iSCSI vs VMware Storage Appliance

[Kev_3PNTS]

Hi there,

Maybe someone could give me some advice in which to go with.

I'm trying to build a small datacenter for my business, and I'm wondering which to go with.

I have 2 Server that are the same in specs with a few smaller difference, and I have a 1 other server that is about 2 years older than the first two.

Server 1 - 1 CPU - 40GB Ram, LSI Raid wtih 1TBHDs (15KSAS) - Lenovo Man.

Server 2 - 1 CPU - 40GB Ram, LSI Raid with 1TBHDs (15KSAS) - Lenovo Man.

Server 3 - 1 CPU - 40GB Ram, LSI Radi with 20TBHDs (7200SATA) - IBM Man.

Currently server 1 and 3 are running vmware. Server 2 hasn't been purchased yet.

I'm trying to think what is my best option.  Using the VMware Storage Appliance, with HA, Rep, or Site Recovery Manager in a 3 Host Cluster.

Or

Running the 2 Lenovo Server as a cluster, and run the IBM with Server 2012R2 and iSCSI SAN

My hope is to achieve some redundancy, and fail over, while using as much as the available storage as possible and getting the best performance.   My idea is to host some media files (Pictures/videos/etc) misc larger files, plus IP Camera storage, and a few WebServers access.  No real heavy database needs currently.  Possible hosting a few self build application.

No fibre, but dedicated duel 1GB network cards in all systems and vlan switches etc.

Thoughts, ideas, would love to hear them.

Kevin

[Cyberfed27]

I'm confused do you have an iSCSI SAN or not?

[Kev_3PNTS]

Sorry I didn't explain myself.

The Storage appliance will use ALL Raid'd Systems on ALL HOSTs, and use them for a recovery/backup/cheaper than purchasing an SAN system.  So the need for a iSCSI or centralized storage is not necessary, because the "VHDs" will be floating around the entire cluster, or at least that’s what I think happens.   But you can build something similar with a software based iSCSI, NAS or something similar.   As I’m wondering if running the ESXi on a USBs, provides better storage support for gust systems etc. 

So my question here is which would be faster or better setup.    Side note: But I don't think you can do a live migration from a existing cluster to a Storage appliance

All I'm hoping to find or opinion of what the best performance on all hosts, and use as much storage as possible.   But because these are "homogeneous" systems, I didn't think it would work in building a Storage Appliance Cluster and would stick with that server acting as a iSCSI file and data store. 

Kevin

[will373794]

Hi Kevin,

With all the hardware you got, it is quite difficult to achieve both redundancy and performance. If performance is your priority, then local disk will give you best performance. But with that, you cannot get a lot of the redundancy features e.g. DRS, vmotion or storage vmotion. You can still use the 20TB to backup all your VMs which gives you some protection. I've heard VSA is difficult to setup and maintain and its performance is probably not worth the trouble. If you want to use 3rd server as iscsi storage, I would suggest get more NICs for the two servers as 2 just wont do. Ideally you want to give two dedicated NICs for iscsi.

[Kev_3PNTS]

Yeah, that's what I've heard too.   I know I can build HA and Replication (Or site recovery manager) into the 2 main servers, and use the 3rd server as a iSCSI storage.   I was planning on running at least 1 (duel Port) nic for dedicated to iSCSI traffic.   But then I was thinking I might be better off running the Service Appliance.  not that iSCSI will be slow... just wondering if it would be faster within the VMWare cluster.  compared to pulling the storage from a Windows box.

Thanks again for your advice.