There’s a good discussion over at vmetc.com concerning putting high performance Exchange/SQL VMs on VMFS backends or RDMs. I posted a comment that I’m using VMFS for all SQL/Exchange VMs now, except in instances where we would like to take advantage of application aware SAN utilities for backups and/or SAN snapshots. I neglected to make the comment on performance for VMFS being nearly identical to that of RDM. Well, a quick Google turned up this VMware white paper: Performance Characterization of VMFS and RDM Using a SAN. I remember sitting in a breakout session at VMware Partner Exchange earlier this year and seeing this study quoted.
To me, this is good enough reason as any to go whole hog with VMFS for simplicity and for the features of VMFS. As long as the performance is there, and you don’t need app aware SAN snapshots, why not? K.I.S.S (keep it simple Sean). RDM’s add complexity to a VMware storage design. Whenever possible, I look to avoid complexity and cost.
The Winner? VMFS!
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April 13, 2009 at 7:07 am
[...] Clark also mentions RDMs for taking advantage of SAN utilities in his post VMFS vs RDM? Does Miller Lite ...