Something of a 'what would you spec?' question this one:
I am speccing a new VMware host and as usual it's budget vs function. The two harddrive configs listed in the title cost similar money for similar formatted capacity but I need a second, third and more opinions to clarify my own thinking.
So you have one VMware host using local (on-board) storage. The intention is to put multiple mission-critical VM's on the system with varying disk performance requirements. Included will be a print, exchange, MS SQL, AD and file (head only) servers running Win2k/2k3/2k8, Ubuntu Server and likely CentOS in the future.
Total VM storage needed is 900Gb.
Ignoring cost your choices are:
4x 300Gb 3G 15k rpm 3.5" SAS in RAID5
or
4x 450Gb 3G 10k rpm 3.5" SAS in RAID10
Which is fastest?
Which would you choose?
What would the impact be of switching from 3.5" to 2.5" drives?
Would switching from 3G to 6G drives have a significant performance benefit?
Traditionally I've always plumped for RAID10 on mission-critical systems but speed and reliability also come into the equation so I'm torn here!