10.5 HP StoreVirtual Storage VSA Installation and Configuration Guide (TA688-96138, March 2013)

5 Designing a virtual SAN
The VSA enables full featured use of the LeftHand OS software in a virtualized environment. When
deployed correctly, HP LeftHand SANs are scalable, highly available, and fully redundant.
Figure 4 Example of a virtual SAN using the VSA
Designing your virtual SAN
The design of your virtual SAN affects both its performance and its reliability for production use.
Use the concepts and practices in this manual when installing and managing your virtual SAN to
ensure optimal performance and reliability.
Configuration requirements
The following configuration requirements are prerequisites for HP to support your virtual SAN for
production use.
• A qualified server running VMware ESX Server. Qualified servers are listed in VMware ESX
Server systems compatibility guide, which can be found at
http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php.
• A qualified server running Microsoft Hyper-V Server. To verify the server is listed and qualified
for Hyper-V Server, go to http://windowsservercatalog.com/results.aspx?&bCatID=1283&
cpID=0&avc=11&ava=0&OR=1&PGS=25, and then search for “Hyper-V” as an additional
qualification. See supported Windows versions.
• Reserved memory based on total disk capacity, as listed in Table 9 (page 20).
Table 9 Memory requirements for VSA disks
Requires at least this much memoryTotal capacity of all installed disks
3 GB5 GB to 500 GB
4 GB500 GB to 5 TB
5 GB5 TB to 10 TB
• Two virtual CPUs with at least 2000 MHz reserved.
NOTE: The Hyper-V installer assigns 1000 MHz by default.
• A connection to a virtual switch or virtual network with at least a Gigabit network connection.
• Virtual disk(s) with 5 GB to 2 TB (2047 GB for ESX, 2040 GB for Hyper-V Server virtual
machines) of space per disk located on internal disk storage, or direct attached storage that
20 Designing a virtual SAN