Need some advice on ESXi / XenServer linked to iSCSI Openfiler

[feenster99]

Hi,
I have a customer that is running a (physical) SBS 2003 Server, providing Active Directory, Exchange, File and Print etc for about 25 users. The server is a Dual Core (CoreDuo, not Xeon!) 2GHz with 4GB and 5 x 160GB SATA hard drives in a RAID-5 array, powered by an Adaptec 3805 RAID card.

The customer is wanting to add SQL Server Standard into their network, as well as expand their storage space. One way I considered doing this is as follows:

1. Backup the existing Windows shared data, remove it from the SBS 2003 Server
2. Convert the existing SBS 2003 to a Virtual Machine
3. Once done and tested, install OpenFiler on the old server hardware (probably using software RAID 10) and setup as an iSCSI target as well as providing some CIFS shares
4. Restore the Windows shared data into new CIFS shares, ready to be linked up once the SBS 2003 VM is up and running
5. Purchase a new Server (Quad core Xeon 2GHz, 6GB RAM, no hard drives) and install ESXi or XenServer onto it (probably onto a USB stick)
6. Put the virtual SBS image on the OpenFiler iSCSI server, link it up through ESXi/XenServer
7. Alter the login script in SBS 2003 to point the mapped drives at the CIFS shares in OpenFiler
8. Create a new Windows Server 2008 + SQL Server 2008 VM

I'm not expecting stellar performance, as their main requirement is to run at the very least as well as they are on the existing hardware, but gain extra storage and disaster recovery options. They currently have about 300GB of working data, and about 10GB of data in Exchange. The SQL Server database will likely be less than 1GB of data.

The advantages I forsee are:

• Increased storage space (as the OpenFiler server could have it's drives replaced with 500GB SATA units, and extra drives are relatively easy to add into the mix)
• Increased backup flexibility - OpenFiler could be set to snapshot the VM's every x hours, their existing LTO-2 tape could be linked up to OpenFiler to allow a daily tape backup
• Possibly increased performance from their existing setup

Will the above work? Any feedback on how it can be improved?

Matt

 

[mikeh501]

Sounds complex for a simple requirement from the client, but hey. I do believe it would work however.

Some concerns i'd have...

* Downtime/Problems during SBS transfer to virtual host, and possible problems getting it back up etc.
* Go with ESXI and forget XenServer. We've trialled it, and didnt like it (poor management tools, slower performance than ESXI - even when it only hosted XenApp, and last point was that its way of managing NIC's - bonding, wasnt as good/easy)
* Openfiler in production... I guess its up to you and how comfortable you are with it.
* Do you know that openfiler supports the hardware your intending using? I'm specifically wondering about the RAID card, and the LTO tape drive. What software is going to manage the backups with the LTO? I didnt think openfiler did it natively (could be wrong).
* You dont mention anything to do with networking, so i'm assuming you will run your iSCSI traffic over the same LAN as the rest of the network. I think this may prove slow/contended. Is it gigabit?
* Whats the likely workload of the SQL box? This could change your performance parameters significantly.
* If your going virtualized i'd stick as much RAM in as you can afford. I wouldnt start at less than 16gb.
* If your buying Dell, then they have an ESXI option which is a internal CF card and reader for installing ESXI. I think its cheap too.

 

[feenster99]

Hi,
Thanks for your reply. I've added some responses below:

Downtime/Problems during SBS transfer to virtual host, and possible problems getting it back up etc.

We have decided that we wouldn't re-use any existing Server hardware. Therefore, we could setup all the new equipment and carry out some test migrations to ESXi/Xen. We'd be using Vizioncore vConverter which in my experience is fairly reliable.

Go with ESXI and forget XenServer. We've trialled it, and didnt like it (poor management tools, slower performance than ESXI - even when it only hosted XenApp, and last point was that its way of managing NIC's - bonding, wasnt as good/easy)

Thanks - will investigate both, but am more familiar with VMWare products anyway.

Openfiler in production... I guess its up to you and how comfortable you are with it.

Looking on their forums, it seems it is very widely used for this sort of thing, so I don't see that being too much of an issue.

Do you know that openfiler supports the hardware your intending using? I'm specifically wondering about the RAID card, and the LTO tape drive. What software is going to manage the backups with the LTO? I didnt think openfiler did it natively (could be wrong).

I would probably go for software RAID as it's easier to repair if something goes wrong.

As for the LTO tape, I'd considered using some Shell scripts we have to backup to tape. Would prefer a GUI really - need some more investigation on this.

You dont mention anything to do with networking, so i'm assuming you will run your iSCSI traffic over the same LAN as the rest of the network. I think this may prove slow/contended. Is it gigabit?

Yeah, they have 2 x Netgear Prosafe switches. All PC's are also Gigabit. I had intended to run the iSCSI traffic over the same LAN, unless you can suggest an alternative?

Whats the likely workload of the SQL box? This could change your performance parameters significantly.

It should be a very light workload. I think the DB is less than 1GB in size, and is used to manage their jobs, contacts etc

If your going virtualized i'd stick as much RAM in as you can afford. I wouldnt start at less than 16gb.

Fair point, will aim for 16GB.

If your buying Dell, then they have an ESXI option which is a internal CF card and reader for installing ESXI. I think its cheap too.

We were look at Fujitsu stuff TBH, but will take a look at the Dell ones too.

Matt

 

[mikeh501]

I would probably go for software RAID as it's easier to repair if something goes wrong.

You really need to get hardware raid. Stating the obvious

As for the LTO tape, I'd considered using some Shell scripts we have to backup to tape. Would prefer a GUI really - need some more investigation on this.

I was also thinking about drivers etc. I'd check the linux distro openfiler uses has the appropriate drivers etc.

Yeah, they have 2 x Netgear Prosafe switches. All PC's are also Gigabit. I had intended to run the iSCSI traffic over the same LAN, unless you can suggest an alternative?

I'd suggest seperating the storage traffic from the LAN traffic either through seperate hardware or at least a seperate VLAN. Last thing you want is the differing traffic types contending for bandwidth.

 

[feenster99]

Thanks again. It looks like the traffic can be VLAN'ed on their switches, so will research that a bit further.

The general consensus on the OpenFiler forums seems to be that for a basic SAN stuff, software RAID is the best option as it's easier to repair and monitor through OpenFiler. Either way, will work something out.

Just need to try and tie down the ESXi virtual machine backup now.

Matt

 

[zetec452]

I think your vastly overcomplicating what is a simple solution. Ideally this job only needs an extra server for SQL.

Are you planning to only use an LTO attached to openfiler for backups?

 

[feenster99]

Hi,
Well, part of the reason for the complex setup is to allow a much greater volume of data to be stored on the network. They are quickly running out of storage space, so a solution needs to be found for that as well as the SQL Server thing. This way also allows other VMWare Servers to be deployed (e.g. web monitoring using DansGuardian etc)

Yep, i was planning to attach an LTO to OpenFiler for backups, but have been considering re-using other hardware on-site to act as a backup of OpenFiler too. There may possibly be some off-site online backup taking place too.

Matt

 

[zetec452]

Are you going to backup the VM's and iSCSI LUNS from openfiler directly? What about exchange, sql and system state backups. I.E backup exec on the sbs server performing proper backups.

I would buy a SQL server and either a NAS for file storage or another smaller server for openfiler if your really wanting to use it. Adding visualization is going to introduce more opportunities for failure imo and appears to leave you with a poor backup strategy.

I must admit I wasn't hugely impressed with openfiler when running it in a test visualization environment with vmware. It did the job for testing. I certainly wouldn't use openfiler to backup systems with.

That's my 2p anyway.