Okay, I thought I'd add another post on this device, or devices (I've bought a few of them), a year down the road.
I've changed my opinion of the ix4-200d a bit over the last year. I'd have to say, I don't really trust it. I certainly don't trust it in a production environment. The main reason for this, is because they kind of "bug out" every so often. By that I mean:
Messages every so often, saying that the device has "lost" its connection. Here's an example:
Subject: Possible problems with 'ESX-Iomega' device (120)
Content: Ethernet connection is lost on LAN '2'. Device Information: , 2.1.9.46472, Iomega StorCenter ix4-200d, 0KAK34003D
I woke up to 30 messages like this today. When that happens, and it's happened several times, I cannot access the web interface of the device. The only way to get the web interface back - which is the only way to control and configure the device - is to power it off by pressing the power button. Not a very elegant solution. The VMs are unaffected by the initial error, but obviously before I power-cycle the NAS, I have to go into ESX and power all the VMs off, then power off the NAS itself. This requires a visit to the site.
This alone makes me nervous. It would nearly be enough to put me off using it. What does really put me off though, are the other things I've seen happen, to a few of these devices now.
I've bought 3 of them (4, including the one I returned and had replaced - see item 2 below):
The 1st one was for myself, and has always worked fine, apart from the "Ethernet connection is lost" messages, from time to time.
The 2nd one I bought for a client (to run SBS 2008, a TS, a BBY server, and a few other VMs) and it arrived DOA. The replacement has worked fine, except for one time giving the flashing red light, and the web interface has bugged out twice. It also emails me the alarming "Ethernet connection is lost" messages, every so often. Additionally, I one time got "disk is degraded" error, and could not access the web interface. Manually shutting down the VMs, and power cycling the device fixed this (the red light/error went away), but has since made me anxious about the reliability of these devices (plus the other issues below and above).
The 3rd one I bought again for myself. I had sent my original (good) device over to a client site to perform an emergency P2V. Their old physical server was dying, and I wanted to do a quick P2V onto a NAS device that I could easily move to our new co-lo facility (I'm getting out of the "on-site" game, and setting up my clients with virtual desktops using "View" running off a "real" expensive NAS, and "real" hard-core servers). We are still in the process of getting this done, and some VMs are still running on the ix4-200d. Just today, I got a bunch of those "Ethernet connection is lost" messages, and I can't access the web interface. The VMs are still running though. (Time to speed up that move to the co-lo).
Anyway, I ordered Number Three, as a replacement for the 1st one that went to the client. This one has given me nothing but trouble. When it arrived, I changed the disk configuration to RAID 10. After that, it said "Data is being reconstructed." It would get to 100%, then start the cycle all over again. Oddly enough, I could run a VM on it all of this time. After a week or two, I got fed up looking at the flashing red light, and decided to upgrade the firmware. I downloaded the latest revision from the site. That "appeared" to go alright, then it wanted to reconstruct the data again. "Fine, have at it," I thought. This time, it would take AGES (like, 24 hours) to get to 97%. At 97% it would just stop. I couldn't access the web interface - AND MORE SERIOUSLY - I lost connection to the NFS datastore from my test ESX server. I had to physically unplug the NAS, after it started up again, ESX could see the datastore, and my VM started. However, the "Data is being reconstructed" nonsense started again - and again bugged out at 97%. Then the NAS died, and the red light came on. The device is inaccessible, and a message on the front says that a drive has failed. So much for RAID!
BOTTOM LINE: This device needs to be taken off the VMware HCL. It is NOT SUITABLE for a production environment, and therefore shouldn't be on the HCL. The HCL is something I have trusted up until now, because I always thought VMware were very vigorous in their standards.
I really, really, wanted to like this device. It is very cool in so many ways - when it works. It has great media-sharing capabilities, and a really nice interface - when the interface is not inaccessible. The performance is also pretty good. But, with a NAS and VMs running on that NAS, your have to - HAVE TO, HAVE TO - be able to depend on it. I sadly, cannot say that about this device.
So, sorry....but thumbs now firmly down.
Message was edited by: qmacker
