talksr Posted May 23, 2018 Posted May 23, 2018 Hi, I have just purchased a new HP ML350 Gen 10 to run vSphere 6 Essentials. It comes with 4 x HP 2tb 7.2k SAS drives. Can anyone best advise me on the most suitable RAID config for this system? I have never installed vSphere onto a server, so this is all completely new to me. Presumably, one of the drives is going to need the vSphere OS on it, or would it be worth me purchasing another drive to put the OS on? There are two internal USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports on the motherboard, so I may be able to run the OS from a USB key? Not too sure? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
synaesthesia Posted May 23, 2018 Posted May 23, 2018 I would suggest buying a reliable USB drive for Vsphere and using raid6 on those drives for the datastore. 1
talksr Posted May 23, 2018 Author Posted May 23, 2018 I would suggest buying a reliable USB drive for Vsphere and using raid6 on those drives for the datastore. Thanks very much. What would you say is reliable? I have a large selection of 16gb SanDisk ones, otherwise Kingston ones but I think they are 8gb.
synaesthesia Posted May 23, 2018 Posted May 23, 2018 8GB is more than enough, it barely uses a gig but give a bit of space for logs etc. I'd go for a Kingston personally. That's pretty much exactly what those internal ports are for (there are some internal backup drives that use them too), some servers have SDcard slots for the same reason. 1
talksr Posted May 23, 2018 Author Posted May 23, 2018 8GB is more than enough, it barely uses a gig but give a bit of space for logs etc. I'd go for a Kingston personally. That's pretty much exactly what those internal ports are for (there are some internal backup drives that use them too), some servers have SDcard slots for the same reason. Thanks, that's really helpful. Ok, I will crack on and put one in. Such a pain you can't raid the USB drives, just in case the flash ever fails!
synaesthesia Posted May 23, 2018 Posted May 23, 2018 If worried, just clone the drive before going live. Once it's up and running it's all in RAM so reliability is hardly an issue and the only thing written back to the drive is logs. Even if you needed to install from scratch it's a 10 minute job 1
talksr Posted May 23, 2018 Author Posted May 23, 2018 If worried, just clone the drive before going live. Once it's up and running it's all in RAM so reliability is hardly an issue and the only thing written back to the drive is logs. Even if you needed to install from scratch it's a 10 minute job Ok, thanks that is very good to know. The drive is a USB 2.0. I am just going to have a look and see if I happen to have a 3.0 as might as well make the most of it if I have.
talksr Posted May 23, 2018 Author Posted May 23, 2018 These are my two options... The 16GB is larger, but does do USB 3.0. Not sure if that would make much difference if it just loads to RAM as you mention?
sarge Posted May 23, 2018 Posted May 23, 2018 It take it your actually installing esxi on the usb . vsphere is essentially management of esxi hosts 1
synaesthesia Posted May 23, 2018 Posted May 23, 2018 The speed will have no effect on anything, once loaded nothing will be using it other than logs. Again personally I'd go for the silver drive as I've got 6 of those white USB3 models and 2 have died. 1
talksr Posted May 23, 2018 Author Posted May 23, 2018 It take it your actually installing esxi on the usb . vsphere is essentially management of esxi hosts Yes, though I am still waiting to hear back from VMware. I have paid for vSphere 6 Essentials Kit but still waiting for it to show in my downloads part of the site. Have been waiting for over a week now. Do you think it will be an issue installing esxi onto the USB?
sarge Posted May 23, 2018 Posted May 23, 2018 It should work fine from the usb . On the hosts we just use 2 mirrored drives per host. 1
sarge Posted May 23, 2018 Posted May 23, 2018 you might want to read this. https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2004784 1
talksr Posted May 23, 2018 Author Posted May 23, 2018 It should work fine from the usb . On the hosts we just use 2 mirrored drives per host. you might want to read this. https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2004784 Thanks. Very helpful. Do you use two mirrored USB drives or two mirrored standard hard drives?
