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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

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SoftNAS® VMs to prevent over-commitment of vSphere Server resources.

Note

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



Recommended

Configuration Note

VMware Version Supported

Version 5.5 and above

Compute

Set a compute reservation for all of the CPU assigned to the

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SoftNAS® VM.

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Small Workloads

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4 vCPU

minimum

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Medium Workloads

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8+ vCPU

recommended, based on use of compression

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Heavier Workloads

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16+ vCPU

large-scale use with compression and deduplication

Memory

Set a memory reservation for all of the memory assigned for the

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SoftNAS® VM.

Base RAM -

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Light

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16 GB

minimum

System RAM - Medium

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32 GB

medium-scale use

System RAM - Heavy

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64+ GB

large-scale use with increased caching

Additional RAM

1 GB per 1 TB of deduplicated storage.

required for best performance


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


Storage


Boot Disk

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

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100 GB, Thin-provisioned

Data Disks

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


Hardware RAID

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


Software RAID

If

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SoftNAS® is preferred to handle RAID, add VMDKs to the

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SoftNAS® VM and configure RAID in the

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SoftNAS® product.


iSCSI SAN

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


Networking


Up to 120 MB/sec

1 GbE

minimum

Up to 750 MB/sec

10 GbE

Other VMware-supported networks, such as

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InfiniBand, are also available.

HA Networking

Active/Active or Active/Passive vSwitch

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


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


HA Host Failover

Ensure that, for each host operating with

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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.

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SoftNAS® System Capacities

Listed below is a table representing the capabilities of the

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SoftNAS® for VMware vSphere.

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SoftNAS® Capacity

Configuration Note

Editions

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SoftNAS Cloud® Essentials

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SoftNAS Cloud® Enterprise

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SoftNAS Cloud® Platinum

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SoftNAS® BYOL

NANo capacity limits

Memory


RAM Cache

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16 GB to 100 GB

Defaults to 50% total RAM for read cache

SSD Cache

low-speed level 2 cache

Optional

Ephemeral Cache

low-speed level 2 cache

Optional for read cache

Storage


Maximum Storage

16 PB

Maximum usable storage capacity with

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SoftNAS®, contingent on license.

Number of Storage Pools

Unlimited


Number of Volumes

Unlimited


Number of Snapshots

Unlimited

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Number of Snapshot Clones

Unlimited


SnapReplicate

Unlimited Pools & Volumes


SnapReplicate Throttle

56Kb/sec to Unlimited bandwidth


Active Directory

Kerberos Integration


Files and Directories

Unlimited


Network


Schedules

Unlimited


NFS Exports:

Linux Default


iSCSI Targets

Linux Default


CIFS Shares

Linux Default


Firewall Ports

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22 (ssh), 443 (https)Plus NFS, iSCSI, and CIFS as required by network (please refer to Security for additional details

IP Tables Firewall

Off by default

May be configured

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but is not required. Use an alternative method to set Security Groups unless added firewall protection on a

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SoftNAS® instance is required.