Home > IT Answers > Storage > HDDs for VMWare ESXi 3.5
TheITChick
20 pts.
 HDDs for VMWare ESXi 3.5
SATA, Storage management, VMware, VMware ESXi 3.5
I'm about to purchase a new server to run VMWare ESXi 3.5 The specs are: Intel SR2500 Server with RAID SR2500ALLXR 2x Intel Xeon Quad 5420 CPU 12GB DDR2 667 ECC REG RAM 2 extra Intel SR2500 Server with RAID SR2500ALLXR @$ 3,850 +GST 1x Intel Xeon Quad 5420 CPU 12GB DDR2 667 ECC REG RAM 2 extra Intel PCIx Dual Port Gigabit NIC I don't think I'll have more than 6 VM's on this box, so I guess my questions are: 1. Are the specs good enough to run this Many VM's? 2. Is SATA HDD's OK - or should I definitely go with SAS? 3.For 6 VM's - how big should the HDD's be? 4. Will users notice a lag with the systems running on the VM's? Thank you in advance :)

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ASKED: June 2, 2009  6:34 AM
UPDATED: June 10, 2009  5:00 PM
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Sorry I doubled up on my specs. I'll start again... I'm about to purchase a new server to run VMWare ESXi 3.5 The specs are: Intel SR2500 Server with RAID SR2500ALLXR 2 x Intel Xeon Quad 5420 CPU 12GB DDR2 667 ECC REG RAM 2 extra Intel PCIx Dual Port Gigabit NIC I don't think I'll have more than 6 VM's on this box, so I guess my questions are: 1. Are the specs above good enough to run this Many VM's? 2. Are the SATA HDD's OK - or should I definitely go with SAS? 3.If I plan to run 6 VM's - how big should the HDD's be? 4. Will users notice a lag with the systems running on the VM's? Here are the options I got for the drives - for RAID 10 setup. SAS 292GB RAID 10) 4 x Seagate SAS 15Krpm 146GB Hard disks (600GB RAID 10) 4 x Seagate SAS 15Krpm 300GB Hard disks (900GB RAID 10) 4 x Seagate SAS 15Krpm 450GB Hard disks SATA (2TB RAID 10) 4 x Seagate SATA 7200rpm 1TB Enterprise Hard disks (3TB RAID 10) 4 x Seagate SATA 7200rpm 1.5TB Hard disks Thank you in advance :) The I.T. Chick ;) ============================================= I would recommend you review your components against VMware's compatability list http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?action=base&deviceCategory=server before you make such a purchase. Definitely SAS drives are recommended since SATA has limited support if any at this time.
Last Wiki Answer Submitted:  June 8, 2009  5:20 pm  by  TheITChick   20 pts.
All Answer Wiki Contributors:  TheITChick   20 pts.
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You can always check component compatibity with the VMware Compatibility Guides at
http://www.vmware.com/resources/guides.html

Jess

Jessew
 35 pts.
 

You could also use VirtualIQ Pro FREE which is a solution which will help you with density planning as well as being able to test the configs of the different application workloads as well as providing a lot more, check them out at http://www.toutvirtual.com

Spatel101
 25 pts.
 
JimmyIT
 1,695 pts.
 

Aside from that, it looks like you have planty of power. Whether that is enough disk or not is entirly dependent on what you use it for. The same is true of the processor power. My guide for minimum VM machines is at least one core per VM, at least 2GB memory per VM, and least a little for the ESX engine. But’s that is very conditional. File servers use less memory and little pprocessor, but lots of disk. Most application servers are the reverse.

SAS vs SATA. SAS drives are faster, more reliable (so I’m told), and more expensive. SAS, if you can afford it, is about twice as fast as SATA.

BTW, since you are starting new, look into disk virtualization by companies like EchoStor. This can dramatically reduce the need for disk.

graybeard52
 3,115 pts.