Hi,
I'm setting up a server to provide storage for a couple of VMware ESXi
servers. I'm using the latest stable Debian and I'm leaning towards using
NFS with XFS. However, I'm concerned about data integrity in the event of
power-out (we have UPS but they only last so long). Here are the specific
questions I have:
- The XFS FAQ states that with battery backup'd RAID hardware, both write
barriers and individual disk cache should be turned off. However, I'm
getting better benchmark results with both turned on. What I'm wondering
is, will write barriers work as intended when used with hardware RAID
controller (PERC 6/E)? Googling only turned up results relating to
software RAID.
- The XFS FAQ also states that virtualization products prevent write
barriers from working correctly. Is this still the case (specifically with
ESXi 3.5 and later) and is there anything that can be done about it? Does
VMFS somehow work around this, or is the problem then just "out of sight,
out of mind"?
Bregs,
JPa
|