Re: Openfiler - anyone used it?

[Paul Gale <groups2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks Martyn,

Good luck with the migration. I've never used SBS although I have it in
the=
MS action pack.=20

What backup do you use for your VM's (VMWare Data Recovery?). Do you have
v=
Sphere or just ESXi? Obviously a raid 0 for system drives is a little
risky=
- maybe double the drives and raid10?

My current quandry is whether to go for one big raid 10 across 8 Spinpoint
=
F3 1TB (VERY cheap but very fast sequential SATA drives) for both data and
=
VM OS storage - or go for separate arrays through the 3ware card (which is
=
working really well). I wonder what kind of performance difference there
wo=
uld be?

Cheers,

Paul. (Mobile)

Paul Gale
Silicon Pixel Ltd
Tel: 01367 243317
Mob: 07900 885544

On 16 Oct 2010, at 11:25, "Martyn Wendon"
<martynwendon@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi Paul,
>=20
> Apologies for the delay in replying!
>=20
> SAS drives - keep an eye on eBay - I've been picking up new sealed
300GB=
=20
> 15,000 rpm drives occasionally for no more than =A390 or so..... put a
pa=
ir of=20
> them in RAID 0 on a Dell Perc 5i SAS controller (eBay, no more than
=A340=
)=20
> .... and performance will improve untold!
>=20
> For network bonding on the ESXi host, if I remember I did have to
do=20
> something on the switch, but it's been so long now that I can't
recall=20
> exactly what!  I think that I just did a search on google for ESXi
and=20
> Netgear trunking / lag and followed an article I found....
>=20
> I'm migrating my last physical Windows server this weekend (SBS 2003)
to =
a=20
> VM (SBS 2008), which will no doubt prove interesting - it's been on
the=20
> to-do list for over a year now :-(
>=20
>=20
> Martyn
>=20
>=20
> ----- Original Message -----=20
> From: "Paul Gale" <groups2@xxxxxxx>
> To: <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
> Sent: Monday, October 04, 2010 10:23 PM
> Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Openfiler - anyone used it?
>=20
>=20
> Hi Martyn,
>=20
> I've now setup an openfiler box and have two ESXi servers talking to
it o=
ver=20
> iSCSI - works pretty well. Performance was pants to start with but
that w=
as=20
> mostly due to my exchange server and a load of other stuff
originally=20
> running on one box with only 8GB ram - having two boxes running seems
to=
=20
> have sorted that but it's early days.
>=20
> I took your advice and got a nice GS724 and a couple of cheap PCI-X
nics =
-=20
> the iSCSI is running on it's own over the new switch and maxing out
the=20
> single (so far) 1Gb connection with larger transfers. I even got my
3Ware=
=20
> 9590se card working but it only has slower SATA drives, so I think
that's=
a=20
> bit of a bottleneck - if only I could afford a load of fast SAS
drives!
>=20
> The one question I have for you - I've read a lot on bonding but still
no=
t=20
> sure about how best to implement it - how did you setup yours? Not so
muc=
h=20
> the OF side, as that (appears) to be OK, although there are many blogs
an=
d=20
> posts talking about modifying config files! I'm more thinking about
the E=
SXi=20
> side (ESXi 4.1) and whether you had to do any config on your switch?
>=20
> Many thanks,
>=20
>=20
> Paul.
>=20
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of=
=20
> Martyn Wendon
> Sent: 24 September 2010 18:26
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Openfiler - anyone used it?
>=20
> Hi Paul,
>=20
> I'm using Netgear GS series smart switches, performance seems OK to
me, b=
ut=20
> I guess it depends on your specific requirements.  Big switches
(costing =
in=20
> the thousands) tend to have a CPU per port, lower end switches have a
CPU=
=20
> per group of ports - I made sure that I put the VLANs on different
port=20
> groups to spread the load.
>=20
> The VMs using ISCSI run well - they are mainly desktop PCs though (XP)
th=
at=20
> I use for specific tasks (e.g. VS2008 development work, Flash
development=
=20
> work), they are on 24/7 but don't get used 24/7 if that makes=20
> sense....Previously I had these VMs running on a 1TB SATA 7200RPM
drive=20
> locally in the ESXi box and the performance over ISCSI is infinitely
more=
=20
