The main benefit from using a VMDK would be snapshots, I imagine. We did a similar thing and I ultimately decided to mount the storage as a raw LUN. I chose that direction because I felt it was the most flexible thing to do, and I was concerned about the extra overhead the VMDK added in dealing with millions of files.
________________________________ From: Jonathan Link [mailto:jonathan.l...@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2010 11:39 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Virtualization of file server - storage recommendations. So, does your current backup plan handle 2TB files well, or however large you plan to create the vmdk files? I'll admit, I'm unfamiliar with this notion of using a VMDK/vmfs on a SAN for what is ultimately file storage. My gut is telling me that it is just adding needless complexity for little (if any?) benefit. I actually never considered doing something like this. On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 11:15 AM, Ian Roche <iro...@curamsoftware.com> wrote: "I've seen comments and have been advised by a couple of vendors that vmware don't support MPIO from within the guest, so if you want to do MPIO to the LUNs you might be faced with using VMDK or RDM. " I havent heard this one before we are using the "Dell Equallogic MPIO" connecting to PS6000 arrays via the guest not sure why we would really need suppor from vmware on this side of things. Regarding the files living in a vmdk the system will be fully protected and backed up using veeam if we do go down this route. ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
