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RAID / ESXi
Here's the service tag:
I'm wondering the best method of installation of ESXi. I don't know if the onboard controller will support RAID1 with the PERC installed. I'm trying to do a separate RAID1 ESXi installation and use the back-plane drives for the VMs.
Can someone give me a suggestion of the best hardware setup to get the best performance? I don't think I can do pass-through of the PERC to install the VM on the drives directly. I'm novice with ESXi and want to run 3 VM with MySQL on CentOS 7, but want the OS drive separate from the back-plane drives to get the best performance.
I was thinking of something like this: RAID1 SATA on the motherboard with ESXi, install the guest VM OS on those, then create my MySQL partitions as vmdk on the RAID10 partitions.
Is that possible with the PE610 we have now? Does the integrated controller also perform RAID for any drives attached to the motherboard, or is it only for the break-out cable?
Origin3k
4 Operator
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1.9K Posts
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May 12th, 2021 11:00
Your ESXi installer will see 2 LUNs. A smaller one which you have to select as installation target and a larger one. On the larger one you will later create a VMFS Datastore on and place your MySQL VMs on.
There is only one drawback when placing 2 or more VDs on a RAID. You will unable to add more phys. Disks to the existing RAID10 Group because thats only possible with only one existing VD.
For sure you can name your VDs as you like
Regards,
Joerg
GM_XISS
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May 12th, 2021 13:00
Thank you so very much for speaking it out this way. Now the issue at hand is finding the optimal method for MySql on this all. Should I create one VM with 32GB RAM and multiple MySQL instances (keeping each db on it's own vmdk) or should each VM be running its own MySQL instance with a separate data vmdk? Or does it even really matter at this point? I've already read the "MySQL best practice" link someone provided earlier, and I was trying to get additional opinions on the matter These are going to be high use read/write SQL.
In the hardware world, I have set it up like this
Would it be optimal to even setup an 8GB "ramdisk" on each SQL instance mounted for transactional logs (that rotate)?
Again, thanks for all of the insight.
Regards,
Gabriel
GM_XISS
20 Posts
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May 11th, 2021 05:00
Should I thin provision or thick for the .vmdk? Can someone explain the differences?
DELL-Charles R
Moderator
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3.7K Posts
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May 11th, 2021 08:00
Hello GM_XISS,
You would need to create your virtual disk through the PERC6 controller, then you can choose it when installing ESXi. All the drives are controlled by the PERC.
The best method of installation is to use our pre made ESXi install iso. The R610 supports up to ESXi 6.0:
VMware ESXi 6.0 Update 2 : https://dell.to/3y18Ant
This may be helpful in explaining Thick / Thin provisioning : https://dell.to/3hj1vIQ
Your reference for the Support page for R610 : https://dell.to/2SM684d
Please note I removed the service tag as personal identifiable information should only be shared through private messages.
Please let me know how it goes.
GM_XISS
20 Posts
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May 11th, 2021 09:00
Hello,
I understand about the installation part. I'm trying to get an optimal setup to run 3 VM running MySQL with intensive DB (high-use/high-write).
Thanks.
DELL-Charles R
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May 11th, 2021 10:00
Hello GM_XISS,
Maybe these resources can get you started:
MySQL Security Best Practices
https://dell.to/3f9t8BF
Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere® 6.0
https://dell.to/2SxPm8z
Unfortunately I don't have any experience with MySQL as I'm a hardware technician.
We'll leave the post open maybe a forum user could have firsthand suggestions for you.
Origin3k
4 Operator
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May 11th, 2021 22:00
Most likely all of your existing drives are connected to the backplane and to your PERC. When speaking about ESXi you have to know that ESXi runs in a RAMdisk after starting up so there is no big requirement when speaking about the underlying disk system performance wise.
Your options
If you lose the boot drive a running ESXi isnt effected.. only problem is that you cant save any configuration changes. If you dont want to buy anything and want the most protection choose method 4. A lot of people are not aware of that you can create multiple "partitions" aka VDs on a single Raidgroup, so ESXi will see 2 independent LUNs.
One note... ESXi 6.5 will run on your 11Gen. and if you have a 11Gen with Intel Westmere also 6.7 can be installed. For sure both versions are not supported.
Regards,
Joerg
GM_XISS
20 Posts
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May 12th, 2021 09:00
Just to clarify,
There are 6 drives - all 600GB SAS.
Which is recommended for what?
or
DELL-Charles R
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3.7K Posts
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May 12th, 2021 10:00
Hello GM_XISS,
I'll have to let Joerg expound on his recommendation as I'm one of those that was not aware of creating multiple partitions.
I would assume he is saying 2 drives RAID1 for hypervisor and 4 drive RAID10 for datastore.
As for the SD and USB option I'm giving the details below:
page 95-97 : https://dell.to/3tGvYTY
Internal SD Flash Card optional module supports an embedded hypervisor for virtualization.
Internal USB Memory Key -The USB memory key can be used as a boot device.
This is what you would need for the Internal SD flash card:
one 2G SD card
pn.RN354 - internal SD module
pn.KY386 - internal SD module cable