Redoing my network... (Part 2)

[riahc3]

I don't believe the VM hardware version has anything to do with SATA and raw mapping..  Its a simple 2 second command line to get the drives raw mapped to your vm, who gives a #### if there is a button to click in a gui.  Its something you do like once ;)

 

I run my machines at version 9, since at 10 you loose the ability to "edit" via the vclient currently.  Have my fingers crossed vmware rethinks that nonsense..  But if they don't might be time to look at other options down the road.

 

To get a machine to 9, just upgrade it goes to 10.  You remove from inventory - edit the xml, I do it via ssh to the esxi box and then bring it back into your inventory.  Its a one time thing, and take all of 30 seconds to do..

 

makehw9.png

Im running pfSense at version 8 since its all the GUI allows me too...

 

edit: Curious did you use e1000, or vmxnet3 on your pfsense install?  Did you install the tools from the CD or did you go with the openvmtools package?

Currently using the e1000; Is there any performance change if I switch?

[riahc3]

Well, today installing WS2012R2.

Im using VMXNET 3 since it seems that it gives the highest performance. Ill find out later if its compatible or not :p

Also, I plan to remove the DHCP server from pfSense and enable it on WS2012R2. Is there anything else that I should do that the WS2012R2 should take care of instead of the pfSense box? (besides DNS)

[+BudMan MVC]

I am using vmxnet3 on all my vms currently -  I have not noticed any performance gain.  Be it maybe less cpu/memory usage on the host??  But from performance of moving files from my storage VM to my physical network - no difference in performance.  I might go back to the e1000 on pfsense since it seems via snmp to pfsense to do graphing and such of useage the vmxnet3 are showing up as 640K? 

 

 

While to my linux vm it reports the correct 10G speed

 

 

Have to find some time to play around with it..  But your not going to see much of performance gain to be honest.

 

As to what you run on your 2k12 VM that is up to you - I personally see not reason for AD in the home - but if you want to use it as a learning exp, then yes it should be DNS and DHCP for your network.

[riahc3]

yes it should be DNS and DHCP for your network.

Yes, that was my current idea.

My other doubt right now is dealing with My Documents; Don't know if I mentioned it but currently, My Documents, my user profile, etc. points to my D:/ which is my local RAID5. Im updating WS2012R2 as we speak but once that is done, Im moving all 4 HDDs to the N54L. Ill go ahead and do the RAW mapping of the drives to the VM, DrivePool them, but then should I use iSCSI to make my current user profile again point to D:/? What will happen once I take the drives out and it doesnt detect the location of D:/?

BTW, I perfectly streamed a test video of 1920x1080 from the WS2012R2 over to my PC (wired) and no problems (and this is on the system drive which is virtualized)

[+BudMan MVC]

why do you need to use iscsi?  Simple drive map works cifs/smb  While iscsi is kewl and all - not really required.

 

Why do you have to move all 4 drives at once?  Why don't you just move 1, map it as say E and then move/copy your profile/documents there?  You could always move it back to D after if you wanted my just changing the map drive letter after you remove d from the local system.  If I recall you no where close to using the full space of the array.

 

Why don't you just store your profile local on C, and just store your "data/document" files on the 2k12 disks.

 

How are you putting all 4 drives in ?  There is only 4 bays, are you not using one as your datastore?  Did you add a 5th disk in the optical bay?  Maybe I missed that if you mentioned it?

 

On a side note I just pulled the trigger on moving to SSD myself on my n40l ;)  Couldn't help it - the Crucial M500 240G for $109, just had to pull the trigger finally.  Going to put it the optical bay - this then gives me 2 bays of growth for storage, really 3 since I could add a 3.5 inch disk to the optical bay area as well.

[riahc3]

why do you need to use iscsi?  Simple drive map works cifs/smb  While iscsi is kewl and all - not really required.

I thought iSCSI gave better performance

 

Why do you have to move all 4 drives at once?  Why don't you just move 1, map it as say E and then move/copy your profile/documents there?  You could always move it back to D after if you wanted my just changing the map drive letter after you remove d from the local system.  If I recall you no where close to using the full space of the array.

I have a drive right now has all the data/profiles/etc.

