IBM DS4700/EMC CX3-20/HP EVA4400

[frizzo23]

Hi all

I'm a SAN novice but am looking to purchase a SAN as part of our VMWare implementation. Can anyone please point out some of the pros & cons of the following SANs for me?

IBM DS4700

EMC CX3-20

HP EVA4400

I've heard a bit about 'storage virtualisation' with the EVA4400 but I'm not sure how important this should rate when choosing a SAN. We're looking to connect 4 hosts and they'll either be x3650, R805v or DL360G5s.

The IOPs the DS4700 can manage would be sufficient for our deployment according to www.storageperformance.org but I'm finding it difficult to get independent stats on the other two. I'm really just trusting what the vendors are saying in terms of performance. Does anyone have any opinions on ease of use? Again, all vendors rave about the ease of use of their respective products but I don't have the time to go in and have a good look at all three.

Cheers

Franko

[caciolli]

I have many IBM DS4700 around, very simple to use and manage, impressive performance.

Many of these are conected to x3650, my VI3 construction bricks!

[jguirado]

Hi caciolli,

I'm very interesting in how do you make the vm backups. Basically wich is your backup strategy with the DS 4700. I have severals IBM 4700 with 4 TB aproximatelly and the vm backups it takes long time also at the level files I use ARCServe Backup. I use IBM system Storage TS3100 Tape Library connected directly with HBA to our windows backup.

Thanks a lot for your advice.

Joan

[caciolli]

jguirado,

I usually have CA Arcserve or IBM TSM. it depends on many factors.

Using CA, I get performance around 3GB/min using CA agents and writing directly to tape (most with TS3100or similar).

I stopped using Fibre Channel VCB, since VCB 1.1 you can use network based backup that are less complex and still fast. I am curious to try the new version 1.5 that should be optimized for this method. Never used file level backup with VCB (I think it could be useful only for file servers)

[jguirado]

I understand this 3GB/min performance is backing up directly vmdk files with ARCserve linux agent installed at the esx host?. But what happens if you have to restore a word document that from two days ago.

Please could you tell me how to connect the TS3100 and wich is the faster method to backup the vm's.

Many Thanks,

[caciolli]

No, I mean 3GB/min using CA agents inside virtual machine wich makes single file restore easy and fast. The same way as for physical servers, no agents on ESX console.

Backing up whole vitual machine is acheived using VCB on backup proxy, full vm is copied on disks and then archived on tapes. This is for DR purpose.

The library is directly connected to the backup server/VCB or to the SAN.

[kjb007]

Don't forget the storage performance thread as well: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/73745

-KjB