Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
8 Posts
0
2043
VMAX and Windows Server 2012 R2 Best Practice Guide
Is there an EMC best practice guide for setting up Windows Server 2012 R2 (VMware-Virtual) on a VMAX with FAST VP? I am looking for recommended OS settings. For example Windows 2012 R2 has a regular maintenance job that runs every morning at 2am. Among other things this job executes a chkdsk and weekly defrag. Should the regular maintenance job be disabled? Should just the defrag be disabled?
seancummins
226 Posts
0
March 25th, 2015 12:00
Hi cschverigs,
A good starting point would likely be the Windows and ESX host connectivity guides -- they're available via the E-Lab Interoperability Navigator on support.emc.com.
Here are the direct links:
https://elabnavigator.emc.com/vault/pdf/VMwareESX.pdf
https://elabnavigator.emc.com/vault/pdf/windows.pdf
If those don't work, here's the navigation path: From the main support.emc.com page, there should be a link for E-Lab Interoperability Navigator towards the bottom right of the page. Click on that, then click Documents -> Host Connectivity Guides, and you'll find them.
As for defrags, I would disable those processes. There's no benefit to defragging in a VMAX FAST VP environment, and defragging is an inherently "thin hostile" process -- so you'd end up consuming more space than necessary in the VMAX thin pools.
Thanks,
- Sean
cschverigs
8 Posts
0
March 26th, 2015 09:00
Thank you. Unfortunately neither of these mention the Regular Maintenance job (runs a defrag and chkdsk among other things) that runs at 2am or the "Optimize Drives" on Windows 2012. Since both of these seem like they would impact the SAN that is surprising. Maybe it means the defaults are best practice.
cschverigs
8 Posts
0
March 26th, 2015 09:00
It is buried under Task Scheduler -> Task Scheduler Library -> Microsoft -> Windows -> TaskScheduler -> "Regular Maintenance".
dynamox
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
•
20.4K Posts
0
March 26th, 2015 09:00
i checked my Win2k12 R2 servers and did not see any scheduled tasks, what is the name of the maintenance task you are referring to ?
cschverigs
8 Posts
0
March 30th, 2015 12:00
Anyone disabling this regular maintenance task? Or seeing an I/O spike at 2am?