Here is an excerpt from page 52 of NetApp's TR3428 version 4.1 (NetApp and VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 Storage Best Practices) from July 2008. This makes me think they are talking about the OS's swap as well as the host ESX.
"When you are implementing either NetApp Snapshot copies or SnapMirror, NetApp recommends separating transient and temporary data off the virtual disks that will be copied by using Snapshot or SnapMirror. Because Snapshot copies hold onto storage blocks that are no longer in use, transient and temporary data can consume a large amount of storage in a very short period of time. In addition, if you are replicating your environment for business continuance or disk-to-disk backup purposes, failure to separate the valuable data from the transient has a large impact on the amount of data sent at each replication update. Virtual machines should have their swap files, pagefile, and user and system temp directories moved to separate virtual disks residing on separate Datastores residing on NetApp volumes dedicated to this data type. In addition, the ESX Servers create a VMware swap file for every running VM. These files should also be moved to a separate Datastore residing on a separate NetApp volume, and the virtual disks that store these files should be set as independent disks, which are not affected by VMware snapshots." Am I misinterpreting that? Craig From: Joseph L. Casale [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, August 25, 2008 2:30 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: ESX and NetApp best practice question Netapp didn't mean "OS swap" J They aren't aware of what OS is inside of your vm's or if it has a swap. BTW, if the swap disappears under windows it will BSOD for sure. They were referring to the host swap, heh... jlc From: Andy Shook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, August 25, 2008 12:10 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: ESX and NetApp best practice question List, Friend of mine is implementing ESX 3.5 on a filer and he is asking me if he should follow NetApp's advice on separating out the swap files on a different LUN to better "manage" snapshots. Now, I'm not a NetApp dude but I don't by this for the following reasons: 1. Another layer of complexity 2. Properly sized VMs (RAM) shouldn't be tapping the page file that much 3. Something happens to that swap LUN and performance tanks and/or OS blue screens 4. Recovery issues. (This maybe a stretch) I say keep the swap\temp directory on the same volume unless some non-standard requirements come into play Any of you NetApp\ESX admins have any feedback? Shook ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
