Category: homelab [en]

Posted on

Quiet please! – Silent fans for the Homelab

Servers and switches are built for use in data centers where noise pollution is only a minor issue. The focus is on maximum performance and cooling. In the Homelab, however, things look different. Server rooms in private households are probably the exception and so most homelabs are located somewhere near the desk. A case fan with high speed can be very annoying.

For my vSAN cluster I use a Netgear XS716T 10 Gigabit switch. During system startup the fans rotate at maximum speed and then settle down a bit in normal mode. But even the lower noise level is still annoying.

We need new fans

As part of a handicraft experiment, I tried to get the noise problem under control and bought some Noctua fans which are popular in the homlab scene. The Netgear switch is equipped with two 40 mm fans. These will be replaced by two Noctua NF-A4x20 fans. A simple exchange would be somewhat unsatisfactory, though. There should be at least some kind of quantification (just a science habit).

In the picture below you can see the original fans of the Netgear 10G switch. The 16-port model is equipped with two fans while the 8-port model has just one.

Disclaimer No.1: Before removing the casing cover, the power supply must be disconnected!

Disclaimer No.2: Opening the casing may void your warranty.

Continue reading “Quiet please! – Silent fans for the Homelab”
Posted on

Veeam Backup v10 on vSAN 7.0

There have been many new releases in the first quarter of 2020. The long anticipated release of Veeam Backup & Replication version 10, we’ve been waiting for since 2017 and also the latest generation of VMware vSphere. While I had vSAN 7 beta running on my homelab cluster before GA, I’ve worked with Veeam Backup 10 only in customer projects. There’s unfortunately no room for playing with new features unless the customer requests it. One of the new features of Veeam v10 is the ability to use Linux proxies and repositories. With XFS filesystem on the repository you can use the fast clone feature which is similar to ReFS on Windows.

In this tutorial I will show how to:

  • Deploy and size the Veeam server
  • Show base configuration to integrate vCenter
  • Build, configure and deploy a Linux proxy and its integration into backup infrastructure
  • Build, configure and deploy a Linux XFS repository

Using Veeam Backup on a vSAN Cluster has special design requirements. There’s no direct SAN backup on VMware vSAN because there’s neither a SAN, nor a fabric and nor HBAs. There are only two backup methods available: Network Mode (nbd) and Virtual Appliance Mode (hotadd). The latter is recommended for vSAN, but you should deploy one proxy per host to avoid unnecessary traffic on the vSAN interfaces. Hotadd also utilizes Veeam Advanced Data Fetcher (ADF).

Left: Backup from vSAN cluster with single proxy appliance; Backup traffic may be redirected over vSAN network if proxy and datadisk are not on same host.
Right: One proxy appliance per vSAN node; Direct data transfer without impact on vSAN network.

Talking about licenses: Having Linux proxies on each host will reduce the cost of Windows licensing. One more reason to play around with this new feature. A Veeam license will be required too, but as a vExpert I can get a NFR (not for resale) license which is valid for one year. Just one of the advantages of being a vExpert. 🙂

Let the games begin. We’ll need a Veeam server that holds the job database and the main application. The proxy and repository role will be kept on individual (Linux) servers.

Continue reading “Veeam Backup v10 on vSAN 7.0”
Pages: 1 2 3
Posted on

vSAN Health – vSAN Disk Balance

If you have joined VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP), you’re able to use Skyline-Health in your cluster. In older versions of vSphere/vSAN this feature used to be called vSphere-Health and vSAN-Health respectively. They both have been renamed to Skyline Health. You can access Skyline-Health in the vSphere-Client by navigating to Monitor > vSAN > Skyline-Health.

Today I’ve seen a warning after powering on up my homelab.

Drilling into details showed one of 4 hosts issued a warning: “Proactive rebalance is needed”.

Usually a vSAN cluster will distribute load amongst capacity disks automatically. For some reason that wasn’t the case in my homelab. But there’s help. You can click on “Configure Automatic Rebalance” directly from Skyline-Health (see picture below).

You’ll be redirected to vSAN cluster configuration. As you can see in the screenshot below, my cluster wasn’t configured for automatic rebalance.

Just move the slider and vSAN will automatically start to balance disks. A couple of minutes later the warning had switched to green. Depending on the cluster load and how imbalanced the capacity disks are, this process might take a while.

Links

VMware KB 2149809 – vSAN proactive rebalance

Posted on

Why does a vSAN cluster need slack space?

I usually get a lot of questions during trainings or in the process of vSAN designs. People ask me why there is a requirement for 30% of slack space in a vSAN cluster. If you look at it without going deeper, it looks like a waste of (expensive) resources. Especially with all-flash clusters it’s a strong cost factor. Often this slack space is mistaken as growth reserve. But that’s wrong. By no means it’s a reserve for future growth. On the contrary – it is a short term allocation space, needed by the vSAN cluster for rearrangements during storage policy changes.

Continue reading “Why does a vSAN cluster need slack space?”