ESXi embedded (USB/SD) vs ESXi installable (disks)

chuckk281 — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 13:59:57 GMT

Chris had a VMware media question:

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I am wondering what are the relative advantages and disadvantages of using ESXi embedded (on USB stick or SD card) versus ESXi installable (installed on disk) on ProLIant blades.

Obviously a pair of disks + BBWC for the built in SmartArray controller cost real money. But I get flexibility of patching and have media redundancy (RAID0).

Any comments when one approach fits better than the other and generally what is the best practice today and why?

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Oliver joined the chat:

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I think you already mentioned all relevant pros and cons.

USB/SD:

cheaper
no redundancy (can be covered by HA if you accept short service disruption but you may have inconsistent applications due to the crash)

hard disk:

much more expensive
proven redundancy

Performance is not relevant here. If you deploy ESXi on both media then patching is the same.

It would be wonderful to have USB/SD redundancy J … already discussed on the blade PDL which I have added to the thread.

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Ron also added his voice:

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Also note that with hard drive based systems there are metrics in place to monitor the health of the drives.

With a flash device we do not get the same health monitoring capability.

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What do you think? Do you one over the other?

Re: ESXi embedded (USB/SD) vs ESXi installable (disks)

Jags_21 — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 05:39:28 GMT

The Main difference b/t the ESXi Embedded and ESXi Installable

ESXi Embedded (USB/SD) : Image provided by the OEM like HP along with the HP CIM bundled and HP latest drivers

ESXi Installable : Image provided VMware itself and default CIM bundled and there will not be any specific drivers (for eg: HP flex 10 nic drivers) users need to doenload and install them manually.

topic Re: ESXi embedded (USB/SD) vs ESXi installable (disks) in BladeSystem - General

ESXi embedded (USB/SD) vs ESXi installable (disks)

Re: ESXi embedded (USB/SD) vs ESXi installable (disks)