[THIN] Re: OT: VMWare setup
- From: "Joe Shonk" <joe.shonk@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 22:26:59 -0700
Sorry, but I don't buy that argument. You can't make the argument for
splitting out the drives "because it's best to have the vmswap and swap file
on a separate spindle" and say you don't need heavy I/O performance. The
vmswap and linux swap files are only used when you run out of physical
memory (over subscribing memory on the VMs (vmswap) or using too much on the
Console OS (swap)). Keep in mind this is not a Microsoft OS that uses the
Pagefile whenever it feels like. (And if you really want dig deep, ESX also
uses a balloon driver in the guest OS to force the guest to swap pages to
disk and that doesn't touch the vmswap file). Anyways, if you are taxing
the system to the point that you are actually using the swap and/or vmswap
file, you absolutely need the best I/O performance you can get. 6 spindles
(Raid 10) is a lot better performance than 2 (Raid 1).
By switching to Raid 10, you're not loosing any redundancy, in fact some
implementation you can lose two drives. Compared to the Raid 1 + 5 + HS the
useable disk space is the same as a Raid 10. In the Raid 1 + Raid 5
implementation, you'll only have 3 spindles going as Mirrored drives will
hardly be used. Really if you put the swap and vmswap on the Raid 1, it'll
only be used when the system is heavily taxed. With Raid 10, you'll
consistently have 6 spindles running which will lead to overall better
performance.
Maybe it's me, but I like to have optimal running servers; especially when
it doesn't cost anything more to do so.
Try a couple different configurations, run some benchmarks and see what
works best for your given workloads.
Joe
_____
From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Evan Mann
Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2006 5:12 PM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] Re: OT: VMWare setup
We don't need heavy I/O performance, hence the RAID 10 setup being overkill.
But we obviously want redundancy. We could have been fine with a single
backplane and a 5 drive RAID5 + hotspare ultimately. But, it's still better
for overall performance to have vmswap and swap on separate spindles.
_____
From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Joe Shonk
Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2006 6:46 PM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] Re: OT: VMWare setup
Perhaps, but you've already got the hardware so it's just a configuration
change at this point. And if it's overkill, why the Raid 1+Raid 5 +
Hotspare to begin with?
Joe
On 4/13/06, Evan Mann <emann@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
It would be overkill for the purpose of this VMWare server.
_____
From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Joe Shonk
Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2006 10:22 AM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] Re: OT: VMWare setup
Why not use Raid 10 across the split backplane. You'll gain a considerable
performance increase over your current setup.
The default values are generally ok..
Joe
_____
From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto: <mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Evan Mann
Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 1:09 PM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] OT: VMWare setup
I'm loading up VMWare ESX 2.5.2 on a single Dell server. The server is
spec'd out with a 2x4 split backplane and 5 146gig drives and 8 gigs of RAM.
I don't have much to go on except the VMWare documentation and this is the
first time I've done this.
This server won't be for Citrix, but just a general VM server. I'm not sure
the best way I should chunk this thing up storage wise.
Since I have a split backplane on the RAID system, 2 drives are setup RAID1,
and the remaining 4 drives are in a RAD5 + hotspare.
The guide says to put a 50 meg /boot, and a swap that is 2x the size of
memory you allocate in reserved memory for the service console. I've opted
to go with 512meg of ram for the service console which it says is for 32+
VM's. The next step up is 800megs for maximum but I doubt I'll even do 32,
so I think 512meg reserved is fine. Based on that, the swap would be 1gig.
After that, it says to mount the root (/) partition with "about 2500 MB".
And then it doesn't give you much else for input in the install guide. I
could also opt for automatic partitioning, which would do the same as above,
and leave the rest as an extended partition it looks like.
Since I have a RAID 1 and a RAID 5, what should I put where? I'd obviously
put /boot on the RAID 1 but what about / and swap? Should those go there as
well leaving the RAID5 for VM use? Do I need to do any additional
partitioning beyond /boot, / and swap ?
Thanks for the help!
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