Comments on: VMware Storage Sudoku http://www.van-lieshout.com/2009/02/vmware-storage-sudoku/ About virtualization and more Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:53:42 +0200 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Arnim van Lieshout http://www.van-lieshout.com/2009/02/vmware-storage-sudoku/comment-page-1/#comment-13 Arnim van Lieshout Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:55:00 +0000 http://www.van-lieshout.com/?p=121#comment-13 Thanks for your Comments. Steve is right about the need for a clustered file system, but do we need the clustered filesystem to store vmdk's? I was not thinking about RDMs as the way implemented now. I was thinking on some kind of virtual storage switch, integrating the ESX host into the SAN fabric. The reason why we were talking about IO load balancing is because we saw some hot spots on our Storage box. So we took a look into the ESX LUNs a found out that some LUNs had an much higher IO load than others. There was no VM with a particular performance problem, but we opted to distribute the load evenly across our LUNs. Thanks for your Comments.
Steve is right about the need for a clustered file system, but do we need the clustered filesystem to store vmdk’s?
I was not thinking about RDMs as the way implemented now. I was thinking on some kind of virtual storage switch, integrating the ESX host into the SAN fabric.

The reason why we were talking about IO load balancing is because we saw some hot spots on our Storage box. So we took a look into the ESX LUNs a found out that some LUNs had an much higher IO load than others. There was no VM with a particular performance problem, but we opted to distribute the load evenly across our LUNs.

]]> By: Omar Sultan http://www.van-lieshout.com/2009/02/vmware-storage-sudoku/comment-page-1/#comment-12 Omar Sultan Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:53:43 +0000 http://www.van-lieshout.com/?p=121#comment-12 Arnim: The Cisco Nexus 1000V was part of a broader set of virtual machine-related products and technologies we termed VN-Link. You can check out this video to see some of the things we are doing on the storage side: http://snurl.com/bjdx4 -- check out starting at about the 2 minute mark. Beyond this, we are continuing to develop storage solutions for VM environments. Omar Sultan Cisco Data Center Solutions Arnim:

The Cisco Nexus 1000V was part of a broader set of virtual machine-related products and technologies we termed VN-Link. You can check out this video to see some of the things we are doing on the storage side: http://snurl.com/bjdx4 — check out starting at about the 2 minute mark. Beyond this, we are continuing to develop storage solutions for VM environments.

Omar Sultan
Cisco
Data Center Solutions

]]> By: Steve Chambers http://www.van-lieshout.com/2009/02/vmware-storage-sudoku/comment-page-1/#comment-11 Steve Chambers Sun, 08 Feb 2009 18:18:25 +0000 http://www.van-lieshout.com/?p=121#comment-11 Hey Arnim, we need VMFS because we need a clustered filesystem for multple hosts to access the same LUN. Without VMFS there is no vMotion. Is it so bad that you can't make more than 256 LUNs available to one host, or one cluster of hosts? I suppose if you have a cluster that can host more than 256 VMs and ALL VMs need this performance... but do all the VMs on that cluster need RDMs for the IO load balancing you mention? If, as you say in your article, you think about the VMDKs - then out of all the VMs on your cluster, how many of those VMDKs need the performance you mention? If it's less than 256 in the cluster, which it probably is, then some mix is in order? Storage management in virtualization is an interesting topic and I've run many an emotional workshop :-) I always go for the Occam's Razor approach myself... :-) Hey Arnim, we need VMFS because we need a clustered filesystem for multple hosts to access the same LUN. Without VMFS there is no vMotion.

Is it so bad that you can’t make more than 256 LUNs available to one host, or one cluster of hosts? I suppose if you have a cluster that can host more than 256 VMs and ALL VMs need this performance… but do all the VMs on that cluster need RDMs for the IO load balancing you mention?

If, as you say in your article, you think about the VMDKs – then out of all the VMs on your cluster, how many of those VMDKs need the performance you mention? If it’s less than 256 in the cluster, which it probably is, then some mix is in order?

Storage management in virtualization is an interesting topic and I’ve run many an emotional workshop :-) I always go for the Occam’s Razor approach myself… :-)

]]> By: duncan http://www.van-lieshout.com/2009/02/vmware-storage-sudoku/comment-page-1/#comment-10 duncan Sun, 08 Feb 2009 17:41:59 +0000 http://www.van-lieshout.com/?p=121#comment-10 Do a search on vstorage chad sakac's website and check the preview of what kind of integration will be possible in the near future! Do a search on vstorage chad sakac’s website and check the preview of what kind of integration will be possible in the near future!

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