Drive Recommendations for esxi hosts

[K D]

I have 3 esxi hosts that I plan to use for deep diving into the vmware space. I want to be able to use both vsan as well as local storage and also utilize the virtual flash resource. All hosts have 4 sata ports and 1 has an m.2 connector. The other 2 have a free pciex4 slot each.

This is the plan for all 3 :

1. 400 GB s3700 vsan cache
2. 256 GB crucial mx300 vsan capacity
3. Random consumer ssd - local storage
4. 200 GB s3500 vmware virtual flash

This is based on what I have at hand. I fully understand the issues that will arise with using the crucial and other consumer ssds and plan to replace the vsan capacity and local storage with s3500/s3700 as I acquire them.

Does this cover the needs for a 3 node cluster with vsan enabled?

 

[Rand__]

Sadly not.
You will need a HBA to use VSAN with hdd/ssds.
Most were lucky with M1015's (flashed to LSI for greater command depth), me personally had issues with those.

Also, consumer SSDs do suck as datastore, expect break down of performance to a crawl on any extended operation (>20 GB transfer or so).

 

[K D]

Yes. I understand about the consumer ssds. But this is going to be just for vmware learning and no real workloads. I plan to replace them eventually and can live with them till then.

The use of a heart might be an issue. The 2 dell servers have 1 pcie x8 that I'm using for 10gbe and that leaves only a pciex4 available.

I do have 2 M1015 and 2 M1215 available that I can use. Will they work in a pciex4 slot? Will I run into any issues because of that?

The third host is a supermicro whitebox and has an LSI3008 onboard.

 

[Rand__]

They should work but slow. ESX will complain bitterly. You might experience random/unexpected crashes (or not who knows)
Give it a shot

 

[K D]

They should work but slow. ESX will complain bitterly. You might experience random/unexpected crashes (or not who knows)
Give it a shot

Will check it out

 

[nk215]

I have 2 ESXi machines running off of consumer SSDs (sandisk and an old Intel). They both work perfectly fine. I only have 4 VMs (Win + vCenter) running on each of those nodes. With one or 2 Win7 VMs for casual use, I can't say that I see any speed differences between a consumer SSD and my IntelS3700 one.

I don't think you'll have any issue. You won't have power lost protection so use a UPS to be on a safe side.

 

[Evan]

Old Intel consumer SSD are not that bad actually
MLC NAND etc, the do ok often.

 

[K D]

Ordered a couple of LSI 9211-4i to use in the dells as HBAs.

 

[nk215]

Ordered a couple of LSI 9211-4i to use in the dells as HBAs.

If possible, get the -8i card. Four ports are really limits your option for future upgrade. PCi slots are premium estate in lesser expensive/smaller MB.

 

[K D]

I have 8i cards in hand. But the 2 are dell 1u boxes with only 4 drive bays.

 

[K D]

I'm currently running the config in the OP but using an LSI hba as recommended by all. In the process of going through some upgrades and have some storage that would be of better use here.

Help me map the items to where they will fit best.

1. DC P3700 400 GB
2. Crucial MX300 256GB m.2
3. Samsung SM961 256GB
4. DC3700 800GB
5. HGST HUSMM 800 GB

This will be 3 identical hosts with mellanox CX3 dual 10GB SFP+ Cards and LSI 9300 HBAs.

I need to map the above parts I have to
1. VSAN Cache
2. Vsan Capacity
3. Flash read cache.

The leftover can be used for a local datastore.

 

[Rand__]

How many of each of the drive's do you have?

 

[K D]

3-4 each

 

[Rand__]

You don't have enough drives to set up an efficient vsan

Oc you don't need identical drives but vsan won't care,that means you might end up with either fast and slow nodes ( splitting 800gb drives in pairs of 2, i.e 2x2 p3700/800 + 2x2 hgst/800) or mixed speed disk groups (1 hgst,1 p3700 each).
The p3700/400 are the ideal cache devices, the rest can be used for local storage or flash cache.

Do you want higher speeds with 4 nodes or better redundancy?you'll need to configure via vsan policy.


I set up my vsan (3nodes) with 6 p3700/400 and 6 750/1.2 in 2 disk groups per each host. Will have to upload the performance differences between one and two disk groups to illustrate. Oc I am looking for peak individual performance and not distributed. But this is not in vsan scope so I had to do distributed overkill to get 'acceptable' individual performance

 

[K D]

I set up my vsan (3nodes) with 6 p3700/400 and 6 750/1.2 in 2 disk groups per each host. Will have to upload the performance differences between one and two disk groups to illustrate. Oc I am looking for peak individual performance and not distributed. But this is not in vsan scope so I had to do distributed overkill to get 'acceptable' individual performance

If I am reading it correctly then If I am not looking for peak performance then starting with one disk group (P3700 and S3700) per node should sufficient. At least to start with. This setup is for me to prep for certification.

On a different note, how are you loading 7 P3700 and 6 750 in one chassis? Are you using a whitebox or a big name brand server?

 

[Rand__]

Yes, 1+1 will be fine for that.
And that's for all 3 nodes, so 4 per

 

[K D]

Thanks. I'll start with that. With the current SSD prices, there is no way I can justify acquiring the SSDs for a second disk group right now. Well.... Maybe....

 

[Rand__]

What HBA are you using btw?
I was planning either NVMe or SAS but never got a proper (supported) HBA ... O/c I acquired a bunch of drives already to use which sit now idle. Not sure they'd be of use to you though.

Edit: Ah the 2308 and M1215's