I could insert that into the N54L, map it as E: and then on the local PC, change the D: to G: and change the E: to D:... Would this work or would Windows throw a bitchfit?

Why don't you just store your profile local on C, and just store your "data/document" files on the 2k12 disks.

Well, honestly, I don't remember why, but there isnt a reason I do it over network, right?

How are you putting all 4 drives in ?  There is only 4 bays, are you not using one as your datastore?  Did you add a 5th disk in the optical bay?  Maybe I missed that if you mentioned it?

Yes. I have a loose drive in the ODD that is my datastore. All 4 bays are currently free.

On a side note I just pulled the trigger on moving to SSD myself on my n40l ;)  Couldn't help it - the Crucial M500 240G for $109, just had to pull the trigger finally.  Going to put it the optical bay - this then gives me 2 bays of growth for storage, really 3 since I could add a 3.5 inch disk to the optical bay area as well.

I want to put a SSD in my desktop and then my laptop. I just don't see it right now as being on my top "to-do" list.

[+BudMan MVC]

You will not see a better update to your PC than moving to SSD..  It is like a new machine, I would never ever go back to HDD as OS drive on any machine I use as my main rig - never!!  Unless that came up with some tech that made that just as fast as SSD is currently or faster ;)

 

You don't need anything big as your OS..  My win7 currently is a 128GB samsung pro and I have 44GB free on it, and really have to move some stuff over to storage which will free up prob good 10GB, with some clean up prob another 10GB could be deleted so your looking at like 60GB free for sure..  You don't need a 500GB for your OS drive, Take your current OS drive and make it storage on your box - and now you can just use your profile local.

 

BTW that includes my profile and local docs..  All my "big" files I store on the nas - only thing that is local is screenshots I take, word, visio docs, etc..

[riahc3]

Well, one day Ill think about the SSDs. Frankly, I think the one that needs it most is my laptop and not because of battery. Heat makes it slow down a lot and I think a SSD would lower that a bit.

Back to the N54L (took a nap :P ), I dont see a reason as to store my user profile on the NAS (I dont think it takes up much space) but I think I would still like to point my Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Music, Downloads, etc. to the NAS.

BTW, should my system drive be RAW mapped too? Im pleased with its performance (took less than a minute to transfer a 1.6GB file)

[+BudMan MVC]

I don't see a reason for the system to be RAW no - I just like my data drives to be raw so for 1 I can access the smart info to hopefully get some warning about failure, etc.

Why would you want desktop on remote file system? Your docs, pictures and music are normally a library.. So some could be local and others could be remote and show up in one place as your using your machine.

Downloads I just do them local, and stuff I keep I just move over to the nas storage.

[riahc3]

I don't see a reason for the system to be RAW no - I just like my data drives to be raw so for 1 I can access the smart info to hopefully get some warning about failure, etc.

Why would you want desktop on remote file system? Your docs, pictures and music are normally a library.. So some could be local and others could be remote and show up in one place as your using your machine.

Laziness :laugh: Im very unorganized at home so I usually leave crap on my desktop. I usually only clean it up when I am going to format (which is stupid in the first place because its on drive that the system isnt on so).

Which on that note, I should format my PC some time...

Downloads I just do them local, and stuff I keep I just move over to the nas storage.

Way too lazy; I download, use/play it, and forget about it. If I need it later, Windows Search does the hard stuff for me.

[+Fahim S. MVC]

On a side note I just pulled the trigger on moving to SSD myself on my n40l ;)  Couldn't help it - the Crucial M500 240G for $109, just had to pull the trigger finally.  Going to put it the optical bay - this then gives me 2 bays of growth for storage, really 3 since I could add a 3.5 inch disk to the optical bay area as well.

 

I put my SSDs in the bay behind the HP light.  That leaves the optical bay free.

[+BudMan MVC]

^ prob stick in there, I didn't buy any trays or anything.  Will be pretty to easy move around, etc.  But the one bay does look nice the 3.5 and 2.5..

[riahc3]

RAWing the drives does indeed look simple :)

 

Just a couple of questions:

 

 

I have two drives in my N54L. One is the data store, (ST3320613AS) and another is a drive I just plugged in to see if hot-swapping works (plus I didnt want to shut down pfSense and make everyone lose their WAN connection now) (WD30EFRX).

