PCI(e) SSD Supported by XenServer

[oxide54]

Anyone using PCI(e) SSD cards with xenserver?

 

looking at a VDI project and looks like xenserver with intellicache is the way forward for hypervising. (we are using xendesktop for brokering with MCS)

 

this way we can utilize the existing SAN without killing it IO wise and use the benefits of shared storage (less time to update master image), but gain the benefits of local SSD, "just" a case of finding a PCI(e) card for each server

 

recommendations, pitfalls, whatever comments welcome?

[jamesfed]

Not XenServer but Hyper-V but at least it gives you an idea of what can be done-

Series: Virtual Desktops on PCI-E SSD « my world of IT

 

Other than that you could look at one of the uberly expensive SSD based SANs that are going around these days.

[oxide54]

has to be xen for the intellicache feature, means we can avoid buying another san / adding to existing san.

 

looking at these at the moment

 

Intel 800 GB Internal SSD PCI Express 2.0 x8 OEM SSD 910 Series

[glennda]

Any Particular reason Xen over VMware for VDI?

 

You might struggle as pci ones like the OCZ revodrive are actually two ssd's on a controller with a mini-raid but you need drivers for it to be seen as I struggled with one for an Open-E san i built.

Edited November 11, 2012 by glennda

[oxide54]

read the post --> Intellicache

[Arthur]

looking at these at the moment: Intel 800 GB Internal SSD PCI Express 2.0 x8 OEM SSD 910 Series

Does it have to be a PCIe SSD? Intel's new DC S3700 SSD looks perfect for what you want to do.

 

The S3700 is an extremely exciting SSD. For its intended market, the S3700 continues Intel's push to reduce the cost of enterprise storage. The days of spending thousands of dollars on a relatively small amount of NAND for use in a server are over. Intel is guaranteeing 1 - 14PB of write endurance on the S3700, which should be more than enough for the vast majority of workloads (even overkill for many). Performance and IO consistency are both very good, at least when dealing with 4KB random writes. With the exception of smaller-than-4KB, unaligned IO performance the S3700 is among the fastest enterprise SATA SSDs we've tested. It's a clear improvement over all of Intel's previous drives.

 

Intel is also promising performance consistency with its S3700. At steady state Intel claims the S3700 won't vary its IOPS by more than 10 - 15% for the life of the drive. Most capacities won't see more than a 10% variance in IO latency (or performance) at steady state. Intel has never offered this sort of a guarantee before because its drives would vary quite a bit in terms of IO latency.

 

Intel also claims to be able to service 99.9% of all 4KB random IOs (QD1) in less than 500µs

[oxide54]

thats true. but i was intending to use DL380 G8's.

 

and that drive is sata, i can't see it interfacing nicely with the p410 or the drive cage, i could look at other servers but i like them, i know where i am with them and i know their support is good.

 

the Intel PCIe will just slot in the PCIe slot and is in budget, the question really is whether it works with XEN. ( CItrix one )

 

the intel PCIe is also supposed to support loads of writes daily.

[oxide54]

Any Particular reason Xen over VMware for VDI?

 

You might struggle as pci ones like the OCZ revodrive are actually two ssd's on a controller with a mini-raid but you need drivers for it to be seen as I struggled with one for an Open-E san i built.

 

OCZ in a server? seriously?

[glennda]

read the post --> Intellicache

 

From what I just read (didn't look into details) you should be able to do that with VMware view for the persistent disks and temporary disks as you can host these in separate datastores to the rest of the devices. Just means if you are still using ESXI you can have it all intergrated into the same system rather then having seperate.

 

With regards to @Arthurs post I've recently fitted a 2.5" ssd into a 3.5" drive slot on a DL180. But adding the drive into the 3.5" converter that came with it then into a drive caddy.

[glennda]

OCZ in a server? seriously?

 

Its a testing device!

[Arthur]

the question really is whether it works with XEN (Citrix one)

Does Xen support the LSI SAS2008 controller because this is what the SSD 910 uses for its PCIe-to-SAS bridge chip.

 

the intel PCIe is also supposed to support loads of writes daily.

That true, but would the 4 x 200GB volumes be an issue?

[oxide54]

Does Xen support the LSI SAS2008 controller because this is what the SSD 910 uses for its PCIe-to-SAS bridge chip.

 

 

That true, but would the 4 x 200GB volumes be an issue?

maybe hence the post!

 

i would have thought it would be okay, given its writing blocks of cache rather than hosting whole VMDK's or (whatever the Hyper-V/XenServer format is called)

 

it reformats the whole partition as ext3 or ext4 i would have though it could use more than one partition/drive?

 

@ 2.5k i'm not going to just order one to find out!

Edited November 11, 2012 by oxide54

[oxide54]

From what I just read (didn't look into details) you should be able to do that with VMware view for the persistent disks and temporary disks as you can host these in separate datastores to the rest of the devices. Just means if you are still using ESXI you can have it all intergrated into the same system rather then having seperate.

 

With regards to @Arthurs post I've recently fitted a 2.5" ssd into a 3.5" drive slot on a DL180. But adding the drive into the 3.5" converter that came with it then into a drive caddy.

 

anyway. im using xendesktop, not vmware view. and i can do exactly what i want to do with xen, i am asking whether xen supports a specific SSD .

[oxide54]

With regards to @Arthurs post I've recently fitted a 2.5" ssd into a 3.5" drive slot on a DL180. But adding the drive into the 3.5" converter that came with it then into a drive caddy.

 

what controller did you hook it up to ? the onboard sata or the p410i or p212 or whatevers in it?

[glennda]

what controller did you hook it up to ? the onboard sata or the p410i or p212 or whatevers in it?

 

Yes through the backplane already in place in the server.

 

I didn't use it in a raid combo tho. It was a P410 1Gb FBWC controller.

Edited November 11, 2012 by glennda