Creating an Aggregate for VM

[#1]

Hello, I am soon going to be re-creatng an aggregate that will be used for our vmware environment, and I just wanted to ask for some tips and best practices that I should implement.

So here is a little bit of info about my filer.

Its a Fas3140 filer, running  ontap 7.3.1.1p3

Currently I am in the process of moving volumes from this Aggregate of fiber channel disks, to an SATA Aggregate, they are all cifs volumes.

If i do aggr status <aggrname> -v I get the following;

Aggr State           Status            Options
  cifs online          raid_dp, aggr     root, diskroot, nosnap=off,
                                redirect       raidtype=raid_dp, raidsize=16,
                                                  ignore_inconsistent=off,
                                                  snapmirrored=off,
                                                  resyncsnaptime=60,
                                                  fs_size_fixed=off,
                                                  snapshot_autodelete=on,
                                                  lost_write_protect=on

                Volumes: vol0, finservacct, it, marketing, pmdata,
                         citrix_streams, users, gms_data, data, gcs

                Plex /cifs/plex0: online, normal, active
                    RAID group /cifs/plex0/rg0: normal
                    RAID group /cifs/plex0/rg1: normal

I know that this aggregate is using raid_dp and has 16 disks.

if I do df -Ah cifs:

Aggregate                total       used      avail capacity
cifs                    4087GB     3125GB      962GB      76%
cifs/.snapshot           215GB       61GB      153GB      29%

I see that its also taking up some space by doing aggr snapshots, which I will disable the schedule and purge those snapshots later on.

So I have about 4293GB if I take back the snapshot space.

We dont have an NFS license, we have a VMFS, so the new volumes on that aggregate will be vmfs. Is there a good way to split up that 4293GB of disk space into 2 or 4 volumes, which then on will contain a lun presented to esx?

Thank you,

Anton

[#2]

What size disks do you have and how many available for a new aggregate? I recommend aggregates as large as possible. For example:

300GB FC disks:

3x RAID groups of 21 disks each.

450GB FC disks:

2x RAID groups of 22 disks each.

1TB SATA disks:

2x RAID groups of 12 disks each (only 23 will fit).

The performance from aggregates like this is astounding. With aggregates like this, I am never worried about I/O cross-contamination.

Stetson Webster

Professional Services Consultant

Virtualization and Consolidation

NCIE-SAN, NCIE-B&R, SCSN-E, VCP

NetApp

919.250.0052 Direct Phone

stetson@netapp.com

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[#3]

Is there a good way to split up that 4293GB of disk space into 2 or 4 volumes, which then on will contain a lun presented to esx?

I am not sure I really understand a question. You just creates FlexVols on this aggregate (like you already did) and then create LUNs inside these FlexVols. Or could you explain in more details what you intend to do?

[#4]

Ok, so what if I will add 5 more disks to this aggr, is it a good amount, do I need more or less is what I am trying to find out for performance.

Also, once the aggregate is ready to be split up into volumes, whats the most optimal way to divide it up?