iSCSI LUN Questions

[RudeYute]

Hi,

 

I am a new XPEnology user, so please excuse me if this seems a little basic!

 

I have it set up within ESXi on my Microserver:

 

1 x 250GB

2 x 3TB

 

ESXi is stored on a USB stick - the 250GB drive is currently used by ESXi for storage, and XPEnology uses the 2 x 3TB drives.

I have let it use SHR, so should be getting redundancy on the 3TB's.

 

I would like to have the option to use some of the space from my NAS to use as storage for ESXi, as I expect I will need more than 250GB at some stage.

As a test, I have created an iSCSI LUN, and have successfully added this as storage in ESXi.

 

My questions are as follows:

 

- As the 2 x 3TB drives are configured with SHR, will the LUN also have redundancy? (My assumption would be yes, but wanted to confirm)

- Can I create a share on the LUN, allowing me to not only access it using ESXi, but also use it with XPEnology's Download Manger, and also map it on a Windows system (so I can copy to it when necessary)?

- Would it make sense / are there any disadvantages if I was to instead add the 250GB drive to the SHR, and have one big iSCSI LUN, which then has redundancy, and all VM's stored on the LUN?

- Accoring to Synology, if I have issues with my RAID, I can recover the SHR using Ubuntu. Would the same apply with the LUN (though I may not be able to read the VMFS on it, I guess)?

 

I would be grateful for any input about the above.

 

Thanks

[Nindustries]

Hi,

 

I am a new XPEnology user, so please excuse me if this seems a little basic!

 

I have it set up within ESXi on my Microserver:

 

1 x 250GB

2 x 3TB

 

ESXi is stored on a USB stick - the 250GB drive is currently used by ESXi for storage, and XPEnology uses the 2 x 3TB drives.

I have let it use SHR, so should be getting redundancy on the 3TB's.

 

I would like to have the option to use some of the space from my NAS to use as storage for ESXi, as I expect I will need more than 250GB at some stage.

As a test, I have created an iSCSI LUN, and have successfully added this as storage in ESXi.

 

My questions are as follows:

 

- As the 2 x 3TB drives are configured with SHR, will the LUN also have redundancy? (My assumption would be yes, but wanted to confirm)

- Can I create a share on the LUN, allowing me to not only access it using ESXi, but also use it with XPEnology's Download Manger, and also map it on a Windows system (so I can copy to it when necessary)?

- Would it make sense / are there any disadvantages if I was to instead add the 250GB drive to the SHR, and have one big iSCSI LUN, which then has redundancy, and all VM's stored on the LUN?

- Accoring to Synology, if I have issues with my RAID, I can recover the SHR using Ubuntu. Would the same apply with the LUN (though I may not be able to read the VMFS on it, I guess)?

 

I would be grateful for any input about the above.

 

Thanks

 

1. Yup. It 'compacts' your SHR into one 'drive'.

2. Sure. Only on volume-based storage, not file-based. (afaik)

3. Nope. Make sure to boot the XPenology VM first and let the others wait for a period of time, so your XPenology has time to boot up. This is possible within ESXi, don't know where.

4. I don't think you understand a LUN correctly. It's just a block-level 'share' of your volume. If you have issues with your RAID, I'm not sure to what extent you will be able to access it. (e.g. what if Synology can't access the drives?) It all depends on what the problem would be. In general; as long as Synology accepts/can read the drives; yes.