I’ve been running iSCSI between my DL380 Gen9 VMware ESXi 7.0.3 server and Synology RS1221+ NAS at 1GbE. It works okay but as one would expect it is not all that quick. For my birthday I received a Synology E10G21-F2 10GbE dual SFP+ Port adaptor:
The DL380 has a HP FlexFabric 10Gb 2-port 554FLR-SFP Adapter that I got for Christmas:
While I have used OM3 fibre on my UniFi switches, this time I decided to go with DAC cables. Fibre is, well, neat but DAC is simpler with no issues of dirty fibre connectors, etc. Probably a little cheaper as well. I have redundant connections between the ESXi server and the NAS.
The start up of the VMs seems a little faster to start but is a little hard to judge. A Windows Server 2022 VM using CrystalDiskMark showed the following results:
On the Synology NAS, here’s the results:
Note that these scores are in megabytes per second, so we need to multiply by 8: * Windows Server: 5,678.64 megabits per second * Synology NAS: 5,388.8 megabits per second Not bad with the overhead of a VM.
Note that there is no switch involved. I have a direct connection between ESXi and the NAS. Eventually I may add a 10 GbE switch (likely a UniFi USW-Aggregation) and a 10 GbE card to the old DL360 Gen8. I can still connect the DL360 to the iSCSI targets using 1 GbE. The DL360 is only for testing anyway.
About Mike Pelley
Let’s see… A little about me…
I’ve been around information technology since 1983 with computers such as DEC Rainbows (weird machine – the standard DOS couldn’t format its own floppy disks – remember them? – and I had to format them on a friend’s IBM PC) to Radio Shack TRS-80 to Apple ][e and Apple //c in the beginning.
I have programmed in 8-bit assembly language on 6502, FORTRAN and COBOL on IBM System/370 (and I still hate JCL), VAX BASIC and COBOL (and a weird and massive WordPerfect 4.0 macro) on DEC VMS (Alpha), C/C++ on Digital Unix (ALPHA), and C/C++, Perl (it may be powerful but I still hate it), PHP on Linux (Red Hat, Centos, Ubuntu, etc.).
I have work with databases such as Digital RDB (later to become Oracle RDB), Oracle DBMS, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL and PostgreSQL on VAX, Alpha, Sun and Intel.
Check out my professional profile and connect with me on LinkedIn. See http://lnkd.in/nhTRZe
I still think that Digital created some of the best ideas in the world: VAX clustering, DSSI disks (forerunner to SCSI) and the Alpha processor (first commercial 64-bit processor – Red Hat screamed on an Alpha!). DEC just could not seem to be able to give air conditioners away to someone lost in the Sahara Desert!
VMware is one of the best ways to get the most out of an x64 server. And I have tried Oracle VM, Virtual Box and Microsoft Virtual Server.
Outside of that I am a huge military history buff starting in the early 20th century. I love Ford Mustangs (my ’87 Mustang GT was awesome) and if I had the money I would have a Porsche 928S4. If I had a lot of money I would have a Porsche 911 Turbo.
I also play too much AmrA 3 Exile mod. Over 5,000+ hours...
I have a wonderful son, Cameron. I have a long suffering (Do you really need all that computer junk?) wife, Paula. I live in Paradise, Newfoundland and Labrador.
