Mindflux Posted November 17, 2009 Posted November 17, 2009 I would not use iSCSI for the VMs, you will get much better performance over NFS. How many VM servers and how many uses is the next question. Back up cards available are * Dual Channel 4Gb FC HBA * Dual Channel Ultra320 SCSI HBA You would need something NDMP v3/v4 capable to do the backups Right now it's just 1 VM server (2 guests inside it). How is NFS faster than iSCSI? Is that something unique to the 7xxx series from Sun? I'll check on NDMP capabilities on the Quantum Superloaders.
linescanner Posted November 17, 2009 Posted November 17, 2009 Right now it's just 1 VM server (2 guests inside it). How is NFS faster than iSCSI? Is that something unique to the 7xxx series from Sun? I'll check on NDMP capabilities on the Quantum Superloaders. Trust me NFS performance using VMware is faster than iSCSI on the 7000 series. iSCSI is getting faster now it has gone to COMSTAR but NFS is still faster. 1
Mindflux Posted November 17, 2009 Posted November 17, 2009 Trust me NFS performance using VMware is faster than iSCSI on the 7000 series. iSCSI is getting faster now it has gone to COMSTAR but NFS is still faster. Alright cool. So, what I'm trying to do (above) should be reasonably feasible? Am I checking for NDMP compatibility with the backup software or the superloader itself? I think Quantum uses Backup Exec Quickstart?
linescanner Posted November 17, 2009 Posted November 17, 2009 Alright cool. So, what I'm trying to do (above) should be reasonably feasible? Am I checking for NDMP compatibility with the backup software or the superloader itself? I think Quantum uses Backup Exec Quickstart? The VM stuff yeah. Just need to make sure that you are not going to stress the disks on the 7110. If the combination of VMS and CIFS shares is high IO intensive then you need to be careful. We have quite a few 7110 in the wild and they handle quite a bit
Mindflux Posted November 17, 2009 Posted November 17, 2009 The VM stuff yeah. Just need to make sure that you are not going to stress the disks on the 7110. If the combination of VMS and CIFS shares is high IO intensive then you need to be careful. We have quite a few 7110 in the wild and they handle quite a bit What happens under high IO? We're a small shop (30 employees). I doubt we'd tax the thing that hard. Thanks for your lightning fast help.
Duke Posted November 18, 2009 Posted November 18, 2009 What happens under high IO? We're a small shop (30 employees). I doubt we'd tax the thing that hard. In theory your performance will drop off if you absolutely hammer the device with IO, and your VMs and CIFS shares will suffer accordingly. As Andy said, there's a lot of 7110's out there now and a lot of people using them with more than 30 users. NFS is definitely better than iSCSI currently, but in many ways it's actually a better protocol as well as having better performance. You'll get thin provisioning by default with NFS, plus the 7110 will give you better analytics as it's a file-level protocol rather than block-level. Lots of long time iSCSI users are now moving to NFS for VMware, it's not just a Sun thing. What are your VMs doing, and what kind of data will the CIFS share have on it? I've got a 7410 (granted, quite a bit more powerful than the 7410) with 800 users and a few VMs, growing to 20-30 VMs next summer, and I don't foresee any problems. Chris
cookie_monster Posted November 18, 2009 Posted November 18, 2009 (edited) We currrently have 8 VM's two of which are file servers that hold all of our user folders for 1500 users. This is all provided via iSCSI from a 7110 and it has no problems with performance. We might look at NFS at one point I was just more comfortable with iSCSI at the time. Remember to get your networking setup to secure your NFS shares as it has no default security. VLAN and seperate IP network. http://tldp.org/HOWTO/NFS-HOWTO/security.html Edited November 18, 2009 by cookie_monster
Mindflux Posted November 18, 2009 Posted November 18, 2009 What are your VMs doing, and what kind of data will the CIFS share have on it? I've got a 7410 (granted, quite a bit more powerful than the 7410) with 800 users and a few VMs, growing to 20-30 VMs next summer, and I don't foresee any problems. Chris CIFS shares are just word/excel. My SBS 2008 VM does Exchange (for those same 30 users) and currently has my CIFS shares on it. It also does Sharepoint and WSUS. The second VM is Server 2008 with our SQL Business database on it. This is the VM I probably care more about, and the only role this VM has is to serve up our data.
linescanner Posted November 18, 2009 Posted November 18, 2009 CIFS shares are just word/excel. My SBS 2008 VM does Exchange (for those same 30 users) and currently has my CIFS shares on it. It also does Sharepoint and WSUS. The second VM is Server 2008 with our SQL Business database on it. This is the VM I probably care more about, and the only role this VM has is to serve up our data. 7110 should be more than enough for you guys
Mindflux Posted November 18, 2009 Posted November 18, 2009 7110 should be more than enough for you guys It also provides some other network shares I forgot to mention, but it's still of no consequence I don't think. Now to find a reputable reseller
teejay Posted November 18, 2009 Posted November 18, 2009 For shares, its much better to use CIFS directly on the box rather than running the file share through VM's. We have all our shares, user docs/profiles, media reosurces on a 7310 for 1500 pupils and 140 staff. Doesn't break into a sweat and has some much nicer features than Windows shares (very reliable shdow copy for a start - we now have over 200 days shadow copies, 1-3 times a day on all our shares). Performance is far superior to WIndows server shares, what was taking 8 Windows file servers to do is now being done by the 7310 with far better performance. We also have 2 x 7110 which are being used for VM's. We have 15 VM's running on one of the 7110's without a problem and speedwise it's excellent. The second one is about to be used for our Windows Server 2k8 R2 VM network. We use NFS on a private network, work fantastically well.
