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Forum Discussion
RN2120 as a "SAN" for ESXi 5.5 hosts
Hi all,
I currently own a RN2120 that i use as a simple NAS for home file storage and I've never had a lick of trouble with it. So much so that I want to see whether another of the same units would serve me in another capacity.
I have two VMware ESXi 5.5 hosts at home both running VMs from local storage and I want to see how another RN2120 would cope as iSCSI shared storage for running the VMDKs for these VMs. I'm interested in any experiences that people have of using the RN2120 in this capacity, especially specifics on:
Performance: How does the RN2120 cope as a shared storage device running multiple VMs (none with very high IO requirements). Is there a preferred configuration in terms of RAID to achieve maximum performance?
Compatibility: Has anyone had issues running ESXi 5.5 against a RN2120? Were you able to work around them?
NFS vs. iSCSI: The RN2120 datasheets all list the iSCSI features and compatibilities and iSCSI is always how I've set up shared storage for VMware previously, but does anyone have very significant arguments in favour of NFS?
Any personal experiences people have of ANY kind would be greatly appreciated as I don't want to spend several hundred pounds on one for this purpose and not have it pan out!
Cheers,
Q.
I currently own a RN2120 that i use as a simple NAS for home file storage and I've never had a lick of trouble with it. So much so that I want to see whether another of the same units would serve me in another capacity.
I have two VMware ESXi 5.5 hosts at home both running VMs from local storage and I want to see how another RN2120 would cope as iSCSI shared storage for running the VMDKs for these VMs. I'm interested in any experiences that people have of using the RN2120 in this capacity, especially specifics on:
Performance: How does the RN2120 cope as a shared storage device running multiple VMs (none with very high IO requirements). Is there a preferred configuration in terms of RAID to achieve maximum performance?
Compatibility: Has anyone had issues running ESXi 5.5 against a RN2120? Were you able to work around them?
NFS vs. iSCSI: The RN2120 datasheets all list the iSCSI features and compatibilities and iSCSI is always how I've set up shared storage for VMware previously, but does anyone have very significant arguments in favour of NFS?
Any personal experiences people have of ANY kind would be greatly appreciated as I don't want to spend several hundred pounds on one for this purpose and not have it pan out!
Cheers,
Q.
4 Replies
- Do you really need the rackmount form factor? If not e.g. the 314 or better yet the 516 would be a much better choice for this.
If you need a rackmount NAS I would go with the 3220 over the 2120 for this.
There are arguments both ways about NFS vs iSCSI. Whichever way you go it is important that you backup your data if your data is important to you. No important data should be stored on just the one device.
There are some steps you should take to configure the NAS correctly for use as a VM datastore.
Welcome to the forum! - Thanks for the welcome mdgm!
Can you let me know what benefits you think would justify the use of a 3220 / 314 / 516 over another 2120? The rackmount side of things is reasonably important to me purely from a neatness and cable management perspective, but it's not exactly critical, per se, as it's a home setup at the end of the day.
As far as I'm aware a 314 is basically a 2120 in a square box so that one is a bit confusing for me. As far as the 516, does it offer anything other than the increased IO from the increased disk pool? The 3220 obviously I could see as being a much better unit for the job, but for a home setup it's also four to five times the price, so is it enough to warrant that kind of additional cost?
I'd be grateful for any specifics you may be able to provide on the whys, or potential performance! Do you have any case studies or performance data if I was to go with another 2120?
Cheers,
Q. - The 314 has an Intel CPU which is more powerful than the ARM one in the 2120. The 314 is more suited to this task. The 3220 also has an Intel CPU.
My concern from experience with the 2120 is that you would likely find it can't handle the load you intend to put on it. - Hi Quandru have you chosen a unit yet?
We have just announced the 3130 which I think would be a good choice for you.
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