Aaron
Member
Registered: 9th Aug 04
Location: Cottingham, East Riding
User status: Offline
|
I'm new to virtualisation, so please forgive me.
I have ESXi installed onto a HP Microserver. As well as the standard 250GB hard drive, i also have 2x 2TB drives installed. These are each setup as a separate datastore, with each one being assigned to a separate server (i have two virtual servers, with one of the data stores assigned to each)
I'm just in the middle of duplicating the data from one drive to the next, and i was wondering about worst case scenarios. Lets say that, for some reason, i need to take one of the drives out to slap into a caddy so that it can be read by another computer. Because the drives are setup as virtual disks, would this mean that simply plugging a drive into another PC wouldn't show up the contents as usually expected?
I'm going to do exactly this once the data has finished copying, but i thought i'd ask here in the mean time, as i know there are a few knowledgeable people when it comes to this sort of thing.
Ta
[Edited on 23-12-2012 by Aaron]
|
John
Member
Registered: 30th Jun 03
User status: Offline
|
It's not just a virtual disk, it's a datastore with one or many virtual disks on it, you won't be able to view it as a normal disk. Would need something that can mount the datastore then something that could mount the virtual disk from there.
|
Aaron
Member
Registered: 9th Aug 04
Location: Cottingham, East Riding
User status: Offline
|
Yeah that what i suspected. Hmm, i dont think having my files stored in this way is the best thing. NAS needed imo
|
Dom
Member
Registered: 13th Sep 03
User status: Offline
|
Requires a bit of a hack but, iirc, you can give ESXi direct access to drives (do a Google); at least then you can drag the drive out in an emergency and use it in another system.
|
John
Member
Registered: 30th Jun 03
User status: Offline
|
You can pass through certain parts of the hardware but I wouldn't do that for here.
Don't store all your data on a single drive whether it's ESXi or not.
I've got loads of servers in production use with the data stored inside a datastore. They are all RAID and all backed up though.
|
Aaron
Member
Registered: 9th Aug 04
Location: Cottingham, East Riding
User status: Offline
|
Indeed you're right about storing all the data on one drive, and that's why i always have a duplicate.
Never the less, i've come to realise tonight that my idea for storing my files (films etc) how i am at the moment is a bad one, which will prompt the thread i'm about to make about NAS servers...which will allow for RAID 5.
I considered ditching ESXi and installing something like FreeNas on my Microserver, as well as ramming it full of 3TB drives, however, i like to have the ability to faff with virtual servers etc.
|
Dom
Member
Registered: 13th Sep 03
User status: Offline
|
Single drive would be silly but i was thinking more along the lines of - create a mirrored array (not getting anything fancier out of the Microserver unfortunately without a HW card) and then direct drive mapping to the array (that's if ESXi supports it).
Edit - http://cyborgworkshop.org/2011/01/08/enabling-raw-sata-access-in-esxi-free/
[Edited on 23-12-2012 by Dom]
|
John
Member
Registered: 30th Jun 03
User status: Offline
|
Do the same on your HP box, fill with drives, RAID5, use ESXi and leave a few hundred gig free for virtual stuff.
|
Aaron
Member
Registered: 9th Aug 04
Location: Cottingham, East Riding
User status: Offline
|
Here's my problem. It seems as though ESXi can only recognise drives which are 2TB or smaller. I bought some 3TB ones not so long ago...and no matter what i tried, i just couldnt get ESXi to see them. I scouted the VMWare forums, and it seems as though, without RAID, individual 2TB drives are the limit.
I should point out at this point that the microserver doesn't support hardware raid at the moment, due to having no controller.I guess i could buy a raid controller though.
|
John
Member
Registered: 30th Jun 03
User status: Offline
|
Probably not worth buying a raid controller, use the microserver for playing about with esxi in that case and just get a NAS.
Did you ever install the latest ESXi? That supports 3TB drives as far as I know. The only 2TB limit is the virtual disk size.
|
Aaron
Member
Registered: 9th Aug 04
Location: Cottingham, East Riding
User status: Offline
|
quote:
Originally posted by John
Probably not worth buying a raid controller, use the microserver for playing about with esxi in that case and just get a NAS.
Did you ever install the latest ESXi? That supports 3TB drives as far as I know. The only 2TB limit is the virtual disk size.
Yeah i tried ESXi 5, but unless i was making a mistake (a distinct possibility), i still couldn't get it to do what i wanted. Even if i could have got it to see the 3TB drives, the idea of only being able to have 2TB virtual disks seems like too much messing about. When it comes to stuff like this, i just like it to work out of the box  So having to faff about creating multiple virtual hard disks to use up the capacity of the 3TB dries sounds like too much work....even tough it's probably a matter of minutes. I think a NAS is the best way to go as you say, given that i'd like/need the ability to transport the files to different locations every now and then. Any recommendations on a NAS?
|
John
Member
Registered: 30th Jun 03
User status: Offline
|
You can't ever get more than 2TB virtual disks. I've got a 10TB backup server with 5 virtual disks because that's the way it had to be.
Can't ever just now, they'll eventually change the underlying file system and it will work.
[Edited on 23-12-2012 by John]
|
Aaron
Member
Registered: 9th Aug 04
Location: Cottingham, East Riding
User status: Offline
|
Oh yeah of course. What i meant was that the idea of having to create multiple virtual disks to take up the full capacity of the physical space doesn't sound appealing to me for what i need/want.
|
