VSAN question

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BSDMan

Weaksauce
Joined
May 23, 2012
Messages
105
I am going to be learning VMware VSAN 6.2 and need to setup my current server at home with some new hardware so that this will work.

My current setup consists of:

Supermicro X10SL7-F (with LSI 2308 onboard controller)
32GB RAM
Xeon E3-1230 v3 @ 3.30GHz
Two 1gb NICs

The current SSD drives I have are not on VMwares HCL so need to be replaced (I'm setting up an all flash VSAN).

I'm currently considering the following drives:

Cache tier:

Intel DC P3700 Series 400GB 2.5"

Capacity tier:

Samsung SM863 480GB Enterprise Class SATA SSD

My motherboard has a PCIe 3.0 x4 slot but I'd prefer to get the Intel DC P3700 in the 2.5" form factor as I could reuse it in a new server I am going to buy later this year which has an onboard M2 slot.

So my question is, how can I connect the Intel DC P3700 2.5" drive in my current server? I do have a spare M2 to PCIe adapter card so could I use this with a U2 to M2 adapater? Would this work? So it woud look something like this:

Intel DC P3700 Series 400GB 2.5" ---> connected to U2 to M2 adapter -----> connected to M2 to PCIe adapter card ----> PCIe slot on motherboard

The U2 to M2 adapter:

Asus U.2/M.2 Hyper Kit Card for Intel 750 NVMe SSD 2.5"

My current M2 to PCIe adapter:

DT-120 M.2 PCI-e SSD to PCI-e Adapter Card

Or is there a better (or preferred) way to connect a U2 (SFF-8639) drive to a PCIe slot? Is there a U2 to PCIe adapter card maybe?

Also, what cable do I need from the hard drive to the adapter card? SFF-8639 to mini-SAS I think but am battling to find one!

Thanks!
 
Sorry...no answers...just more questions..... I have been thinking about going VSAN too.

Will you have 3 x X10SL7-F's in your VSAN setup??
Why do you think you cannot reuse a PCIe card (vs. the 2.5") in another system??

I just re-read your post .....the new motherboard or server will _only_ have an M2 slot??? No PCIe?
 
Last edited:
Short answer: No

Longer answer: I want to experiment with VSAN 6.2 with my current server. This will be setup, temporarily, and in an unsopprted configuration as a single node VSAN "cluster". I've already done this and the performance results were awful...around 20MB/s speeds on average on an all flash datastore with 4 SATA SSDs for capacity and a single PCIe NVMe drive for cache. After much research its the fact that I am using consumer SATA drives so I need to buy some new drives for my current server.

But thinking longer term I want to replace this current server with a Supermicro Mini Tower Intel Xeon D-1541. This server has 6 SATA ports on the motherboard, a single PCIe 3.0 x 4 slot and an M2 slot. I could reuse the PCIe Intel DC P3700 in this server but then this uses the one and only PCIe slot which leads to another problem: I need to use a supported HBA with VSAN and the one I keep hearing about is the IBM M1015...but yip, this needs a PCIe slot! So I thought if I got the Intel DC P3700 drive in a 2.5" (with adapter card) format I could use it in my current server AND the new server later on (wth a U2 to M2 adapter).

There is one big concern though with the 2.5" drive: The Intel specs say it operates up to 35C temperature wheres as the AIC can run up tp 55C (or 70C I forget now)

VSAN seems very fussy with hardware and although there is a VSAN HCL, most of the stuff is enterprise and pricey. There are options for home labs but its just tricky trying to get it ALL right as you need the correct HBA (with the correct disk queue depth) and supported flash drives (some drivers are better suited for cache rather than capacity and vice versa).

I honestly thought by purchasing a Samsung 850 Pro PCIe NVMe SSD 256GB for the cache tier that my all flash VSAN datastore would FLY but its been a rather painful learning experience! I saw brief (and I mean brief!) moments of speeds over 100MB/s and once or twice saw 300MB/s hit but only for seconds. Generalt speeds were around 20-30MB/s with brief moments of 80MB/s. The speeds weren't consisten either.

Feel free to ask anymore as VSAN is quite fresh in my mind right now although I have not seen it operate optimally yet due to my hardware. The dedupe/compression is awesome!!
 
I have a slightly better understanding now....I have been reading up on the single node VSAN stuff.
I had not heard of it until I went searching after reading your post.

Leave it to the smart people to get around the 3 node requirement ;)

I think in my case I will just play with it in a nested lab (following VirtuallyGhetto site docs)
 
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