Once the StarWind Servers have been deployed in the VMware cluster, the configuration of devices and replication is the next step of the setup procedure.
To provide HA and performance, StarWind Virtual SAN supports the following RAID configuration:
- FLAT images - RAID 0, 1, and 10 (RAID 5, 50, 6, and 60 all-flash arrays only)
- LSFS - RAID 0, 1, 10, 5, 50, 6, 60
Volumes can be separated in two possible ways. OS and StarWind Device images can be kept on a single physical volume using partitions (GPT recommended for the shared storage to allow volumes bigger than 2 TB) or segregate the OS to a dedicated RAID 1 array.
Blog series
StarWind Virtual SAN installation - pt.1
StarWind Virtual SAN configuration - pt.2
StarWind Virtual SAN setup datastore - pt.3
Set VMware VM/Host Rules
If you have a VMware cluster with vMotion enabled, is recommended to keep StarWind Servers on separate ESXi hosts. Open vSphere Web Client, select the cluster on which StarWind Servers are configured and go to Configure > VM/Host Rules tab.
Click Add to create a new rule and assign a Name (i.e. Separate StarWind Servers). From the drop-down menu select Separate Virtual Machines option and click Add.
Specify the two StarWind Servers and click OK to confirm.
The rule has been created successfully.
Configure the Device
Login to the first StarWind Server and open the StarWind Management Console. Right click the Server and select Connect.
From General tab click Add Device (advanced) option.
Select Hard Disk Device option click Next.
Select Virtual Disk as Disk Device Type and click Next.
Select Create a New Virtual Disk and specify Name and Size. Click Next to continue.
Select Thick-provisioned as Virtual Disk and use a Block Size of 512, recommended if you are using ESXi. Click Next.
Specify Write-Back as Device RAM caching policy mode and the cache Size. Click Next.
Depending on your environment, specify the Flash Cache parameters. Recommended Flash Cache size is 10% from your Device size. Click Next to continue.
Specify Create New Target as Target Attachment Method. Edit the Target Name field if you want to customize the name of a target then click Next.
Click Create to create the new Device.
Click Close to exit the wizard.
The new Device has been created successfully.
Configure Replication
From the StarWind Mangement Console, right click the previously created Device and select Replication Manager option.
From the Replication Manager click Add Replica.
Select Synchronous "Two-Way" Replication and click Next.
Enter the IP address of the replication partner then click Next.
Select Heartbeat option and click Next.
Select Create new Partner Device and click Next.
Leave default Location and click Next to continue.
Click Change Network Settings to specify Heartbeat and Sync networks.
Select networks to use accordingly then click OK when done.
Networks for Synchronization and Heartbeat channels have been set. Click Next.
Select Synchronize from existing Device option then click Next.
Click Create Replica button to proceed with replica creation.
The Device is configured to be replicated with the partner.
Click Close when the process has completed.
The Device is synchronized with the partner.
When the synchronization process has been completed, click Close to exit the wizard.
The created storage is now available to the system.
Connect the second StarWind Server to check the status of the replicated Device.
Part 3 will cover the creation of the vSphere datastore using StarWind vSAN.
