Need advice for iSCSi on the CHEAP !

Hi everyone,

I have 2 ESXI boxes, and I'd like to use iSCSI for my SAN needs.
I have 2 3 TB drives, that I'd like to use for my lab. I have a GB switch and a Quad port Gb NIC.

So my first question is, should I get a cheap enclosure and create a raid 1? If so, do you recommend OpenFiler, or FreeNas ?

My other question is on one of my ESX hosts I have a 256GB SSD installed, as well as a 750 gig spinning disk.

Should I create a datastore using the SSD, and run the VM's off the iSCSI storage ? Or should I add the SSD to the iSCSI storage and create the on the SSD?

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Comments

tstrip007

If you want the full benefits of the SSD, create a local datastore on one of those esx hosts with your SSD and use the spindles for iSCSI. Although the performance might be better your still limited to the GB throughput. But if you want to keep this thing as close to production like as possible, dont put any vm's on local datastores, just create tiered storage on your san. I hear starwind is good for labs.... I use the HP Storvirtual VSA in production.