Starwind 1-node configuration

leandromansor · Thu Jul 30, 2015 12:22 am

I am planning to use Starwind on my production server
My scenario is as follows:

Dell PowerEdge R910

- 4x E7-4830 (2.13 GHz)
- 512GB RAM
- PERC H700 with 512 MB cache with 4x 600GB 10K SAS (RAID 10)
- 4x 1GbE network's (2 for VM traffic and 2 for iSCSI traffic)
- Storage Equallogic PS4100 with 24x 600GB SAS 10k (RAID 10)
- 2x swiches Dell PowerConnect 6224 in stack mode

My environment is operational with Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V role enabled.
I have two volumes on that server connected to the Storage via iSCSI and MPIO connection feature and each LUN I store the VHD's the VM's.
I plan to buy 2 SSD Intel's DC S3500 or S3700 for the purpose of cache.

I would like to implement Starwind taking advantage of the L1 cache technologies (RAM) and L2 cache (RAM). This configuration is possible with just one server? You can keep my volumes already connected to storage and configure the two cache levels? If possible what the required settings?

It suggests some improvement in my environment?

Thu Jul 30, 2015 10:14 am

Bad idea. Server goes down and you have one big "kaboom" of a few GB (TB?) recent transactions lost.

Throw in one more box, cluster them with StarWind Virtual SAN (even free) and enjoy your life

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwi ... l-san-free

>I would like to implement Starwind taking advantage of the L1 cache technologies (RAM) and L2 cache (RAM). This configuration is possible with just one server? You can keep my volumes already connected to storage and configure the two cache levels? If possible what the required settings?

leandromansor · Thu Jul 30, 2015 2:10 pm

Right now we are without money for investments. I understand that my environment is dangerous working without cluster and assume the risk, but unfortunately as I said I can not invest in hardware now. Still I would like to deploy caching features in my scenario.

You can keep my volumes already connected to storage and configure the two cache levels? If possible what the required settings?

Thu Jul 30, 2015 4:12 pm

Sure you can do that! Just be warned

leandromansor · Thu Jul 30, 2015 4:48 pm

Ok, but how I do it? That's my question.
How do you configure the two cache levels keeping the iscsi disks that are already being used. The documentation available on the site did not mention this type of scenario.

Mon Aug 03, 2015 4:05 pm

Hello!

Guidance's for L1 and L2 cache implementation can be found here:
L1:
https://knowledgebase.starwindsoftware. ... -l1-cache/
L2:
https://knowledgebase.starwindsoftware. ... tner-node/

Please let me know if you have any questions left. Thank you.

leandromansor · Mon Aug 03, 2015 7:57 pm

OK, thank's.
What is the metric for configuring the L1 and L2 caches?

Mon Aug 10, 2015 2:02 pm

Yes, we recommend configuring L1 and L2 caches in next proportion:
L1 - 1GB of L1 cache per 1TB device
L2 - 10% of SW device capacity

leandromansor · Tue Aug 11, 2015 7:20 pm

Thank's.

Mon Aug 17, 2015 10:07 am

Please let me know if you have any questions left. Thank you.