before, so I cannot say if it will handle the usage

-jannis
 

BlueFox

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Oct 26, 2015
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If you store the logs on a datastore instead of the boot volume, that should help considerably. Pretty much any SD card should do then, especially if you have redundancy. Otherwise, industrial grade cards tend to be much higher endurance. You can get MLC ones fairly cheap (example), but SLC based gets quite pricey and you might as well get a 2.5" SSD at that point.
 
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amalurk

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Dec 16, 2016
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On the cheap, you might try Samsung Pro Endurance line. They are more for sequential video writes but you don't need high perf and the specs for endurance are much better than regular cards and they are still inexpensive. I use them in Pis and Odroids.
 
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Jannis Jacobsen

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Mar 19, 2016
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I found a couple of sd cards that look promising.
Hopefully, the idsdm supports 64gb cards.
(although rebuild time will be significant)

-j
 

Quartermaster

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Jun 3, 2020
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(although rebuild time will be significant)
At least on 14G units, the rebuild will continue as a background task so you can continue booting after confirming the rebuild during POST.

I used 128G Samsung Pro Endurance cards in the vFlash and iDSDM slots, haven't had any issues so far.
 
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vanfawx

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I would recommend getting a SD Card rated for at least A1, which is 1500 random read iops and 500 random write. This will make for a better pairing using this for an operating system.
 

Jannis Jacobsen

Active Member
Mar 19, 2016
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I would recommend getting a SD Card rated for at least A1, which is 1500 random read iops and 500 random write. This will make for a better pairing using this for an operating system.
I got 2 of these

-jannis