Splitting Array for Hypervisor on Hyper-V
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Splitting the hypervisor out to its own array is a total waste. It only uses IOPS at boot time, which is when the VMs are not using them. So you want the hypervisor on the main array to get the fastest possible boot time. And then when the hypervisor has loaded, it is done using the array (except for trivial logging) and then you the IOPS that the hypervisor would have used available to the VMs plus the extra capacity.
Because the hypervisor uses the disks only when the VMs are not on yet, and the VMs only use the disks when the hypervisor does not, there is no benefit to splitting them but massive benefits to combining them.
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One Big Array for me. Hypervisors are the worst things to put on their own arrays as they use the least disk space and speed of anything.
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Do one big array and then create two partitions. One for the hypervisor and the other for Data.
Or maybe a small drive for the hypervisor and then a big array for the data.
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@black3dynamite said in Splitting Array for Hypervisor on Hyper-V:
Or maybe a small drive for the OS and then a big array for the data.
If it is an SD card, that's one thing. But if not, don't bother. No matter how small that drive array is, it's too big.
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@scottalanmiller
This is a little bit off topic, are there any server boards that comes with msata interface?
That can be useful for operating systems to be installed on. -
@black3dynamite said in Splitting Array for Hypervisor on Hyper-V:
@scottalanmiller
This is a little bit off topic, are there any server boards that comes with msata interface?
That can be useful for operating systems to be installed on.Not that I have seen. SuperMicro would be the most likely to have that and I'd only expect it on the most recent servers, if anywhere.
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The beauty of SD as a special case is that it is hot swappable by default, tiny, portable, cheap and easily replaceable like a floppy.
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@black3dynamite said in Splitting Array for Hypervisor on Hyper-V:
Do one big array and then create two partitions. One for OS and the other for Data.
Or maybe a small drive for the OS and then a big array for the data.
@Mike-Davis @black3dynamite A hypervisor is not an OS.
So since you are saying OS and Data I can only assume you mean the guest VM? In that case, sure make as many vmdk/vhdx as you want on the OBR5/6/10 array that the hypervisor is presented.
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@JaredBusch
Yes, I meant the hypervisor. -
@black3dynamite said in Splitting Array for Hypervisor on Hyper-V:
@JaredBusch
Yes, I meant the hypervisor.Then you are doing things wrong, as listed by others earlier in the thread.
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@JaredBusch
Configuring one big array and creating a partition for Hyper-V and another for the VMs is not common? Or keep the hypervisor and the VMs on one partition? -
@black3dynamite said in Splitting Array for Hypervisor on Hyper-V:
@JaredBusch
Configuring one big array and creating a partition for Hyper-V and another for the VMs is not common? Or keep the hypervisor and the VMs on one partition?One array for both is the most general good case (there are exceptions, but the vast majority of hypervisor installs for Hyper-V should be on the same array as the VMs.)
Two partitions on top of the same array is just fine.
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@black3dynamite said in Splitting Array for Hypervisor on Hyper-V:
@JaredBusch
Configuring one big array and creating a partition for Hyper-V and another for the VMs is not common? Or keep the hypervisor and the VMs on one partition?It is not common, because the most common RAID adapters out there do not have the functionality to create partitions on the RAID array. We had a thread on this subject not too long ago in fact. If someone could find it and link it that would be great.
It is definitely a nice way to handle it if you can have the array split logically prior to installing the hypervisor.
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I should have added I haven't done it, but a client was asking and I couldn't think of a reason to do it that way, but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.
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@black3dynamite said in Splitting Array for Hypervisor on Hyper-V:
@scottalanmiller
This is a little bit off topic, are there any server boards that comes with msata interface?
That can be useful for operating systems to be installed on.HP Micro Servers have microSD slots on the motherboard. I have installed ESXi on them. Kingston makes a 4GB microSD card with SD adapter that I keep on hand so I can install ESXi on most newer servers.
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@Mike-Davis said in Splitting Array for Hypervisor on Hyper-V:
@black3dynamite said in Splitting Array for Hypervisor on Hyper-V:
@scottalanmillerThis is a little bit off topic, are there any server boards that comes with msata interface?
That can be useful for operating systems to be installed on.HP Micro Servers have microSD slots on the motherboard. I have installed ESXi on them. Kingston makes a 4GB microSD card with SD adapter that I keep on hand so I can install ESXi on most newer servers.
Tons of servers have SD card slots. It's the mSATA that is hard to find.
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How 'bout installing the o/s (aka hypervisor) on a SATA DOM & VMs on your RAID 5/6/xxx array?
https://www.supermicro.com/products/nfo/SATADOM.cfm
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Did you just say RAID 5?
Unless you're talking about SSD....
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@JaredBusch said in Splitting Array for Hypervisor on Hyper-V:
@black3dynamite said in Splitting Array for Hypervisor on Hyper-V:
@JaredBusch
Configuring one big array and creating a partition for Hyper-V and another for the VMs is not common? Or keep the hypervisor and the VMs on one partition?It is not common, because the most common RAID adapters out there do not have the functionality to create partitions on the RAID array. We had a thread on this subject not too long ago in fact. If someone could find it and link it that would be great.
It is definitely a nice way to handle it if you can have the array split logically prior to installing the hypervisor.
You can still split the array up at the hypervisor install level.
Would there be any benefit to a split at the adapter level versus inside the array as partitions?
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@Dashrender said in Splitting Array for Hypervisor on Hyper-V:
@JaredBusch said in Splitting Array for Hypervisor on Hyper-V:
@black3dynamite said in Splitting Array for Hypervisor on Hyper-V:
@JaredBusch
Configuring one big array and creating a partition for Hyper-V and another for the VMs is not common? Or keep the hypervisor and the VMs on one partition?It is not common, because the most common RAID adapters out there do not have the functionality to create partitions on the RAID array. We had a thread on this subject not too long ago in fact. If someone could find it and link it that would be great.
It is definitely a nice way to handle it if you can have the array split logically prior to installing the hypervisor.
You can still split the array up at the hypervisor install level.
Would there be any benefit to a split at the adapter level versus inside the array as partitions?
6/halfdozen.
At the controller level, the readability of the data side is not dependant on the hypervisor side being bootable. You simply boot to a USB media or something and read you data. t is a failure mitigation concept to me.
Not something that is going to make day to day any different
