iSCSI SAN device recommendation

[BobF123]

I would like to know if someone could recommend an iSCSI SAN for use in a small business. We want to use it for ESXi and to test VI3 with 2 server boxes. Can anyone say what an acceptable transfer rate is as well? I got a Buffalo iSCSI TeraStation Pro, but can only copy files to it at about 18MB/s on RAID5 using Windows, and apparently the device only supports Windows and not ESXi.

[athlon_crazy]

i''d configured esx with iscsi ibm ds3300 before for my customer and it's pretty good storage for small / medium business. Never do bechmark on it but it was doing very well till now or get Dell Equal-Logic with snapshot capability if you have more budget.

System Engineer

Zen Systems Sdn Bhd

Malaysia

[glynnd1]

While the Iomega ix2 is listed as a NAS device, it was mentioned in one of the EMC public blogs that iSCSI support was forth coming. As to what performance it will provide I've no idea.

[christianZ]

Forget the all desktop nas systems like Buffalo or Iomega - they all wont get you the right throughput.

As mentioned the DS3300 is a good choice (oem from lsi/engenio) - or you can get the Dell MD3000i (the same vendor) - simple administration/config.

Infortrend has a fast iscsi box (now certified) - but the config. is a little poor. For redundancy get always a box with 2 controllers

The disadvantage of iscsi the the max. throughput of 1 Gbps ~ 120 MB/sec. But in most cases it is good enough. We use here Equallogic and I can see ca. 30 MB/sec by cloning - round the same as on a DS3400 fc - but of course the max. throughput on fc will be better (~300 MB/sec. or more).

[azn2kew]

I've implemented several Dell Equallogic solutions and its very good and my customers enjoy it. It also very easy to configure and deploy. I love the management interface and free but if this is just for testings and two ESX hosts, I would standup other unuse server and load Openfile and FreeNAS would be good and free as well. It makes perfect sense for lab/test environment.

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

iGeek Systems Inc.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant

[StevoIBM]

Hi Bob,

I work with IBM and the DS3000 is a great small/mid business solution. You can do a lot with it and expand it to over 10TB of storage.

It is fast for ISCSI and are great for virtualization. If you need some info on the unit or have any technical questions feel free to private message me or you can

email me at sversa@ca.ibm.com, I can certainly help you out.

Cheers,

Steven

[MichaelTsang]

I have been using HP MSA2000i and AiO1200 with ESX for a year already; they are working quite OK.

[whitemice]

EMC AX-4; bottom end of the EMC line (new this year). SImple, self-contained, and reasonably priced.

[Lightbulb]

I think the EMC AX-4 starts at around $8,000 base config (4 drives) expandable to 60 drives (60 TB). It has alot of the features of the higher end CX models, though not all. Everything is CRU and installation costs can be waived and you can do it all yourself.

[sumichrasts]

I have personally used a LeftHand setup (two SAS arrays for primary and one SATA array for a DR), and currently using Dell EqualLogic PS series, and boy I have to say I'm much happier with the Dell. I think they cost a little more but they're worth it. Dell support has been phenominal, the performance from the array is more than adequate for our size and getting everything "in the box" and not having to alacarte everything is just great.

If I had to get an iSCSI array, again for the right size, I would without a doubt go to Dell EQL. All the software they throw in for snapshoting (integration to VMware, Exchange, SQL, Windows VSS, etc...)

Very happy with our EQL, wouldn't go anywhere else when I'm looking for something with this feature set.