VMware Direct Path I/O verification

[DRUMDUDESAN]

Hi,
I cannot seem to find if I should use VMware "Direct Path I/O" setting on a VM NIC attached to the VMware iSCSI vSwitch for the Veeam Repository on the SAN. Should I use it? Will it give better performance or will it cause problems etc?
Basic environment: Dedicated SAN for backups and primary storage on 10.x.x.x. The VM repository is attached to that 10.x.x.x network. VMware 6.5.
P.S. I know it is best to use a physical server but we have to use a VM.
Thanks
Jeff

[PTide]

Hi,

Actually it's neither recommended nor supported approach as it has never been properly tested. Also, backup performance might suffer with such config, you should use hot-add mode instead.

Thanks

[DRUMDUDESAN]

hmmm
Hi,
Correct me if I am mistaken.
It is not built on top of VMFS. vSphere is just the iSCSI portal.
- Dedicated SAN and switches on 10.x.x.x
- Dedicated pNICs on ESXi hosts on iSCSI vSwitch on 10.x.x.x
- No VMFS datastore created
- VM NIC attached to iSCSI vSwitch
- SAN LUN presented to 10.x.x.x
- Windows 2012 iSCSI see the 7TB LUN
- Format the LUN as NTFS 7TB logical volume V:drive
- Attach repository via Veeam B&R GUI Console.
- I ran a backup and was getting 167MB/Sec on SATA mirrored disks.
Does this sound OK, did I make a mistake?
P.S. I know it is best to use physical but we use a VM. It's a small IT management cluster.
Thanks
Jeff