[AusNOG] SAN - NetApp vs EMC vs EqualLogic (kinda off topic)

[Shaun Dwyer]

On the smaller end of the scale, I put a Dell/EMC NX4 in place for my last employer. Had a few speedbumps getting it going - apparently we were the first in the country with an NX4. 

Once going it was rock solid, however the configuration web interface leaves a lot to be desired. There is a lot of functionality that requires CLI and although the buttons exist in the web interface, they've been locked out because the assumption is that if you're using the GUI, you're "too dumb" and "shouldn't be touching that" etc.

That being said if you don't need SMB/CIFS/NFS, you can use an AX4-5 to do iSCSI/FC which the NX4 uses as its disk storage backend anyway. The AX4-5 configuration interface is pretty good and equally seems rock solid.

Performance was great, just before I left for another job we were maxing out ~45 15k 600GB SAS disks IOPs wise, and the controllers seemed to have much more to give based on the performance counters.

Dell were really good to buy from and their after sales service was fantastic too - they even paid for a 3rd party consultant to come out and fix everything on-site for us and give us some training on the important stuff thats not really covered in the documentation.

I'd strongly recommend getting a demo of the software to see how it works and if you think its suitable (even if its in a VM, or on a remote customer site or something) before putting in a PO though for any vendor though.

If you want a sales contact in Dell, let me know off-list and I'll give you some details.

Cheers!
-Shaun



On 15/07/2010, at 5:59 PM, Jay Mitchell wrote:

> Dell own EqualLogic, hence their ability to aggressively price ;)
> 
> I'm running several EMC Clariions which have been rock solid, but they're
> running pure FC.
> 
> I've just purchased an EqualLogic PS6000X for a branch office, on paper they
> look solid and you get pretty good bang for your buck feature wise. I can't
> comment personally on performance yet as I haven't taken delivery, but
> looking forward to getting my hands dirty :) There's also a 10gE option now.
> 
> --jay
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net
> [mailto:ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net] On Behalf Of Jonathan Thorpe
> Sent: Thursday, 15 July 2010 8:45 AM
> To: James Braunegg; ausnog at ausnog.net
> Subject: Re: [AusNOG] SAN - NetApp vs EMC vs EqualLogic (kinda off topic)
> 
> Hi James,
> 
> It might help if you tell us what kind of storage capacity and what you'll
> be using it with. Do you have any existing iSCSI infrastructure - any
> problems with it?
> 
> I've worked with all of the ones you mentioned on various projects when I
> worked for Citrix (XenServer) and all had their own positives and negatives,
> but it largely depends on what you intend on using it with.
> 
> A few comments on each (anyone please feel free to disagree):
> 	NetApp: Highly versatile - can be used as a NFS/CIFS appliance as
> well as an iSCSI SAN (although you pay for licensing). NetApp claim that
> RAID-DP's (proprietary form of RAID similar to RAID-6) performance is
> comparable to RAID-10, but with the RAID overhead efficiency of RAID-6. I've
> never put the performance to the test though.
> 
> 	Equallogic: I've found Dell to be the most common reseller of these
> and this appears to allow them to offer reasonable pricing. One thing to be
> very careful of is to see if they can do active/active multipathing. When I
> worked with them about 6 months ago, it was strictly active/passive (i.e.
> you couldn't configure different LUNs to different controllers to spread the
> load).
> 
> 	EMC: Generally very solid, but there's licensing for just about
> every component (PowerPath, drive expansion etc). Make sure these costs are
> understood upfront.
> 
> Other options are the Dell MD3000i and IBM DS3000 and DS4000 series - these
> are all based on LSI controllers and are widely supported as well.
> 
> Kind Regards,
> Jonathan
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net
> [mailto:ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net] On Behalf Of James Braunegg
> Sent: Wednesday, 14 July 2010 8:51 PM
> To: ausnog at ausnog.net
> Subject: [AusNOG] SAN - NetApp vs EMC vs EqualLogic (kinda off topic)
> 
> Hey guys were in the market for a new iSCSI SAN, I know this list is mainly
> about networking but we are looking at acquiring another SAN (network
> storage) Does anyone have any suggestions or know any good Melbourne based
> sales rep from NetApp, EMC or EqualLogic.
> 
> I'm currently only looking at iSCSI not FC for this application.
> 
> Kindest Regards
> 
> James Braunegg
> W:  1300 769 972  |  M:  0488 997 207 |  D:  (03) 9751 7616
> E:   james.braunegg at micron21.com  |  ABN:  85 126 029 203   
> 
> 
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