Mindflux Posted November 18, 2009 Posted November 18, 2009 What does the OS run off on the 7110? Flash? A disk in the array? The specs show 14x146 or 14x300, but there's 16 drive bays. I guess two of those are for the mirrored OS?
Butuz Posted November 18, 2009 Posted November 18, 2009 What does the OS run off on the 7110? Flash? A disk in the array? The specs show 14x146 or 14x300, but there's 16 drive bays. I guess two of those are for the mirrored OS? Yes you are exactly right - 2 of the 16 disks are for the O/S/Firmware and the other 14 are for the actual data. Butuz 1
Mindflux Posted November 18, 2009 Posted November 18, 2009 Hey guys, I'm trying to run the simulator in VirtualBox. I've got the network up and I'm trying to set up Active Directory. When I enter my domain and admin credentials it tells me: "The attempt to join the Active Directory domain failed either because the clocks of the appliance and the domain controller are skewed or the administrative user does not have the appropriate permissions to create a computer account in Active Directory." The time is within seconds of the DC (they both sync off ntp.gov) and the admin permissions I'm using work on everything else I've ever used to join to the domain (including a linux based NAS). Any suggestions?
apaton Posted November 18, 2009 Posted November 18, 2009 Patch it to the latest level, Q2.5.1 Software Updates - Fishworks - wikis.sun.com. Then try reducing the LAN Manager compatibility level under the CIFS service. Andy
Mindflux Posted November 19, 2009 Posted November 19, 2009 (edited) Patch it to the latest level, Q2.5.1 Software Updates - Fishworks - wikis.sun.com. Then try reducing the LAN Manager compatibility level under the CIFS service. Andy I dropped LMCL to 2. According to the system I am up to date.(I think?) Can you even patch a simulator? Edited November 19, 2009 by Mindflux
apaton Posted November 19, 2009 Posted November 19, 2009 I dropped LMCL to 2. According to the system I am up to date.(I think?) Can you even patch a simulator? Yes you can patch the simulator, but I've had problems with the Q3 patch on VirtualBox. So stick with Q2.5.1 Andy
cookie_monster Posted November 19, 2009 Posted November 19, 2009 Can you run the simulator on Xenserver?
Mindflux Posted November 19, 2009 Posted November 19, 2009 Yes you can patch the simulator, but I've had problems with the Q3 patch on VirtualBox. So stick with Q2.5.1 Andy Ok, I've got it patched but I'm having the same problems.
Duke Posted November 19, 2009 Posted November 19, 2009 Ok, I've got it patched but I'm having the same problems. I'm just throwing ideas around here, but... are the time zones both set to the same on the SAN and DC (it'll be using UTC most likely so this shouldn't make any difference), maybe set up the DC as an NTP server and get the SAN to sync straight to it, try using a different account (most people would use the domain admin account I guess) to connect with. Chris
Mindflux Posted November 19, 2009 Posted November 19, 2009 I'm just throwing ideas around here, but... are the time zones both set to the same on the SAN and DC (it'll be using UTC most likely so this shouldn't make any difference), maybe set up the DC as an NTP server and get the SAN to sync straight to it, try using a different account (most people would use the domain admin account I guess) to connect with. Chris I'll double check the timezones, but I'm pretty sure that's good. I've also tried 3 different 'admin' level accounts, no love. I can join Linux machines to the domain, just not Solaris thus far.
Duke Posted November 27, 2009 Posted November 27, 2009 Missed this one! Sun 7000 Roadmap Four new Sun Open Storage models revealed Roadmap Image Sun may be preoccupied with its pending Oracle acquisition, but its open storage development engineers seem to be working full pelt to strengthen its offering as fast as they can. Big new shiny boxes with flash things in them and SAS2, yaaaay! Chris
Soulfish Posted November 27, 2009 Posted November 27, 2009 Missed this one! Sun 7000 Roadmap Four new Sun Open Storage models revealed Roadmap Image Big new shiny boxes with flash things in them and SAS2, yaaaay! Chris Ohh they look nice and shinnnny . If Sun wants to donate me an Anago or two for testing purposes I'd be more than happy to help out . Not sure what I'd do with all that storage space but I'm sure we could think of something! 1
Hebdenlad Posted November 27, 2009 Posted November 27, 2009 if you knew whayt I know and had an appreciation of how big an Anago can go I'm not sure you'd have enough data to fill one... :-)
Hebdenlad Posted November 27, 2009 Posted November 27, 2009 so with the simulator the easiest thing to do is start with the basic download from Sun.com or off the DVD copy (If you need a DVD then drop me a message with your address and I'll pop one in the post). Once you have configured your simulator and before you create any shares update to the latest 2009.Q3 release. this should "take". Mine did under both VMware and VirtualBox. Personally I find the simulator runs faster under VB than VMWare but that might just be me.... Cheers, Phil
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now