ESX Configuration Question

[Khue]

I have a pair of ESX servers both with RAID5 arrays. They are stand alone services that sit in our DMZ and are currently not attached to any shared storage. Does the VSA solution require vCenter to be able to work properly? After looking at the solution it seems like that would be a part that is required.

[Uwe Zessin]

The HP Lefthand VSA (or the ESX server the VM is running on) do not need a Vcenter server - a direct connect with the VI-Client via the ESX server to the VM's console is sufficient.

[Wickedsunny]

Hi,

You can she a SAN Lun between 2 hosts without using the vCenter.

a) Present the LUN to both the servers.

b) Go into Storage Adapters from the VI client, Rescan for the new LUN on ESX A

c) Format it as a VMFS Volume from ESX A by going in to Storage-> Add Storage.

d) This LUN will automatically show as the Datastore on the ESX B Host.

regards,
Sunny

[Uwe Zessin]

The VSA is not supported on shared storage - see the user guide:

* HP LeftHand P4000 VSA User Guide
TA688-96002__20090423 (April 2009) - c01727958

Page 12:
HP LeftHand Networks does not support the following configurations or procedures.

- Use of any shared storage as the data location of the VSA. This includes shared DAS, Fibre Channel, iSCSI, and NAS.
- Use of VMware snapshots, VMotion, HA, or DRS on the VSA itself.
...
- Co-location of a VSA and other virtual machines on the same VMFS datastore.

[Khue]

Can you give an example of a shared storage configuration? I was under the assumption that the VSA essentially makes a share storage volume. For example, each of the 2 individual ESX servers will present their volumes. In return, these 2 volumes get virtualized and appear to be a single volume that provides redundancy so that in the event of a single RAID failure you do not submit to losing all of those VMs on the offlined RAID 5 array. I understand that there will need to be a VSA on each of the ESX servers if thats what you meant. Please Clarify.

[Uwe Zessin]

Ah, you are confusing front-end sharing and back-end sharing ;-)

I was talking about the second: back-end sharing = storing the VSA's data volume(s) on a Fibre Channel, iSCSI or NFS datastore.

Yes, the VSA _does_ provide a shared environment on its front-end in the form of iSCSI volumes - that's a good thing!

[Khue]

Excellent. I had purchased the product based on that assumption and I was hoping that I was not mistaken as it is fairly expensive.

So each ESX server will have a VSA installed on it and those VSAs will collaborate and provide a redundant storage structure in the event of a hardware failure. Thanks for your help!