VMware ESX Server Storage Best Practices

by latoga on April 30, 2009

in Virtualization, VMware

I just wrapped up a Breakfast ‘N Learn at one of my customers on the topic of Storage Best Practices for VMware Environments.  A storage agnostic view of things to keep in mind on the storage side of your VMware deployments.

Here is a quick hit of the server storage best practices that should be of value to all VMware users:

  • Deploy a tiered storage approach
  • Use a separate LUN for templates
  • Standardize LUN sizes within tiers
  • Handle exceptions on a case-by-case basis
  • Avoid use of extents
  • No more than 1 VMFS volume per LUN
  • Deploy all virtual discs for a server on the same VMFS volume

For more details check out the VMware Resources for Virtual Storage portal.

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

slamck May 25, 2011 at 11:44 am

The guideline above sounds about right except this one:

For a high I/O application server, such as Exchange or SQL, one can maximize IO performance by putting system, database and log virtual disks on separate LUNs. We ran extensive tests using MS Jetstress test tool to confirm this.

Hope this help.

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