Sanmelody and esx docuementation available soon

[pauliew1978]

Hi there,

This is a notice for any newbs working in smb's who are thinking of implementing vmware. I have been testing 2 sanmelody sans and 2 esx servers set up for a failover configuration. I am just going through the documentation at the moment (though it might be a while). I was just interested in seeing if any newbs (newbs to vmware mind you!) out there would be interested in having a copy. I would have to edit it of course (all the ips etc). But it may come in useful for any small to medium sized IT depts who are thinking of going virtual themselves without the help of an outside contractor. It includes sections on network configs, setting up raid (which raid arrays are better etc), how to performance test, how to set up san melody andvmware(in laymans terms!), pretty much all I have ever learnt about vmware, backups, testing failover, how to access esx remotely, esx hacks/tips and tricks (i.e. firewall config etc, using ftp and winscp) and a lot more.

if any one is interested please feel free to let me know. I think sanmelody is great considering you can get san replication, automatic san/esx host failover and use cheap sata drives. I know it is never gonna have blistering performance (unless you buy some pretty hot servers to run sanmelody on and spend a decent amount of money on good disks) but for people that are on a budget and only have 10 servers or so that aren't too heavily utilized it is a great product. And you can get the entire lot (2xsans, 2xservers for esx, full vmware3 package including vmoion and ha/drs for 2 esx servers) for about 25k. That makes it pretty cool in my book :-).

cheers,

Paul

[Stevos]

Could you send me the doco, we are travelling the same road!

[davidbarclay]

I've done a few implementations like this. I would like to see your doco...may even be able to add some of my field notes for you

Dave

[Banshee]

when its done,can you also send me a copy

Message was edited by:

Banshee

[tjk]

Hey Paul,

Did you ever release these docs? I've been testing this in a lab for about a week now and I am getting corrupt VM's when I store/clone/migrate them to the SAN volumes.

I can store them local, stress, reboot, etc on local storage with no corruption.

I've been working with an SE from SANMelody, but he can't find any issues - yet.

We're doing iSCSI to a SANmelod box, with 3 Dell 1950 host nodes attached to a Dell 6024 GE switch. Flow Control, speed settings, etc are all fine, no errors on the ports, etc.

Just curious if I am missing something and wanted to see your write-up if you had it done.

Thanks,

Tom

[sbeaver]

I would love to see a copy also please

steve dot beaver at flhosp dot org

[admin]

I'd like a copy of this doc too please. Email address in my profile.

[pauliew1978]

Hi everyone,

I hadnt checked back on this topic for a while so apologies. I am going through the documentation at the moment as I have to take out all the stuff related to my set up. Just so you know it all works really nicely. The only glitch I have at the moment is that one server takes 2 minutes to failover (using the sanmelody failover). I think this is because the iscsi connection gets stuck on the sanmelody side. However it might be a configuration error. I havent had a chance to sort it out yet. However, it does all work very nicely. If i get myself in gear I will try and post it to you all in the next week or so.

thanks,

Paul

[tjk]

Hey Paul,

Thank you for the update! A couple questions if I may.

1. If you have a minute, can you look at this thread and tell me if you've had anything like this with your config? http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=93029&tstart=0

2. Are you doing heavy IO to the SM servers via multiple VM's?

3. What did you find is the best thru-put config on your SM box? Ie; multiple GE's with a target to each ESX host presenting all the LUNs, or NIC teaming with all hosts in 1 target with all LUNs, or 1 target/LUN presented to each host? I'm trying to find the best thru-put once I solve the corruption issues of course.

Thanks in advance for any guidance/suggestions you can offer.

Regards,

Tom

[pauliew1978]

Hi tjk,

I must admit I haven't used templates as they would cause problems in terms of windows vms (which is all we use) because of the ssid. As much as I would like to go down the linux route! (far more fun). The only thing I have found is that you should not put anything else on your iscsi network. I had also heard problems with flow control somewhere (try turning it off on the switches)

I am not that expererienced when it comes to this sort of thing but I wonder if you are stressing the sans too much?. However, creating one template should not be an issue (or two for that matter). I would install a windows vm and try that to rule out a specific linux problem in terms of templates. I can't test mine right now because the sans are offline. I am putting them in place into the company network out of the lab now ready for further testing.

I have the document ready, though to be honest it sounds like your all ready way past the level of this document. It really is for complete newbs!!

[PatRyan]

I am new to the SANMelody concept and would love to get your doco to use as I hope to get a test environment going very soon. I am heading to Datacore next week for a few days of SANMelody training. Wouldn't mind having a primer to go over in advance. Thanks!

[oreeh]

Please send me a copy too

oliver dot reeh at sense7 dot de

[attlee_ken]

Hi,paul

Can you send me a copy ?

Thank you !!

attken@hotmail.com

[surfup]

Hi Paul,

Can you send me a copy as well? Thanks.

Surfup@Gmail.com

Cheers,

[TomHowarth]

Paul,

I'm about to start playing with SanMelody to get a feel for it. I would be grateful if you could forward a copy to me.

my mail address is in my profile.

Regards

Tom

[EnzoBlue]

Hi, Paul

We're looking about a Solution with SANmelody and AutoFailover, it would be great to send me a copy?

Thank's a lot!

hene_raez at yahoo dot com

[paul2kl]

Hi Paul,

Pls could you send me a copy as well.. Will be looking at this route, to move away from another SAN option that we are using.

Email is in my profile

Thanks,

Paul

[virtualdude]

Hi Paul,

could you forward me your documentation? I am looking into going this route.

or

if someone got their hands on the documentation please foward.

Thanks in advance

email to: sumdom2000@yahoo.com

[ryavner]

I would love to have your documentation. Please send it if you still have it. My email is in my profile.

Thanks,

Rebecca

[aaron_schneider]

I would like a copy of the documentation too please!

Thanks!