Should I Stick with SAN or Switch to Direct Storage for My Hyper-V Cluster?
Asked by
TechSavvy123
Hey everyone! I'm currently managing a 5-node Hyper-V cluster that connects to a SAN via Fiber Channel. This setup, installed by Dell, has been running for about seven years and has had a handful of outages, which makes things a bit complicated with all the switches and hardware involved.
Now, I'm looking to refresh my hardware as it's getting close to the end of its life. Since our processing needs have dropped (thanks to moving some workloads to the cloud), I have two options: either continue using a SAN or simplify things by getting 2-3 servers and running all virtual machines on local disks. I realize that going with a single host setup means I can't live migrate VMs, but I see it as potentially more stable.
So, I'm curious: is it a bad idea to favor direct storage over a SAN setup? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Answers
Using a SAN means you have direct storage with multiple initiators, which is cool for big setups that need fast failover and shared access. But if you don’t really need that flexibility and just have a couple of hosts, a SAN might be overkill. If your SAN hasn’t been super reliable, you might consider swapping it out for simpler direct storage—it could offer lesser complexity without losing too much performance.
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SimpleSimon76: Thanks for your detailed response.