When installing InfiniBox intended for use with VMware clusters, make sure you follow the guidelines described below
Host considerations
- When possible, use the latest ESXi version
Zoning considerations
- Each host must have at least 1 path to each InfiniBox node, with 2 HBAs. The total number of paths should not exceed 12
- Avoid zoning the hosts to unnecessary storage arrays or volumes, in order to shorten the HBA rescan times
Host PowerTools for VMware installation
- 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
- 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.
- 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
- Follow "Host Readiness Check for ESX Hosts" to configure the InfiniBox Storage Array Type Policy (SATP) and Path Selection Policy (PSP).
Virtual machine considerations
- 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
- 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
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