> snappy - but the RAID0 SAS 15,000 RPM drives and dedicated controller
in =
the=20
> OF box are responsible for that more than anything :-)
>=20
> eBay is your friend for great bargains on ex-corporate IT gear that
tends=
to=20
> be well looked after and run in air conditioned comms rooms.  I picked
up=
=20
> GS716, GS724 and GS748 Netgear switches over the past few years for
=A380=
, =A390=20
> and =A3150 respectively - that's a pretty healthy saving over the cost
of=
new=20
> ones!  Intel quad port GB Nics come up from time to time (PCI-e),
depends=
on=20
> how much of a rush you are in!  I've accumulated 5 of those over a
period=
of=20
> time and have never paid more than =A3100 or so for each.......again,
a=20
> significant saving over the cost of new ones.
>=20
> I also found that Intel dual port GB Nics can be had pretty cheaply if
yo=
u=20
> have a machine that can take advantage of PCI-x cards (I use HP
ML115=20
> boxes).  I bagged 4 PCI-x cards a while back for =A340!
>=20
>=20
> One word of warning if you're going to use ISCSI for VMs - things can
go=
=20
> awfully awry with a Windows install if the ISCSI drive suddenly
disappear=
s,=20
> so give consideration to making the OF box as redundant as possible
and=20
> don't forget the networking infrastructure in-between the ESXi box and
OF=
=20
> box too!
>=20
>=20
> Hope this helps,
>=20
> Martyn
>=20
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Paul Gale" <groups2@xxxxxxx>
> To: <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
> Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 1:11 PM
> Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Openfiler - anyone used it?
>=20
>=20
>> Ah really interesting - I'm sure I'll have a couple of questions
when I
>> think it through a bit more. But a few to start:
>>=20
>> I have a managed gigabit switch that can create VLANs etc - never
them
>> though - can a switch like this share iSCSI traffic and heavy
network
>> traffic with no performance loss, or do you really need to
dedicate a
>> whole switch to it for performance?
>>=20
>> A VM that boots and runs from the OpenFiler store - is this as
good
>> performance wise as running from a local single disk (or better -
>> obviously depending on what type of h/w the openfiler box is based
on)??=
?
>>=20
>> Did you buy your quad port nic's new or ebay etc? - what model?
>>=20
>> Cheers,
>>=20
>> Paul.
>>=20
>>=20
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf O=
f
>> Martyn Wendon
>> Sent: 22 September 2010 20:16
>> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
>> Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Openfiler - anyone used it?
>>=20
>> Yep, OpenFiler rocks :-)
>>=20
>> I have 2 * 2TB WD SATA drives exposed over SMB & NFS and 2 *
300GB SAS
>> 15,000 in Raid 0 on a Dell Perc 5i SAS Raid card exposed over
ISCSI.
>>=20
>> Box is an HP ML115 AMD Opteron Quad Core with 8GB Ram and a quad
port
>> Intel Pro GB PCI-e NIC card, 2 ports bonded for ISCSI traffic and
2 port=
s
>> bonded for normal traffic (plus on-board NIC for management
traffic).
>>=20
>> ESXi boxes using ISCSI for (some) VMs, dual quad port Intel Pro GB
PCI-e
>> NIC cards in those too to allow segmentation of ISCSI traffic (as
well a=
s
>> bonding for VM traffic).
>>=20
>> Needless to say GB switches (Netgear) with appropriate LAGs and
VLANs to
>> separate the network traffic....
>>=20
>> All works rather well IME.
>>=20
>>=20
>> Martyn
>>=20
>>=20
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Paul Gale" <groups2@xxxxxxx>
>> To: <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
>> Sent: Monday, September 20, 2010 3:33 PM
>> Subject: [ukha_d] Openfiler - anyone used it?
>>=20
>>=20
>>> I'm just thinking about re-arranging my home, HA and work
storage.
>>>=20
>>> One of my thoughts was to implement an openfiler NAS,
connected to VMWa=
re
>>> ESXi VM servers (that I'm already running), rather than the
physical
>>> Windows 2008 R2 file server and raid 5 setup I have.
>>>=20
>>> Has anyone here setup an openfiler box?
>>>=20
>>> Paul.
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>> ------------------------------------
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>> Yahoo! Groups Links
>>>=20
>>>=20
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