D-Link DSN-4200 DSN Series SAN Arrays VMWare ESX Manual - Page 22

xStack Storage DSN-Series SAN Arrays VMware ESX 3.0.2 & 3.5 Performance Tuning Tuning your environment is very important. ALWAYS update the BIOS, firmware, drivers, and patches to the latest and greatest version. By doing so, you may circumvent a problem before you even get to it. Test your design in the lab before you put it into production. You can design the best system on paper, but due to issues that you might not be aware of, your design may not deliver optimal performance. If you are looking to squeeze every ounce of speed out of your SAN environment, you will want to create multiple RAID arrays and deliver each array to a separate server. This way the IO of one server and the spindles it uses will not affect the others but if you are planning to do this, you will need to plan carefully how you plan on using your SAN. If you need to reconfigure your SAN at a later time, you may need to delete one or more arrays and start again. If at all possible, you should build a separate iSCSI network for your SAN environment. Yes, you can connect your SAN to the existing gig-e network and mount its drives from another building but you may pay a performance penalty by doing so plus you are competing with normal network traffic. As applications begin using more and more of a gigabyte connection or others begin using the bandwidth for video streaming, MP3 downloading, or whatever, if you elect to put your SAN on a normal communications network, be prepared for the day when you will need to move it. One case in which you may wish to put one leg of your SAN on a corporate network is when you are conducting SAN to SAN replication. With the D-Link xStack Storage series SAN, you can limit the amount of bandwidth you allocate for replication. SUMMARY VMware Virtual Infrastructure gives customers several methods of providing storage to virtual machines. Each of these storage methods enables customers to have flexibility in their infrastructure design, which in turn provides cost savings, increased storage utilization, and enhanced data recovery. This technical report is not intended to be a definitive implementation or solutions guide. Expertise may be required to solve user-specific deployments. Conclusions and Recommendations In conclusion, the D-Link xStack Storage series SAN is an excellent value for the money and offers high end features with a reasonable price tag. Combine it with VMWare ESX (or other virtual) server, and you have the major tools you need to build a state-of-the-art server environment without breaking your budget. The xStack Storage Series provides a range of performance and functionality that match the various levels of iSCSI storage applications and user environments. For those datacenters and businesses requiring fast and robust storage, especially those who already have made investments in elaborate hardware and expertise, the xStack Storage Series iSCSI provides a ready means to deploy large iSCSI SANs either standalone or in conjunction with existing (Fibre Channel) SANs. D-Link Systems, Inc. December 2, 2009 Page 22