If you do ZFS snapshots of VMs, you need to quiesce VM states first. This can not be done without serious integration with ESX servers. And yes, it takes more time then just a few seconds of ZFS-end snapshot.
I suggest to take a look on commercial solution from Nexenta Systems, which tightly integrates ESX (and other environments such as Xen/Citrix in its future versions) with NexentaStor NAS using VM DataCenter plugin. Here is the demo, so you'll get the idea: http://www.nexenta.com/demos/esx-zfs.html Comparing to EMC/NetApp - its ZFS and Open Storage based but does everything you would expect normally from NAS box, i.e. total integration. Don't lock-in yourself with HW storage vendor... there are other choices - more open and user friendly. On Mon, 2008-10-20 at 11:42 +0200, Ahmed Kamal wrote: > Hi everyone, > > I hope I'm not way off topic. Basically, I am considering purchasing a > NAS storage for small business (around 70 ~ 100 users). This will have > 2 uses, to hold Unix homes, and also to hold VMware ESXi images > serving them over NFS. I am comparing EMC NS20, and netapp FAS2020. I > sat down with reps from both companies, and each of them try to > mention how bad the other one is. And how snapshotting, will kill > their performance and cause fragmentation ... etc. I cannot believe > any of that! But unfortunately, I dont have enough experience with > both to judge. The configuration suggested is 12 disks of 300G FC or > SAS. We plan to use snapshot backups mainly, for VMs and user homes. > Around 20 snapshots. > > I am hoping if an in independent expert can let me know whether one is > "significantly" better than the other vendor. In my country, EMC has > much bigger presence and support channels, so I am leaning towards > them, we also got a better from them. However, if everyone here for > example says netapp is way ahead and more performant, I would have to > think twice > > Greatly appreciating your advice > Regards > > _______________________________________________ > storage-discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/storage-discuss _______________________________________________ storage-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/storage-discuss
