Dell PowerVault MD3000i Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in User’s - Page 30

Using the Adaptive Scheme to Make LUN Decisions, Creating a Virtual Disk

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Using the Adaptive Scheme to Make LUN Decisions When you plan how to set up your storage for your ESX/ESXi systems before you format LUNs with VMFS datastores, you must decide on the LUN size and number of LUNs to use. You can experiment using the adaptive scheme. 1 Create a large LUN (RAID 1+0 or RAID 5), with write caching enabled. 2 Build a VMFS on that LUN. 3 Place four or five virtual disks on the VMFS. 4 Run the applications to determine whether disk performance is acceptable. If performance is acceptable, you can place additional virtual disks on the VMFS. If performance is not acceptable, create a new, larger LUN, possibly with a different RAID level, and repeat the process. Use migration so that you do not lose virtual machines when you re-create the LUN. Creating a Virtual Disk After a new disk group is created, new virtual disks can be created from the free capacity within the disk group. To create a new virtual disk, click the Create Virtual Disk link to launch the Create Virtual Disk wizard. See Figure 20. On the wizard, you can enter the virtual disk name, select the disk group to use for the new virtual disk, enter the size of the new virtual disk, and set the I/O characteristics of the virtual disk. Click OK to create the virtual disk. 30 Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in

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Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in
Using the Adaptive Scheme to Make LUN Decisions
When you plan how to set up your storage for your ESX/ESXi systems before
you format LUNs with VMFS datastores, you must decide on the LUN size
and number of LUNs to use. You can experiment using the adaptive scheme.
1
Create a large LUN (RAID 1+0 or RAID 5), with write caching enabled.
2
Build a VMFS on that LUN.
3
Place four or five virtual disks on the VMFS.
4
Run the applications to determine whether disk performance is
acceptable.
If performance is acceptable, you can place additional virtual disks on the
VMFS. If performance is not acceptable, create a new, larger LUN, possibly
with a different RAID level, and repeat the process. Use migration so that you
do not lose virtual machines when you re-create the LUN.
Creating a Virtual Disk
After a new disk group is created, new virtual disks can be created from the
free capacity within the disk group. To create a new virtual disk, click the
Create Virtual Disk
link to launch the Create Virtual Disk wizard. See
Figure 20. On the wizard, you can enter the virtual disk name, select the disk
group to use for the new virtual disk, enter the size of the new virtual disk,
and set the I/O characteristics of the virtual disk. Click
OK
to create the
virtual disk.