No argument here. But on a server with only 3 drives, the available options are few. I pointed them out and made my suggestion, which is mirror sets in a jbod box. Now, if we can start budgeting for SANs, let's talk about options. :-)
The DL 360 from the OP doesn't allow for a significant addition of disks without adding a disk box or SAN... Not exactly "enterprisable". So my recommendation was based on a smaller implementation. I would never have built a multiple VM server on the OP hardware, so my assumption is that a beefy server is not available. You'd be amazed what I've seen some of the smaller companies do with an SBS box and DAS. You wouldn't be amazed when they fell over, too. LOL... You are absolutely right on the fault tolerance part. Again, you have to pick your tradeoff. If it's a test lab environment and you keep snapshots stored off disk, you can get away without the fault tolerance. But in a prod environment, as I mentioned, I wouldn't use the OP hardware for that task. DAS box with mirror sets. I've gotten better performance out of single-VM USB spindle setups than multiple-VM raid 5 arrays. *********************** Charlie Kaiser charl...@golden-eagle.org Kingman, AZ *********************** > -----Original Message----- > From: Joseph L. Casale [mailto:jcas...@activenetwerx.com] > Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 1:12 PM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: RE: Performance problem on VMwareServer2 - gah > > Without being inflammatory, the suggestion of USB drives > isn't very enterprisable and likely the reason for shoddy > performance :) > > JBOD and one vm per disc provides not fault tolerance. In the > words of an old list member, ASB I think, "Fast, cheap, > reliable. Pick two" > > High-end raid cards and appropriate raid level/disc configs > will yield good results. > > jlc > > -----Original Message----- > From: Charlie Kaiser [mailto:charl...@golden-eagle.org] > Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 1:10 PM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: RE: Performance problem on VMwareServer2 - gah > > You've got an inadequate disk subsystem for what you're trying to do. > Choices... > 1. Launch fewer VMs at one time. > 2. Add JBOD storage and run one VM per spindle. > 3. Add USB drives and run the VMs off of that. Not ideal, but > workable. > > A Raid5 array, as Joseph pointed out, with its parity > overhead, is going to be unworkable long term. BTDT. My best > solution in the past has been a bunch of disks, ideally > mirror sets for reliability if you can swing it, with one VM > per array. > > *********************** > Charlie Kaiser > charl...@golden-eagle.org > Kingman, AZ > *********************** > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: jesse-r...@wi.rr.com [mailto:jesse-r...@wi.rr.com] > > Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 11:24 AM > > To: NT System Admin Issues > > Subject: RE: Performance problem on VMwareServer2 - gah > > > > Single Array, RAID5, made up of 3 physical disks (thats all > we have). > > > > Original Message: > > ----------------- > > From: Charlie Kaiser charl...@golden-eagle.org > > Date: Fri, 22 May 2009 11:08:22 -0700 > > To: ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com > > Subject: RE: Performance problem on VMwareServer2 - gah > > > > > > How are the physical drives configured? We usually put no more than > > one VM on a spindle. The conflicts between two VMs on one spindle > > produce unacceptable bottlenecks in my experience. > > > > *********************** > > Charlie Kaiser > > charl...@golden-eagle.org > > Kingman, AZ > > *********************** > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: jesse-r...@wi.rr.com [mailto:jesse-r...@wi.rr.com] > > > Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 10:49 AM > > > To: NT System Admin Issues > > > Subject: Performance problem on VMwareServer2 - gah > > > > > > Thought I'd ask our resident gurus... > > > > > > I have a brand new HP DL360 server. 8GB memory, 2 quads, 3 > > SAS drives > > > with a P400i/512 controller w/BBWC. > > > > > > I am running Windows 2003 R2 Enterpise on the host > machine. I also > > > created > > > (4) VMs (each 75GB in size, preallocated) each with a > > Single vCPU, and > > > 2GB of memory, running Windows 2003 R2 Enterprise. > > > NOTE -- These VMs have NOTHING on them except the O/S. No > > > applications, no nothing. > > > > > > I have serious performance problems as it relates to the > > VMs becoming > > > unusable for a periond of 15 minutes or so every now and > > then.... I am > > > noticing, on the HOST, that the logical disk - % write time > > > performance counter just shoots up 100% for as much as > > 10-15 minutes > > > (see attachment > > > diskusage1.jpg) and then slowly comes down back to near zero (see > > > attachment diskusage2.jpg). The graphs show a total time > > duration of > > > 16 minutes - FYI... > > > > > > During this high spike of Disk Write % on the host, the VMs > > themselves > > > are doing NOTHING. Again, they are PLAIN OS installed > with nothing > > > installed. > > > Performance monitoring on those VMs shows barely ANY > > activiate at all, > > > while the host shows 100% disk write %. So it's definitely > > the host, > > > it seems, causing the poor performance. Also, notice in > Attachment > > > diskusage2.jpg the slow decline of Disk Write %... This > > ALWAYS happens > > > after a period of 100% disk write % usage.... it trails > off slowly > > > like that over a 10-15 minute period before it come down to zero > > > again. > > > > > > Any idea what is causing this? I'm thinking about giving up > > and going > > > to ESXi. ?? > > > > > > picture1 - > > > http://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/126 > > > 0005-23055/dis > > > kusage1.jpg?tstart=0 > > > > > > picture2- > > > http://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/126 > > > 0005-23054/dis > > > kusage2.jpg?tstart=0 > > > > > > Thanks all! > > > > > > Remember the true meaning of Memorial Day! > > > JR > > > > > > > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > mail2web.com - Enhanced email for the mobile individual based on > > > MicrosoftR Exchange - > > http://link.mail2web.com/Personal/EnhancedEmail > > > > > > > > > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a > resource hog! ~ ~ > > > <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource > hog! ~ ~ > > <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > > mail2web.com - MicrosoftR Exchange solutions from a leading > provider - > > http://link.mail2web.com/Business/Exchange > > > > > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource > hog! ~ ~ > > <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource > hog! ~ ~ > <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource > hog! ~ ~ > <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
