[TriLUG] [OT] iSCSI SAN recomendations

[Matt Pusateri]

We just implemented a SAN at our corporate office, around 6TB I 
believe.  We looked at EMC, Lefthand Networks, and NetApp.  Lefthand 
would be good for a small SAN/NAS, like 4TB, but I think it wouldn't be 
as good a choice at 30TB.  I really liked NetApp, it was technically my 
choice, unfortunately more expensive and probably overkill for what my 
corporate office needed.  We ended up with a EMC NS350.  So far I like 
it ok, I don't use it enough to tell, plus I have nothing to compare it 
to.  Plus it's only been in production for a couple of months. Right now 
it's doing CIF, NFS, iSCSI.   Keep in mind the SAN/NAS you need at 4TB 
may/is different than at 30TB.  Initially you will be overbuying to get 
a box that will keep up as you add disks.  Make sure management realizes 
this, otherwise you won't be comparing apples to apples, and someone 
will try to steer the project towards a 4TB unit that might not scale.  
Also the one thing I really disliked about NetApp is every little thing 
is another cost.  EMC as well but not as much.

Matt Pusateri


hris Bullock wrote:
> Currently, I need to put about 4TB on it for backups and a new system
> implementation going live by the years end.  Assuming, it works to our
> benefit, we plan to move our 30TB of Direct Attached Storage data to it. 
> We need the ability to add disks and grow the luns as needed without
> having to bring down the application.  We would prefer it to be able to
> perform NFS, CIFS, etc.  We are currently leaning towards the NetAPP 3020,
> depending on final price.
> chris
> --- "Lance A. Brown" <lance at bearcircle.net> wrote:
>
>   
>> Chris Bullock said the following on 8/14/2007 9:06 PM:
>>     
>>> We are in need for a SAN.  I am only interested in an IP SAN.  This
>>>       
>> SAN
>>     
>>> needs to be OS independent.  It will mainly be for serving up files,
>>>       
>> smb
>>     
>>> shares, home directories, ftp and backups.  We have site visits for
>>>       
>> NetApp
>>     
>>> and Pillar Data.  Since our IT department has 0 knowledge of SANs it
>>>       
>> needs
>>     
>>> to be easy to maintain.
>>>       
>> Hi Chris,
>>
>> What are your data storage size requirements?
>>
>> I'm using an ACNC JetStor 416iS[1] fronted by two Dell PowerEdge servers
>> to provide NFS and SMB storage to my department at Duke University.
>> Performance using a dedicated back-end Gigabit ethernet switch is quite
>> good.
>>
>> --[Lance]
>>
>> [1] http://acnc.com/02_01_jetstor_sata_416is.html
>>
>>
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