VMWare VAAI in 9.2.1.8?

[TimTeka]

Guys, did anyone test it already? What can we gain VMotion-ing between FreeNAS hosts?

 

[cyberjock]

I don't have first-hand knowledge, but I'd bet iX did testing for VAAI since they have to qualify it for VMWare. ;)

As for forum users I'd say nobody here has likely done it because it just came out.

 

[TimTeka]

Thanks for the reply, cyberjock.

Actually i don't have test hardware to check it out, but one more question. If I'll dare to upgrade my production servers (all three running 9.2.1.5+) should i switch to new iscsi "magic" driver in order to use VAAI?

 

[cyberjock]

That's totally a personal choice and depends on many many factors. You also should experiment with a non-production system to be sure you will be happy with the performance before switching. It is possible for it to be slower. ;)

 

[mav@]

Guys, did anyone test it already? What can we gain VMotion-ing between FreeNAS hosts?

VMotion-ing is now supported only between LUNs (or, if allowed, between targets) of one hosts. Inter-host XCOPY operations are not supported, and so VMWare will do them in legacy way. Operations within one host, such as VM init, moving, cloning, etc. should now work much faster, especially if narrow 1GbE network is used.

 

[mav@]

If I'll dare to upgrade my production servers (all three running 9.2.1.5+) should i switch to new iscsi "magic" driver in order to use VAAI?

9.2.1.8 still runs old istgt iSCSI target by default. It supports only two of four VAAI primitives. Setting "experimental" checkbox in iSCSI settings you may switch to the new kernel-based iSCSI target. It adds support for two more features of VAAI (UNMAP and XCOPY), along with many other features and performance improvemets. Switch will require NAS reboot, but other then that it should be transparent and reversible. The new iSCSI target should become default in following FreeNAS 9.3.