Norphy Posted May 23, 2018 Posted May 23, 2018 I would suggest buying a reliable USB drive for Vsphere and using raid6 on those drives for the datastore. If it's just four disks, I would use RAID 10 rather than RAID 6. You get the same amount of space and the ability to lose two disks but there is no write performance loss due to parity calculations. 2
keithu Posted May 23, 2018 Posted May 23, 2018 I would go with RAID 10 on your four 2TB drives rather than RAID 6. You'll get the same capacity with much better performance. Although it could be argued that RAID 6 is 'better' because you can lose 2 drives and still rebuild the array, the actual rebuild process would be painfully slow and performance will go down the toilet. Plus you would be hoping and praying that your remaining two drives aren't from the same bad batch and have no errors. With RAID 10 the rebuild process is a simple copy which will complete relatively quickly without affecting performance unduly. 1
sarge Posted May 23, 2018 Posted May 23, 2018 standand hard drives. for your config just use a big usb stick and go with raid 10 as the datastore. not sure if you even need the vsphere program for 1 host. The kit will allow upto 3 esxi hosts. 1
mikkydoos Posted May 23, 2018 Posted May 23, 2018 @talksr I've been running Esxi for a number of years. The core components for VMware are: Esxi - the actual hypervisor (Modded Suse Linux I think) VCenter Server - The management software than provides a GUI environment for Esxi. This can be installed onto a Windows VM (Flash) or is also provided as a Virtual Appliance (a pre configured VM - Flash & HTML5). Have a close look at your motherboard in your ML350. You may have an SD card slot, which is a better option than a pen drive, on which to install Esxi onto. There is no reason why you shouldn't install Esxi directly onto your hard disks either. I would recommend that you use 4 disks in a RAID 10 configuration. This will give you the most space and redundancy. I'd also recommend buying another disk to use as a hot spare. One of the most important things to know about Esxi is that server manufacturers provide their own Esxi disk images on the VMWare site. You will find a custom HP image on there that has all the drivers and optimisations pre configured... This will save you a lot of agonising pain!! 2
3s-gtech Posted May 23, 2018 Posted May 23, 2018 Agreed with the above advice. RAID 10 for speed and resilience. A good, reliable USB stick for the hypervisor. As this server has internal USB 3.0 you may as well use it (it does have a micro-SD slot too) - should boot a bit quicker. A backup of the stick once built is a good plan - you can get it running again in minutes if it ever fails (I've had one go in my FreeNAS server and it took so much effort to set up that I just ditched the whole thing). 1
sarge Posted May 23, 2018 Posted May 23, 2018 VMware will tell in no uncertain terms its not Linux based. 1
mikkydoos Posted May 23, 2018 Posted May 23, 2018 VMware will tell in no uncertain terms its not Linux based. That's because they are in legal wranglings with the Open Software Foundation. 1
talksr Posted May 23, 2018 Author Posted May 23, 2018 @talksr I've been running Esxi for a number of years. The core components for VMware are: Esxi - the actual hypervisor (Modded Suse Linux I think) VCenter Server - The management software than provides a GUI environment for Esxi. This can be installed onto a Windows VM (Flash) or is also provided as a Virtual Appliance (a pre configured VM - Flash & HTML5). Have a close look at your motherboard in your ML350. You may have an SD card slot, which is a better option than a pen drive, on which to install Esxi onto. There is no reason why you shouldn't install Esxi directly onto your hard disks either. I would recommend that you use 4 disks in a RAID 10 configuration. This will give you the most space and redundancy. I'd also recommend buying another disk to use as a hot spare. One of the most important things to know about Esxi is that server manufacturers provide their own Esxi disk images on the VMWare site. You will find a custom HP image on there that has all the drivers and optimisations pre configured... This will save you a lot of agonising pain!! Thanks everyone for your help. RAID 10 it is then. I have asked VMware if they can point me in the right direction re the correct HP image - thanks for that, I was not aware there were specific ones. Agreed with the above advice. RAID 10 for speed and resilience. A good, reliable USB stick for the hypervisor. As this server has internal USB 3.0 you may as well use it (it does have a micro-SD slot too) - should boot a bit quicker. A backup of the stick once built is a good plan - you can get it running again in minutes if it ever fails (I've had one go in my FreeNAS server and it took so much effort to set up that I just ditched the whole thing). Thanks, you're right. There is a micro-SD slot. Just found it now. What sort of micro-sd card would you recommend going for? I don't think I have any spare, so can order one from Amazon.
mikkydoos Posted May 23, 2018 Posted May 23, 2018 (edited) Thanks, you're right. There is a micro-SD slot. Just found it now. What sort of micro-sd card would you recommend going for? I don't think I have any spare, so can order one from Amazon. Get a reasonably quick one (x2)... maybe like the type you would use with an SLR camera. TBH it doesnt really matter. Once Esxi is loaded it sits in RAM pretty much anyway. The only thing that will be affected is Esxi updates and boot time. Incidentally... how much RAM have you got in that server? EDIT: Oh p.s... When you get that image installed, post back on here. I've (we've) got some tips that will save you a lot of time and effort. VMWares documentation is pretty cr@p and phone support takes days if you don't pay for premium support. Edited May 23, 2018 by mikkydoos 1
talksr Posted May 23, 2018 Author Posted May 23, 2018 Get a reasonably quick one (x2)... maybe like the type you would use with an SLR camera. TBH it doesnt really matter. Once Esxi is loaded it sits in RAM pretty much anyway. The only thing that will be affected is Esxi updates and boot time. Incidentally... how much RAM have you got in that server? EDIT: Oh p.s... When you get that image installed, post back on here. I've (we've) got some tips that will save you a lot of time and effort. VMWares documentation is pretty cr@p and phone support takes days if you don't pay for premium support. Thanks, that is really helpful. I have ordered two of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Extreme-microSDHC-Memory-Adapter/dp/B06XYHN68L/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1527079902&sr=8-3&keywords=SanDisk+Extreme+PRO+microSDXC+Memory They should be here by tomorrow. I have got 48gb of RAM which should be more than enough for 3 potential hosts. ... Just saw your edit. Thanks very much, I will let you know, that would be really helpful.
mikkydoos Posted May 23, 2018 Posted May 23, 2018 Thanks, that is really helpful. I have ordered two of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Extreme-microSDHC-Memory-Adapter/dp/B06XYHN68L/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1527079902&sr=8-3&keywords=SanDisk+Extreme+PRO+microSDXC+Memory They should be here by tomorrow. I have got 48gb of RAM which should be more than enough for 3 potential hosts. ... Just saw your edit. Thanks very much, I will let you know, that would be really helpful. Those cards will do nicely. 48Gb for 3 hosts ?... or do you mean 3 VM's? 1
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