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Best Practices for using VMware vSphere with InfiniBox

When installing InfiniBox intended for use with VMware clusters, make sure you follow the guidelines described below

Host considerations

1. When possible, use the latest ESXi version 

Zoning considerations

1. Each host must have at least 1 path to each InfiniBox node, with 2 HBAs. The total number of paths should not exceed 12 
2. Avoid zoning the hosts to unnecessary storage arrays or volumes, in order to shorten the HBA rescan times

Host PowerTools for VMware installation

1. Straight after enabling FC connectivity between VMware hosts and InfiniBox, Install Host PowerTools for VMware by deploying the OVF template from http://repo.infinidat.com/#host-power-tools-for-vmware
2. It is recommended to perform registration of the cluster or datacenter via the Host Power Tools and not manually, to avoid human mistakes and register only those HBAs actually connected to InfiniBox.
3. Make sure that you "prepare host / cluster" to work with InfiniBox, since it changes valuable configuration and optimises the performance, sometimes with over 50% performance gain

Multipath considerations

1. Follow "Host Readiness Check for ESX Hosts" to configure the InfiniBox Storage Array Type Policy (SATP) and Path Selection Policy (PSP).

Virtual machine considerations 

1. It's recommended using Lazy-zeroed thick provisioning for all hard disks, rather than thin. This way InfiniBox best handles the sequential addressing and gives optimal read performance
2. When migrating VMs from old storage to InfiniBox, it's recommended to perform the migration while the VMs are powered off and to convert the virtual disks to Thick