Whitebox SAN and VMware / VT-d question

[lordsegan]

I want to create a ZFS whitebox SAN.

I am considering using a Lenovo TD340 (already owned). It currently has 1 CPU, but it can support 2. I'd like to add a second and use it as a VM host as well.

I considered the option of using VMware with an M1015 in IT mode. If I put the Solaris inside a VM, I would want to VT-d or RDM to map the M1015 drives directly to Solaris. I have read some articles saying it is not supported to use RDM for local drives, and also articles that say VT-d can cause corruption and other issues.

I do plan to have backups (obviously) but I don't want to deal with corruption. Should I just scrap my idea of adding the second CPU and using virtualization and just run the SAN OS on bare metal for minimum problems?

Best practices? Anything else I should be aware of?

 

[_Gea]

RDM is not supported within vsphere. You must enable via CLI commands.
I suppose this is mainly due its a technology mainly used at home that can cause
many support questions and problems with some hardware that is supported by ESXi.

Hardware pass-through is the suggested path as it offers real hardware access with
native Solaris/OmniOS HBA drivers. No ESXi layer between. From Solaris view this
is like a barebone setup.

VT-d is very stable on modern server hardware as it requires support from Bios+Mainboard+CPU.
Especially on some older desktop mainboards there were reports that vt-d was not working
although it should according to specs.

I use and recomend this setup for years and wrote a mini HowTo and offer
a ready to use ESXi storage VM based on OmniOS

http://www.napp-it.org/doc/downloads/napp-in-one.pdf
http://www.servethehome.com/omnios-napp-it-zfs-applianc-vmware-esxi-minutes/