ESXi: Which SSD / important SSD parameters?

[srynoname]

I want to setup a small home server running ESXi, which has to be silent, therefore I will use a SSD drive, however I am not sure which one I shall use and which parameters of a SSD are important for usage with ESXi? I am thinking on one of these (price rougly the same, capacity enough for me) OCZ Onyx 32GB Intel SSD 320 Series 40GB OCZ Vertex 30GB Kingston SSDNow V-Series 30GB For example the Onyx is faster in writing than the Intel SSD, but the Intel SSD performs better on 4K, but I have to admit I have no clue whether 4K is important for ESXi! The Kingston seems to have an agressive cleanup / trim like behaviour built-in maybe that's useful because ESXi supports no trim? Thanks for any hint

 

[yinan]

I do not believe ESXi4.1 supports trim, 5 might. Just get the biggest one you can because VMs can require a lot of space.

 

[srynoname]

I know that ESXi doesn't support TRIM, but still I am going to use a SSD, because the system needs to be silent.

 

[imaheadcase]

Why would you build a server with a SSD drive? /boggles the mind

You can get silent 1TB hardrives. You know, for the purpose of a server, to hold tons of stuff.

Seriously the loudest thing in a server is the fans you use.

Nevermind the fact, because its a server, you most likly will be using it over a network..a SSD won't matter one bit because limited by network speed.

 

[srynoname]

you have to read the first sentence of the opening post, then you know ;-)

 

[Chiropteran]

Nevermind the fact, because its a server, you most likly will be using it over a network..a SSD won't matter one bit because limited by network speed.

Incorrect assumption. Most of the "work" will occur on the ESXi server, the hard drive speed is completely relevant and is not limited by the network connection because the majority of the hard drive reads are not sent over the network. Only enough data to feed the management console and/or remote desktop sessions.

An SSd does make a lot of sense, because running multiple VMs on a single drive will really bog the drive down due to random seeks all across the drive, while multiple VMs on an SSD will not be slowed nearly as much due to superior random IO access. Of course, you pay for that performance advantage with lack of capacity and higher initial cost. Lack of trim support is the only concern I'd have over using an SSD to host VMs.

 

[srynoname]

You can get silent 1TB hardrives. You know, for the purpose of a server, to hold tons of stuff.

Seriously the loudest thing in a server is the fans you use.

my server won't have any fans and a normal HDD still makes recognizable noise. it's for home, not for business / the office.

 

[imagoon]

I would be more concerned about verifying what ever disk controller you plan to use is supported. ESXi doesn't have all that great of SATA AHCI support. I believe they completely removed ATA mode and barely if at all support the "home" style RAID controllers. Also 32GB and 40GB drives are barely big enough for 1 OS, After ESXi carves out its 1GB of "OS" and 4GB of scratch, you will have room to install basically 1 questionably usable OS.

edit:

ESXi's disk usage pattern in entirely dependent on what it hosts. ESXi hosting SQL will have differnet disk req's than hosting a file server.

 

[imaheadcase]

Incorrect assumption. Most of the "work" will occur on the ESXi server, the hard drive speed is completely relevant and is not limited by the network connection because the majority of the hard drive reads are not sent over the network. Only enough data to feed the management console and/or remote desktop sessions.

An SSd does make a lot of sense, because running multiple VMs on a single drive will really bog the drive down due to random seeks all across the drive, while multiple VMs on an SSD will not be slowed nearly as much due to superior random IO access. Of course, you pay for that performance advantage with lack of capacity and higher initial cost. Lack of trim support is the only concern I'd have over using an SSD to host VMs.

Oh so he won't ever send data of the network that will saturate the network...

 

[imaheadcase]

my server won't have any fans and a normal HDD still makes recognizable noise. it's for home, not for business / the office.

I use a server at home, unless i put my ear right up against the cpu fan thats the only noise i hear.

 

[Emulex]

use a non-sandforce controller. and a decent raid card. i have some for sale cheap they can be raid or JBOD depending on flash. this presents to esx as a scsi drive which is far better since it can do vmotion/etc on scsi objects.