Mismatched hardware = no go?

Software-based VM-centric and flash-friendly VM storage + free version

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mkernvbt
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Dec 16, 2024 8:53 pm

Mon Dec 16, 2024 11:16 pm

I've got a 2+q node PVE cluster, and I'm trying to get setup with shared storage hosted on the two main nodes - I'm working through SW vSAN Free now, since I thought it would be a good way forward. However, I seem to not be able to proceed with the setup of an HA LUN, no matter what I do, possibly due to mismatched hardware between the nodes.

The first node (prox1) boots and holds the CVM image on an NVMe drive, then also has: 2x 1.92TB SSDs and 2x 14TB HDDs, all off the "FCH SATA Controller" which has been passed-through to the CVM through PCIe passthrough. The second node (prox2) boots and holds the CVM image on an NVMe drive, then also has 2x 1.6TB NVMe SSDs, and 2x 8TB HDDs (1 SAS, the other SATA), with the SAS controller and the latter two NVMe drives passed through. My intention out of this setup is to have two shared volumes at the end - one that's 1.6TB and lives on the 4 SSDs, and one that's 8TB and lives on the 4 HDDs, with full HA support (the end result will likely look slightly different in practice, but that's the core functionality I'm after to start off).

Following the configuration guide, I start deviating as soon as we get to "Create Storage Pools" - if I select both nodes, it will not let me select drives on both nodes, with the tooltip "This disk has a different media or bus type, size or is attached to a different storage controller". I'm able to work around that by adding the pools on each node separately, but we run into a similar issue creating Volumes - they must be done separately. When I go to create a LUN, even with exactly identical Volume configurations (including exactly the same size, etc.), trying to add both nodes always shows "Selected appliances have no compatible volumes".

So, first off, I thought you could do this with this product - is there just some step I'm missing to create mismatched 2-way HA setups?

Assuming that's not possible, I'm imagining a solution where I do disk pass-through instead of PCIe pass-through, setting the sizes the same (so both CVMs would see identical disks, on matched virtio SCSI interfaces) - this has a few downsides that I see, but otherwise is this possible? Would this completely tank performance? Am I better off just trying to find a solution that better fits my needs?
yaroslav (staff)
Staff
Posts: 3599
Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2019 11:11 am

Tue Dec 17, 2024 8:32 am

Welcome to StarWind Forum.
Are the controllers different?
Are you planning to create a software RAID at the end? If so, please go through the RAID creation wizard for each node separately.
Check this script https://forums.starwindsoftware.com/vie ... ilit=HINT8.
mkernvbt
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Dec 16, 2024 8:53 pm

Tue Dec 17, 2024 2:50 pm

The controllers are different - prox1 has all 4 disks off the AMD "FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode]" (i.e. built-in SATA on the EPYC 3251), which has been passed through to the CVM. prox2 has 2 disks off an LSI 9400-16i, and two that are their own NVMe controller, with the HBA and the two NVMe drives passed through to the CVM. At this point I just do not have the hardware or hardware budget to make the setups similar.

Software RAID is the intention - when you say the "RAID creation wizard", I assume you're talking about creating storage pools? As mentioned, I was forced to do that separately on the two nodes, as well as Creating Volumes in the next step, but no attempt at making the Volumes identical allows these Volumes to be used in an HA LUN setup, which always errors out with "No compatible Volumes" as mentioned.

I'm not sure how those PS modules are to be used - there is no Windows in this whole environment. Is there PowerShell for Linux on the CVM, and if so what is the right way to access a shell to actually use it?
yaroslav (staff)
Staff
Posts: 3599
Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2019 11:11 am

Tue Dec 17, 2024 3:26 pm

You, sadly, you need Windows to set up HA devices in StarWind VSAN Free. With GUI, you can go web for most of the stuff.
Please set up volumes on each server separately.
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