Sunday, August 4, 2019

zfs - Acquiring new servers to run ESXi and SAN/NAS



Here is our goal:



Setup new servers to turn our entire physical computer network into 3 physical groups, which are:





  • Server 1 - NAS - Openfiler/NexentaStor CE/FreeNAS/(Other Suggestions)







  • Server 2 - ESXi Server with the following VM's:



    • VM1 - AD/DNS/DHCP - Windows SBS 2008

    • VM2 - SQL Server 2008 r2 / Database Tier - Windows Server 2008 R2

    • VM3 - Sharepoint 2010 / Applicaton Server Tier - Windows Server 2008 R2

    • VM4 - IIS / Web Front End Tier - Windows Server 2008 R2

    • VM5 - Windows Multipoint Server 2011 - Supporting 10 Clients / Some with 2D Cad









  • 10 Clients - Atrust M220 WMS Zero Clients



Question:



For servers 1 & 2, I would like to know what configuration ensures maximum performance?



Configuration means:





  • Hot Swap Hard Disk Options


    • iSCSI targets

    • Regular volumes

    • 7500 SAS disks

    • 10/15K SAS disks

    • VM's on iSCSI target on NAS machine

    • VM's on DAS


    • RAID 0/1/5/10

    • No RAID and ZFS file system


  • Memory Configurations


    • 2/4/8/16/32 Gb DDR3 Memory


  • CPU Configuration



    • Xeon / Opteron

    • 2/4/8 Cores

    • 1/2 Physical CPU's


  • OS


    • For NAS server, Openfiler OR NexentaStor CE OR FreeNAS OR some other free option




Answer



It's quite a bit to digest. This is a solution that could work, and I am a proponent of ZFS-based solutions, but I'd initially ask why you wish to have a storage server with only one VM host. Granted, you could expand to multiple hosts over time... But looking at your setup plan, I'd almost recommend a large standalone server with robust local storage. The NAS wouldn't buy you anything with one VM host.



Think something like a current-model HP ProLiant DL380 with 8 or more disks (RAID 1+0, please), running ESXi with plenty of RAM to handle your setups without oversubscribing. Two 6-core CPUs should round it out.


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