The freenas 8.3.0 manual states at least 512MB memory for the VM, however there is no recommended value. I'm not an ESXi expert, but it seems that virtual memory is not always the same as physical memory. My question is all that memory requirements detailed for better ZFS performance is applicable in virtual environments too? For a 3x1TB RAIDZ1 setup, I would start with 8GB, so shall I specify 8GB for the VM? Thanks!
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VMWare ESXi 5.1 Memory Configuration
- Thread starter bvarnai
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neilpeel
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- Feb 14, 2013
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I wouldn't put freenas into a VM for anything other than testing.
Getting an old tower desktop from Ebay and having it as a standalone Freenas box is much more flexible (as a home storage system) and it should perform better. Old corporate desktops are great - Dell Optiplex 745 or 755's work fine - it's what I use for FreeNAS (well, I have a T3400 now which was my old ESXi box). It should use less power than a beefy ESXi box! :)
However; your question..
As I understand it; the more memory allocated, the better the ZFS performance. Allocate as much as you can spare in your ESXi environment - up to 8GB if you can.. Then check it's performance by moving files across the LAN.
Getting an old tower desktop from Ebay and having it as a standalone Freenas box is much more flexible (as a home storage system) and it should perform better. Old corporate desktops are great - Dell Optiplex 745 or 755's work fine - it's what I use for FreeNAS (well, I have a T3400 now which was my old ESXi box). It should use less power than a beefy ESXi box! :)
However; your question..
As I understand it; the more memory allocated, the better the ZFS performance. Allocate as much as you can spare in your ESXi environment - up to 8GB if you can.. Then check it's performance by moving files across the LAN.
I was surprised with ESXi performance on cheap, consumer hardware. Of course you need the minimal hardware support for virtualization. I don't have heavy loads, 1-2 users at the time. Once I have a maintainable setup, I would like to move to server hosting and shut-down the home lab. For this I need to run 2-3 instances on the same machine. Freenas would be storage only and a linux/windows for the other tasks. If I get close in performance to those home-grade NAS's I will be happy. Anyway I take your advice and start with 8 GB for Freenas.
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