Location to run the HP SV VSA 2014 appliance

[VISABATI]

We are got 4 HP servers with each server 16 Qty 900gb disk and 4 Qty of 2TB disk for VSA storage. Each host runs esx 5.5 via SD card. The server consists with HP Array 440ar card. What is the best practise to install or run the HP VSA appliance? On a USB stick or separate RAID disk (Eg RAID 1).

We were trying to partition volume via HP Smart array but it's not allowing us only option to use 2  Qty of 900GB disk RAID 1 and add to VMware and install the appliance which is bit of waste.

[danevald]

You need to have a datastore in VMware that can be used for the VSA appliance. In my servers I install VMware ESXi on the SD-card, have 2x 300GB SAS RAID1 for VSA-OS and VMware log files, 5-15x 900GB SAS RAID5 for VSA Storage, both RAIDs are like yours on P440ar. Along with this I have a PCIe Flash card for tier 0 storage - this configuration is running like a charm :-)

[VISABATI]

Thank you for update danevald

Can I created one RAID5 pool using 16 Qty( 900GB disk)  in Smart array and the via vSphere server add 50GB storage space on VMware datastore for VSA appliance and use the rest for VSA ?

[danevald]

At least for iSCSI luns, I see it's not possible to create multiple datastores from the same, so if I remember correctly it will be the same for regular disks. 

[VISABATI]

Finally I have created 50Gb via smart arrry logical drive and rest for VSA so now vin VMware I can have 2 separate data store.