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SoftNAS® System Requirements

Listed below is a table to assist with the setup decisions during the configuration required to accomplish various tasks and goals.

Specifying Memory and CPU Reservations

Always specify the CPU and Memory reservations for the SoftNAS® VMs to prevent over-commitment of vSphere Server resources.

Note: Over-committing vSphere Server resources without specifying CPU and Memory reservations will cause unwanted HA failovers.

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Recommended

Configuration Note

2VMware Version Supported
  • Version 5.5 and above
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Compute

  • Set a compute reservation for all of the CPU assigned to the SoftNAS® VM.
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Light Use

4 vCPU

minimum

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General Use

8+ vCPU

recommended, based on use of compression

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Heavy Use

16+ vCPU

large-scale use with compression and deduplication

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Memory

  • Set a memory reservation for all of the memory assigned for the SoftNAS® VM.
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Base RAM - Light

8 GB

minimum

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System RAM - Medium

16 GB

medium-scale use

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System RAM - Heavy

32+ GB

large-scale use with increased caching

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Additional RAM

1 GB per 1 TB of deduplicated storage.

required for best performance

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e.g.: 50 TB deduplicated storage = 50 additional GB for deduplication tables.


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Storage


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Boot Disk

64-bit Linux CentOS 4/5/6 (64-bit)

30GB100 GB, Thin-provisioned

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Data Disks

Virtual Hard Disks (VMDK) for data storage will support any VMware-supported datastore.


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Hardware RAID

If the local disk controller supports hardware RAID, hardware RAID can be used to create VMware host datastores.


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Software RAID

If SoftNAS® is preferred to handle RAID, add VMDKs to the SoftNAS® VM and configure RAID in the SoftNAS® product.


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iSCSI SAN

SoftNAS® can mount and support all VMware-supported disk configurations, including iSCSI SAN via software or hardware HBA.


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Networking


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Up to 120 MB/sec

1 GbE

minimum

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Up to 750 MB/sec

10 GbE

Other VMware-supported networks, such as Infiniband, are also available.

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HA Networking

Active/Active or Active/Passive vSwitch

Required setting for VMware vSphere to tolerate a NIC or switch failure.

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Use of "full mesh" HA switch configurations are also recommended to prevent switch failures from interrupting storage access.


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HA Host Failover

Ensure that, for each host operating with SoftNAS®, the Data Disks are accessible. Preferred method: dual-path disks or iSCSI or fiber-attached disks with VMware drivers.


  • SoftNAS SNAP HATM included with Enterprise and Platinum Editions.

SoftNAS® System Capacities

Listed below is a table representing the capabilities of the SoftNAS® for VMware vSphere.

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