Hi,
I'm looking at setting up a dev lab with a 3 node ESX 3.5 cluster attached to a LeftHand iSCSI storage unit. I want to have a couple of VMFS3 volumes on the iSCSI SAN presented to all 3 hosts. I'll be using HA & DRS & VMotion.
At the moment I'm looking at Dell 2950III's for the hosts:
Internal Disk - 2 * 2.5" SAS (10K rpm): 36GB
RAID controller - Integrated PERC 6/i integrated daughtercard: SAS 3.0 Gb/s RAID controller
My questions are:
Is VMware ESX3.5 supported to be installed on a Dell 2950III with Dell PERC 6 SAS 3.0 Gb/s RAID controller & internal SAS drives?
The VMware "ESX 3 Installation Guide - Install ESX server 3.5..." says that:
SATA disk drives, plugged into dual SATA/SAS controllers, are supported for installing ESX Server 3 and for storing virtual machines on VMFS partitions. Ensure that your SATA drives are connected through supported SATA/SAS controllers:
mptscsi_pcie - LSI1068E (LSISAS3442E)
mptscsi_pcix - LSI1068 (SAS 5)
aacraid_esx30 - IBM serveraid 8k SAS controller
cciss - Smart Array P400/256 controller
megaraid_sas-Dell PERC 5.0.1 controller
Do you think this means that installing ESX3.5 on internal SAS drives isn't supported but that the PERC6/i controller with SATA attached is supported?
For external iSCSI storage I'm looking at LeftHand Networks NSM 2060 or NSM 160 modules. My questions are:
Can I create a VMFS3 volume on an SAS iSCSI SAN and share this volume to multiple ESX servers?
Can I create a VMFS3 volume on an SATA iSCSI SAN and share this volume to multiple ESX servers?
The VMware "Storage / SAN Compatibility Guide for ESX Server 3.5 and ESX Server 3i iSCSI" under "iSCSI" & "Table 21 - LeftHand Networks" it says that the following are supported:
Dell 2950 and SAN/iQ® 7
Do you think this means that the Dell 2950III's aren't supported? But that the Dell 2950's with SAN/iQ 7 software and internal SAS/SATA drives are?
It also doesn't mention the LeftHand units - NSM 2060's or NSM 160's in the SAN Compt guide. Do you think this means that they aren't supported either?
