Multiple LUNS, device types, and ESX 3.0x

[muestafa1]

I'm creating a test iSCSI "SAN" using the StarWind software. I have 4 Terrabytes of total capacity (currently one big RAID5 volume that also contains the Windows 2003 OS). I would like to create multiple "LUNs" with smaller sizesl (300-400GB) as VMware recommends.

I'm trying to figure out the best StarWind device type to use to fit our situation. The disk bridge type worked, but it created a 4TB Device (too big, I don't want a 4TB VMFS partition). Also, If i understand correctly, i'd lose my 2003 OS when i went to format it as VMFS anyway since the StarWind "SAN" server only has one Physical partition.

Should I use Image File Devices then, because I can create a 400GB or smaller image file for each LUN i need and place them on the existing 4TB NTFS partition.

How much of a performance hit will I take for doing this? I can reconfigure the server if needed, so if there is a better way to set things up, i can give it a try.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. If you need any clarification, please let me know. Thanks!

[muestafa1]

Also, we installed Windows 2003 64bit thinking that StarWind may perform better on the 64bit platform. Is there any performance benefit to running StarWind on 64bit or should we just stick with 32bit Windows?

[anton (staff)]

We don't support multi-LUN hard disks. Rather you need to create separate targets each serving dedicated iSCSI hard disk drive.

Use cached Image File option as it's the fastest one and also has full ESX support.

Perfroamance hit compared to what configuration? Just plain hard disk or ... ?

I'm creating a test iSCSI "SAN" using the StarWind software. I have 4 Terrabytes of total capacity (currently one big RAID5 volume that also contains the Windows 2003 OS). I would like to create multiple "LUNs" with smaller sizesl (300-400GB) as VMware recommends.

I'm trying to figure out the best StarWind device type to use to fit our situation. The disk bridge type worked, but it created a 4TB Device (too big, I don't want a 4TB VMFS partition). Also, If i understand correctly, i'd lose my 2003 OS when i went to format it as VMFS anyway since the StarWind "SAN" server only has one Physical partition.

Should I use Image File Devices then, because I can create a 400GB or smaller image file for each LUN i need and place them on the existing 4TB NTFS partition.

How much of a performance hit will I take for doing this? I can reconfigure the server if needed, so if there is a better way to set things up, i can give it a try.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. If you need any clarification, please let me know. Thanks!

[anton (staff)]

I don't think so... Even 32-bit Windows address memory with the 36-bit PAE so up to 64GB of RAM (used as a cache) is available.

Also, we installed Windows 2003 64bit thinking that StarWind may perform better on the 64bit platform. Is there any performance benefit to running StarWind on 64bit or should we just stick with 32bit Windows?