Volume configuration in new GreenLake/Alletra system

[PaulMurphy]

Hello,

We are migrating a VMware cluster connected to a 3PAR system via fibre channel to a new GreenLake solution with an Alletra 5030 storage system.

We have four VMs used for our video surveillance system that still require migration.

• Each vm has three hard drives. Two drives are on standard VMware, thin provisioned vmfs datastores, and the third drive containing the video files is a 10 TB RDM disk, physical compatibility mode, connected to our 3PAR storage using near line disks. 

Per Migrating virtual machines with Raw Device Mappings (RDMs) (broadcom.com) I understand we have to do a cold migration and convert the Physical RDM to VMDK using Storage vMotion.

I was looking for advice or confirmation on the configuration and performance policy to set on the 10 TB volume.

Since this is for video storage that is constantly recording and storing files in avi format (so already compressed) this is what I had planned for a performance policy:

           Thick provision the volume
            Storage block size – 32kb
            Compression – disabled
            Caching – disabled
            Deduplication – disabled

1) Does this sound right for its intended use?

I can create the 10TB volume in the Alletra console with the above performance plan (or a suggested alternative), present that storage to the new hosts, and then create a datastore on the new LUN using the vSphere utilities and not the HPE Multi-array Storage plugin utility. I would create four volumes, one for each VM to use.  I wasn’t planning on using the HPE Multi-array Storage plugin to create this datastore as the only Performance Policies available are the ones below and I don't think I need the SSD caching, dedup, nor compression.

• Exchange 2010 data store
• vSphere Datastore for Exchange
• vSphere Datastore for SQL Server
• VMware ESX 5   

2) Is creating a datastore outside of the HPE Multi-array Storage plugin as above the best route? Is there anything else I should be aware of?

Thank you.

[Vipin_S]

Hello, 
1. Considering your current environment (based on provided information) the action plan looks fine and good to proceed with.

2. You may consider the Nimble plugin for VMware if any of the features available is applicable to your requirements. See this link
https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=sd00004102en_us&page=GUID-5CDFDDFB-5243-4798-B973-5D46D1229D27.html

Also to decide on the best approach you need to check with a storage architect and work on the best practices according to your environment's dependancies.
If any issues during your configuration you can contact Support Case <supportcase@nimblestorage.com> for assistance and for any queries.