Performance Policy VMFS 6 on VMware 6.5

[cwlindy129]

ESX or ESX 5?  Or do I need to create a custom policy with what settings?

[scottie88 · Accepted solution]

Chris,

I would bet ESX5 and not ESX. I believe ESX is for older versions of VMware and if Nimble had changes, or will have, they will publish and show a VMware ESX 6 Performance Policy. HOWEVER, I would recommend testing and maybe a quick call to support to be sure.

[cwlindy129]

Thanks I am calling support now.

[scottie88]

Always the safest bet! Please post their response to let the rest of us know.

[cwlindy129]

This is what I got back from support.

"So the volume block size between VMFS versions are the same .  And the SCSI I/O patterns are the same as well.  So using "VMware ESX 5" would be acceptable."

I am going to use ESX 5.

Thanks!

-Chris

[marktheblue45]

ESX, ESX 5 and ESX 6 still have the same block size. At the moment there is a default ESX 6 as a default Performance Policy but creating one will at least help you differentiate the VMware environment behind the volumes. The "Nice" feature with vmfs 6 is that it reintroduces automatic SCSI unmap to clear up "White Space" on the Array.

[DJ6]

In a related note, there is no way to select the VMFS version from the Nimble vSphere Plugin (as of February 2018).