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beckhamk
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EMC NS20?

Anyone here using or looking at the EMC NS20 for use with vmware?

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CXSANGUY
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There is an NS20 and an NS20FC. Its basically an ALL-IN-ONE box NAS/SAN, ISCSI/FIBRE. Runs Snapview, SanCopy, Mirrorview whatever you want really.

Im going to be setting ours up soon with VMware but have not yet.

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glynnd1
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I'm open to correction, but I believe the NS20 is just a gateway to Clariion storage, primarily to provide NFS & CIFS access, but it can also provide iSCSI & FC connective, though why one wouldn't get that directly from the Clariion I don't know.

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christianZ
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When you use another good iscsi storage then check Compellent !!

They work with fc and iscsi and support iscsi hba with Esx.

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whynotq
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the NS20 is technically a gateway although it is marketed without switches as the backend storage is a CX3-10F which has 6 FC host ports per Storage Processor so you can have multiple hosts in an HA enviroment without the overhead of switches.

So if you went down the NS20 route you could have ESX hosts attached via FC/NFS and iSCSI from the same storage with only the HBA as an extra cost. Quite what the perfomance will be like will depend on the disk types used. The CX3-10 has the option of "low cost fibre channel" for the flare drives as well as the data areas this gives for huge LUNs but due to the slower spindle speed it may affect performance in VMs with high IO.

I am not aware of any one currently using this unit for ESX but it's new to the market as a package so i'm sure it's just a matter of time before someone gives it a try.

beckhamk
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What exactly do you mean by low cost FC drives? Wouldnt the same FC drives that are in a cx3-10 be in the ns20?

Also this comment: "marketed without switches as the backend storage " did you mean simply that the host servers are able to be connected directly to the ns20 or that the DAE's are not switched?

I heard someone tell me once that emc DEA's are switched where as a HDS ams200 is not.

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beckhamk

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christianZ
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Just a hint, I'm noticed you got many answers in your both threads but you haven't awarded any points yet.

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beckhamk
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Ok - help me out here - points? Not sure I follow you here.

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christianZ
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By each answer (on your question) you can see buttons on the right "Helpful" or "Correct" - these are points for the posters (6 or 10).

You can award the "Helpful" 2 times and 1 x "Correct".

Hope that's clear.

whynotq
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the Low Cost FC drives were introduced with the CX3 series, prior to this we had SATA or ATA drives which had a serial - FC bridge for the back-end interface.

Wouldnt the same FC drives that are in a cx3-10 be

in the ns20?

yes the same drives are used for the CX3-10 with the NS20, essentially the NS20 is just a host.

Also this comment: "marketed without switches as the

backend storage " did you mean simply that the host

servers are able to be connected directly to the ns20

or that the DAE's are not switched?

The comment "marketed without switches as the backend storage" does indicate that the NS20 is direct connected but the CX3-10f has 6 Host ports per Storage processor which allows for the NS20 (2 ports per SP) and upto another 4 Dual attached hosts to all be connected without the need for additional switches (cost). Non "f" branded Clariions have only 2 or 4 front end (host) ports.

I heard someone tell me once that emc DEA's are

switched where as a HDS ams200 is not.

The CX3 ultrapoint chassis, as you say, is essentially a FC-SW (switched) device rather than FC-AL (loop). So yes they are switched.

Message was edited by:

beckhamkWhat exactly do you mean by low cost FC drives?

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CXSANGUY
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There is an NS20 and an NS20FC. Its basically an ALL-IN-ONE box NAS/SAN, ISCSI/FIBRE. Runs Snapview, SanCopy, Mirrorview whatever you want really.

Im going to be setting ours up soon with VMware but have not yet.

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biniam
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Hello,

Have you implemented ns20 in vmware invironment?

ben

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Guardian_Chuck
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I am implementing vmware on a ns20 and would like to exchange experiences with anyone in a similar situation.

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Eublet
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I'm in the process of implementing two ESX servers into an ns20, so I'd like to share experiences as well. I'm starting this in the morning. Not sure what to expect really! Smiley Happy

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techstyled
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We are probably signing the paperwork today on an NS20 with:

9 + 1 HS 15k 300GB drives and 6 + 2 HS 7.2k 1000GB SATA drives

We are getting it with FC and iSCSI enabled and we are going to start out with 5 physical servers (4 connected via FC and iSCSI and 1 connected iSCSI only due to not wanting to throw a FC switch into the mix yet). We are planning on the physical servers having zero hard drives and booting from the FC or NIC HBA.

We're only thinking about using VMWare with approximately 30 servers at first so we should be way under needs.

The physical servers are going to be DELL 2950's with dual X5460's and 16GB RAM.

Other than some testing, this will be our first go at VMWare vi3. I look forward to sharing my experiences here and hearing others.

I'd also appreciate any comments y'all have.

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arnoobbb
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I know a couple of people who are running Vmware on the NS20, they say it works great. They also like the NS20 new revamped gui, easy to use!

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