I'm building our VMWare environment on NetApp right now. Just about the time I was getting into the testing and configuration of our ESX servers, I originally planned to use iSCSI on NetApp as the backend but stumbled across a TON of info regarding NFS. I grabbed a temp NFS key from our provider and started provisioning some NFS volumes to mount up on our ESX servers.
http://storagefoo.blogspot.com/2007/09/vmware-over-nfs.html http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/01/14/proving-vmware-over-nfs/ http://blogs.netapp.com/dave/2007/10/is-nfs-a-form-o.html The first link above is pretty telling. It explains a good deal of the "WINS" you'll get by using NFS over iSCSI. Performance was exemplary. I couldn't notice any discernible difference between booting an application server from a NFS volume or iSCSI volume. With ASIS I was able to clone 5 x 20GB windows 2003 servers with just an OS on them and dedup them down from 100GB of used space to about 6GB total across all 5. On iSCSI, it started to cause me some problems with slow boot, LOOOOONG nightly processing of ASIS, stuff like that. All 5 servers operated and behaved normally running from the ASIS-ed volume. Gotchas: 1) iSCSI isn't "supported" with jumbo frames from VMWare unless you're using an iscsi HBA. 2) VMWare recommended I turn off flowcontrol on my switches. 3) I was told not to put the vmkernel for iscsi and nfs on the same vlan/nic. 4) Exchange and SQL still need block level access to the storage. One of the vendors stated that we can mount up an iSCSI volume right to the ESX host and carve storage off that way for Exchange..another said we have to use RDMs to the client VMs for it. I haven't tested yet so the jury is out there. 5) Not necessarily a gotcha but something to keep in mind when deciding: My vendor that sold me my netapp recommends that when provisioning an iSCSI LUN, make the total volume 220% of the total space of the LUNS it holds. So, 100GB LUN needs 220GB of volume space. This is for snapshotting and other overheads. YMMV Good Luck, Jason -----Original Message----- From: Robert Jackson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 7:07 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: NetApp SAN For Virtualisation Just looking for some feedback. Is/has anyone used NetApp as their backend in a VMWare solution? We've had someone in this morning talking to us about going down the virtualisation road and their backend SAN solution is NetApp using NFS. I know lots of you (already virtualised people out there) are using an EMC solution with iSCSI (and or possibly FC) but I haven't heard much of NetApp. Pros/Cons? Steer well clear of etc etc would be a good starter for us. TIA. ************************************************************************ The information in this internet E-mail is confidential and is intended solely for the addressee. Access, copying or re-use of information in it by anyone else is unauthorised. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Walker Martyn Ltd or any of its affiliates. If you are not the intended recipient please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] Walker Martyn Ltd, company number SC197533. Company is registered in Scotland and has its registered office at 1 Park Circus Place, Glasgow G3 6AH, UK. **************************************************************** ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The pages accompanying this email transmission contain information from MJMC, Inc., which is confidential and/or privileged. The information is to be for the use of the individual or entity named on this cover sheet. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you received this transmission in error, please immediately notify us by telephone so that we can arrange for the retrieval of the original document. ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
