vSphere Storage - ESXi 5.1 - Documentation - VMware
vSphere Storage - ESXi 5.1 - Documentation - VMware
vSphere Storage - ESXi 5.1 - Documentation - VMware
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<strong>vSphere</strong> <strong>Storage</strong><br />
Use the Predictive Scheme to Make LUN Decisions<br />
When setting up storage for <strong>ESXi</strong> systems, before creating VMFS datastores, you must decide on the size and<br />
number of LUNs to provision. You can experiment using the predictive scheme.<br />
Procedure<br />
1 Provision several LUNs with different storage characteristics.<br />
2 Create a VMFS datastore on each LUN, labeling each datastore according to its characteristics.<br />
3 Create virtual disks to contain the data for virtual machine applications in the VMFS datastores created<br />
on LUNs with the appropriate RAID level for the applications' requirements.<br />
4 Use disk shares to distinguish high-priority from low-priority virtual machines.<br />
NOTE Disk shares are relevant only within a given host. The shares assigned to virtual machines on one<br />
host have no effect on virtual machines on other hosts.<br />
5 Run the applications to determine whether virtual machine performance is acceptable.<br />
Use the Adaptive Scheme to Make LUN Decisions<br />
When setting up storage for <strong>ESXi</strong> hosts, before creating VMFS datastores, you must decide on the number and<br />
size of LUNS to provision. You can experiment using the adaptive scheme.<br />
Procedure<br />
1 Provision a large LUN (RAID 1+0 or RAID 5), with write caching enabled.<br />
2 Create a VMFS on that LUN.<br />
3 Create four or five virtual disks on the VMFS.<br />
4 Run the applications to determine whether disk performance is acceptable.<br />
If performance is acceptable, you can place additional virtual disks on the VMFS. If performance is not<br />
acceptable, create a new, large LUN, possibly with a different RAID level, and repeat the process. Use migration<br />
so that you do not lose virtual machines data when you recreate the LUN.<br />
Choosing Virtual Machine Locations<br />
When you’re working on optimizing performance for your virtual machines, storage location is an important<br />
factor. A trade-off always exists between expensive storage that offers high performance and high availability<br />
and storage with lower cost and lower performance.<br />
<strong>Storage</strong> can be divided into different tiers depending on a number of factors:<br />
n High Tier. Offers high performance and high availability. Might offer built-in snapshots to facilitate<br />
backups and point-in-time (PiT) restorations. Supports replication, full SP redundancy, and SAS drives.<br />
Uses high-cost spindles.<br />
n Mid Tier. Offers mid-range performance, lower availability, some SP redundancy, and SCSI or SAS drives.<br />
May offer snapshots. Uses medium-cost spindles.<br />
n Lower Tier. Offers low performance, little internal storage redundancy. Uses low end SCSI drives or SATA<br />
(serial low-cost spindles).<br />
30 <strong>VMware</strong>, Inc.