9.5 HP P4000 VSA Installation and Configuration Guide

5 Designing a virtual SAN
The HP P4000 VSA enables full featured use of the SAN/iQ software in a virtualized environment.
When deployed correctly, HP P4000 virtual 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 3.x or greater. 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. Supported versions of Microsoft Windows Server include the following:
◦ Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, R2 Enterprise, R2 Datacenter
◦ Windows Server 2008 SP2, except for Core, which is not supported
NOTE: Only Windows Server 2008 R2 versions of Server Core are supported for the VSA
for Hyper-V Server.
• Reserved memory based on total disk capacity, as listed in “Memory requirements for VSA
disks” (page 19).
Table 9 Memory requirements for VSA disks
Requires at least this much memoryTotal capacity of all installed disks
ESX Server
◦ 384 MB◦ 500 GB
◦ ◦500 GB to 4.5 TB 1 GB
Designing your virtual SAN 19