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BP1024 Scaling and Best Practices for Virtual Workload Environments with the FS7500 7
3 NFS network and host configuration
To develop the best practices for networking and ESX host configuration with the FS7500, we created
a test configuration to simulate the I/O patterns of different application workloads. We ran three tests
to ensure that the configuration was optimized to handle sequential write, sequential read, and
random read/write workloads. The next sections cover the test results and best practices including the
configuration for the tests.
3.1 Test configuration
To determine the networking best practices for the FS7500 in a virtualized environment, we needed to
generate a workload that would simulate the I/O patterns of enterprise application workloads running
in a virtualized environment. We chose Iometer (http://iometer.org/doc/downloads.html
) which is an
open source I/O workload generator and can run on NTFS formatted disks. The following describe the
overall test configuration:
• We used three EqualLogic PS6100X arrays configured in a single EqualLogic storage pool.
Each array had 24 x 300 GB 10K RPM drives configured in RAID 10.
• The arrays were connected to two PowerConnect 7048 switches in a redundant configuration
for high availability. The switches were stacked using the supported stacking modules and
cables.
• Two FS7500 controllers were used in this configuration. Each FS7500 controller was
connected to the PC7048 switches with SAN and internal NICs. All the connections were split
across the stack.
• Two Dell PowerEdge R815s were installed with VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0 and configured with
one virtual machine on each.
• The FS7500 also had a stacked pair of 7048 switches on the front-end. The FS7500 front-end
connections and ESXi host to switch connections were split across the stack.
• Depending on the type of test, one or two hosts with one virtual machine (VM) each were
used. Iometer was installed on virtual machines. Figure 2 shows the overall hardware
architecture for these tests.