Thanks, I saw that, and just got the slide deck today.  Like you and others 
have pointed out, there's definitely pros and cons for either choice.

From: N Parr [mailto:npar...@mortonind.com]
Sent: Monday, April 04, 2011 12:25 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: MS iSCSI initiators in VM guests

Something else you made me remember.  If you plan to do MPIO at the Host level 
then your VMFS disks will be able to take advantage of that.  EQ just had a 
good webex about MPIO at the host level vs. guest level a couple weeks ago, 
below is the recording.

https://dellenterprise.webex.com/ec0605l/eventcenter/recording/recordAction.do?theAction=poprecord&actname=%2Feventcenter%2Fframe%2Fg.do&apiname=lsr.php&renewticket=0&renewticket=0&actappname=ec0605l&entappname=url0107l&needFilter=false&&isurlact=true&entactname=%2FnbrRecordingURL.do&rID=42187702&rKey=bed3095e1947d127&recordID=42187702&rnd=1623196772&siteurl=dellenterprise&SP=EC&AT=pb&format=short

________________________________
From: Damien Solodow [mailto:damien.solo...@harrison.edu]
Sent: Monday, April 04, 2011 12:07 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: MS iSCSI initiators in VM guests
File Servers are a bit questionable, but for SQL/Exchange it depends on if you 
want to use the features of the ASMME for it.
If you plan to present any VMFS from the ESX hosts though, definitely install 
the ESX DSM.
If you do VMFS for SQL/Exchange, make sure the virtual SCSI adaptor is the 
paravirtualized one as it can make a big difference on boxes with heavy IO 
requirements.

DAMIEN SOLODOW
Systems Engineer
317.447.6033 (office)
317.217.6851 (fax)
HARRISON COLLEGE

From: Kim Longenbaugh [mailto:k...@colonialsavings.com]
Sent: Monday, April 04, 2011 1:04 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: MS iSCSI initiators in VM guests

There will be some of each type that you mentioned.  File services, SQL 
2005/2008, Exchange 2010.  I agree that there's some advantages to be gained 
using the EQL HIT kits, both in the guest and the ESX servers.

From: N Parr [mailto:npar...@mortonind.com]
Sent: Monday, April 04, 2011 11:34 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: MS iSCSI initiators in VM guests

We use option two here, there are a lot of very good EQ/Dell best practice 
white papers dealing with this exact topic.  You didn't say what's going to be 
running on your servers.  File, SQL, Exchange, etc.  But if you don't do iSCSI 
inside the guest you lose all capability to make use of the integrated EQ tools 
for snapping DB's etc.  The folks that say to use VMFS partitions for 
everything are probably using SAN's that don't have the capabilities your EQ's 
do.  We have multiple SQL servers with multiple vNics using EQ's iSCSI MPIO 
overlay inside the guest and it works great.  Doing the same thing with my 
virtualized file server and soon Exchange 2010.

________________________________
From: Kim Longenbaugh [mailto:k...@colonialsavings.com]
Sent: Monday, April 04, 2011 10:46 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: MS iSCSI initiators in VM guests
I considered using an "OT" tag, but decided this is not OT for the list.

We're having an often heated debate on how to attach data drives in 
Win2003/Win2008 guests in our new VM 4.1 environment.

We use Dell Equallogic iSCSI attached SAN arrays.

Some folks say it's best to attach all the drives, whether it's an OS volume 
(C:\) or data drives, through the Vmware ESX iSCSI initiators, which would 
force us to use VMFS partitions (having decided again RDMs or NFS partitions).

There's also a group that says that only the c:\ drive should be attached using 
the Vmware ESX iSCSI initiators, and the guests should be attached with 
guest-based initiators, either the MS one, or the Equallogic-furnished 
initiator with its own specific DSM.

Who uses which method, and what's your pros and cons for each?

Thanks
Kim

~ 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<mailto: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<mailto: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<mailto: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<mailto: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<mailto: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

Reply via email to