 

1: Is there a reason why there is a

WD30EFRX

WD30EFRX :1

WD30EFRX: 2

 

entry? I just gonna do with the one without any number

 

2: When doing:

 

vmkfstools -z /vmfs/devices/disks/<name of RAW device from Step 1> <location to store VMDK>/<RDM name>.vmdk

 

One of the guides uses the serial number (blanked out in the screenshot) to ID the drives. Personally, I think it would be easier to just name them drive1....drive4 since (looking at the box straight on) drive1 is on the left. The reason I dont want to name them by serial number is that if I pop out a drive, I would just have to rerun the commend, with the new "<name of RAW device from Step 1>.

 

 

 

 

[+BudMan MVC]

You can name your rdm whatever you want, I call them mine 1, 2 and 3..

 

Yes by their positions in the bay, where the 250GB data store is on the far left and would be 0

 

 

as to the :1 :2 etc..  Those are the partitions on the disk you wouldn't be using those.

 

 

 

 

[ToneKnee]

I never liked the idea of having storage not mapped as RAW incase there was an issue where I may need to move the hard drives to a different system i.e. not ESXi.

 

 

I don't use ESXi any more since I want GPU passthrough to work properly and switched to KVM which is working great at the moment.  I have a similar setup to yours:

 

Modem > KVM: pfSense, Windows 8.1 with GPU Passthrough, acts as a HTPC, Ubuntu with ZFS (SATA Passthrough), etc > Powerplugs that physically connect the Desktop machines and Wireless for Laptops, Tablets, Phones etc.

[riahc3]

OK, thank you for clearing up the port layout BudMan

[+BudMan MVC]

I don't know if that is that actual port layout.. Just telling you how I look at it ;)

 

For all I know it goes the other direction? ;)

[riahc3]

This is a stupid question but how do you map a drive before Windows 7 loads for all users?

 

Registry? Some bat file?

 

This should be before the login screen.

 

I think its the only way I can be sure that when making the transition from the local RAID5 to everything on the WS2012R2 and getting the D:/ path so it loads correctly my docs, desktop, etc. and doesnt mess with my Windows user profile

[riahc3]

This is intresting:

 

[sc302 Veteran]

give it a drive letter.  Right click, change drive letter and paths

 

gpo, folder redirection give a unc path.

 

user config\policies\windows settings\folder redirection

 

 

I do this on some sites for roaming users so that their desktop/my docs/etc follow them...and so that I can back their crap up when they choose not to save to their home drive.

[riahc3]

give it a drive letter.  Right click, change drive letter and paths

 

gpo, folder redirection give a unc path.

 

user config\policies\windows settings\folder redirection

 

 

I do this on some sites for roaming users so that their desktop/my docs/etc follow them...and so that I can back their crap up when they choose not to save to their home drive.

The Windows 7 machine isnt on a domain. Would GPO work?

[+BudMan MVC]

As to your -128, yeah 3TB with advanced 4k sectors windows has issues with.. Not a big deal, mine shows 0 ;) You can make sure you wipe all the partitions off of it make it GPT, etc.

DrivePool works with it and sees it correctly same with their scanner software. I worked with them when I first installed my 3TB disk because windows has issues. And their scanner was taking what windows was reporting vs getting the info from the disk.

Its just a eyecandy sort of problem - the drive works just fine, etc.

[riahc3]

Im trying to get the mapping of a network drive before Windows login working...

[+LogicalApex MVC]

Im trying to get the mapping of a network drive before Windows login working...

Why do you need it prior to log on? What are you doing at this stage?

[sc302 Veteran]

The Windows 7 machine isnt on a domain. Would GPO work?

No, but you can manually redirect what you want.  when you log on it will be redirected before you get to the desktop.

 

 

Click start -> yourprofile -> right click "Desktop" click the locations tab, Move and you can choose where your desktop location folder is. I have this set up also for my Documents, Photos and videos. It will also transfer the files already in the desktop folder.

 

Change the desktop to my documents or any other thing you may want to redirect.  Use the unc path where you want to redirect.