Dell EqualLogic w/Veeam Config/Optimization

[pageda]

I know there are hundreds and hundreds of posts re: Dell Equallogic config. At one point, I thought there was a summary topic on Best Practices of Veeam and EQL, but I cannot find it through search....at least not through the first couple pages of search results.

Does anyone know where it is/provide a link or topic #.

Thanks,

[Yuki]

Also interested in this as we are in the process of deploying Dell EqualLogic PS6100E. Wondering if there is anything to be aware of with snapshots+replication and if there are recommendations on making this fast.
Our base setup is done according to Dell's official EqualLogic deployment guide ( http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter ... y-sis.aspx ), but specific config and optimizations are welcome.

[pageda]

I may have found it myself (accidentally, again, through a completely separate blog). Crazy.

http://forums.veeam.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4093

http://forums.veeam.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4082#p16170

[Yuki]

but those mostly appear to apply to Windows initiator, while in case of Veeam - most people are likely to use VMware so it would not be applicable.

[joergr]

Don´t worry, These recommendations were given long before HyperV support came into play - Thus, ofcourse it is applicable with vSphere, too.

Nowadays, you can boost some options even more. Let´s say you use intels x520 dualport 10 gb card. Using the very latest ixgbe driver for esxi AND the very latest firmware for the x520 i experienced some very nice performance boosts in the last weeks. And all that without jumbo frames

Best regards,
Joerg

[pageda]

It's applicable to a windows host/backup server using dedicated iscsi NIC for direct SAN access right? That was my intention to make backup performance as good as possible.

I have a dedicated physical backup server ( Dell PE 2950). Currently it's got one nic dedicated for iscsi and one nic for production network. I have another available NIC I could use and dedicate for iscsi as well and was thinking of using the MPIO/nic teaming available within the Equallogic HIT tools but am honestly not that familiar with them or MPIO in general. Because the EQL doesn't do read only access I was a little reticent for fear of data corruption. Perhaps that fear is unfounded. Would love to hear any input/suggestions for how best to setup the connection.

[dellock6]

MPIO is known to decrease performances on iscsi proxy accessing storage in san mode. Apart from this, yes iscsi can be accessed in directSAN right as an FC storage, as long as you configure physical Veeam proxy to connect to iscsi storage. Automount would be disabled by Veeam when is installed so you would not have any problem connecting to a writable LUN, only be careful to do not initialize disks if you open the disk manager in Windows.

Luca.