Editing Storage (section)

=== Whitebox Storage ===
At this point, things start getting interesting, and closer to the type of configuration you are likely to see in the real world!

Using [[Homelab Storage Software|storage software]] installed into on either a virtual or physical server, you can present NFS or iSCSI LUNs / datastores to your hypervisor hosts, and even object storage to your virtual machines. Once this [[Homelab Storage Software|shared storage]] is in place, it opens up a whole load of new testing and availability possibilities, including VMware vMotion and Microsoft Live Migration.

[[File:whitebox.jpg|200px|border|left]]One of the biggest benefits to running whitebox storage is that it doesn't cost you a huge amount over just doing local storage, especially if you are using an inexpensive storage box (options such as [[HP MicroServer]]s are absolutely ideal for this, as they can hold at least 4 and up to 8 drives when you add a 5.25" disk expansion unit. However, any vendor or whitebox server with a handful of bays will work just fine.

Once you have your kit and your drives, the next key thing is to simply choose and install your software. Here you have a mahoosive range of software options. We have listed a number of them on the '''[[Homelab Storage Software]]''' page.

Another key benefit of whitebox storage (assuming you are using VMware vSphere as a hypervisor) is the ability to take advantage of VAAI. Many of the storage software vendors including, FreeNAS, NexentaStor, etc support it. VAAI has a load of very useful features (known as primitives) which will help your lab to fly, the most useful of which is the ability to offload cloning of VMs to your storage, and as such clone VMs from templates or other VMs in a few seconds!

The main drawback to running a custom storage software stack is that it is in direct contravention off the [[Keep It Simple Stupid|KISS principle]] of reducing complexity. You may end up spending a significant amount of time managing your storage software, when you could be doing other things in your lab. Nothing wrong with this of course, if you want to learn more about that storage software, and some of the vendor trialware / free restricted software (e.g. [[EMC vVNX]], [[NetApp Data ONTAP]] sim, etc) can be absolutely ideal for this.

Similarly to the [[Storage#Local Storage|local storage]] method, downtime will be required to all of your lab VMs every time you need to patch the storage host or storage software.

Finally, because this is basically just adding some more intelligent software over the top of your physical kit, most of the same benefits and drawbacks as [[Storage#Local Storage|Local Storage]], with a lot more scalability and flexibility, but an equal helping of complexity to go with it!