Getting a SAN from SUN. recommendations?

[arndawg]

Anyone got any recommendations for storage from sun?

This is the first time i'm gonna set-up ESX and i've never used SAN or even NAS before.

So what is the recommendations? I don't actually need more than 2TB of storage. But in a year it might be 10TB or even more. So I need something that scales very well.

I also need the ability to easily set up replication through a 1gbit internet connection to another SAN. This is a bit in the future though.

So what's the cheapest solution that works well with Vmware VI3 enterprise?

[SyverDude]

Hello,

Take a look at this.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_san_guide.pdf

For starting out, iSCSI is an excellent way to go, However, sun's iscsi offering does not look like it supports the hardware iscsi initiator. I could be wrong but that is what the san guide is showing. This is also a fast changing area so check with Sun or vmware on this.

Does it have to Sun Storage? if not, you could take a look at the

the EMC cx3 Model 10 or 20. They allow you to start out with iSCSI for less cost infrastructure but you can grow into a full fiber channel san.

A straight iscsi solution that would not do you wrong is equalogics.

Be careful with implementing iscsi that you make sure the iSCSI solution is certified with the hardware hba's for iscsi.

Both the emc and the equalogics will allow you to grow over time.

Regards,

Jon

[arndawg]

Yeah it have to be from Sun.

I was looking at Sun StorageTek 6140 Array. But i'm not sure what products is needed. Is the 6140 array just a module for a bigger system or what's the deal here?

Regarding iSCSI: What is the difference between software and hardware iscsi initiator in practice?

Thanks replying.

[admin]

HW initiator can boot from SAN, Uses traditional multi-pathing in ESX, less load on vmkernel/CPU. SW Initiator is excellent but is a work in progress. No true load balancing, multipathing done at the network level, can boot from san, and if not properly configured can tax in the cpu under certain conditions.

[arndawg]

Thanks guys. I'm leaning towards StorageTek 6140 Configuration 1. And adding expansion modules as storage requirements grow. Sounds okay?

[Crowey · Accepted solution]

Its perfectly OK - we're going for the 6540 here, but only because we were worried about the expandability of the 6140.

We've sized ours up in conjunction with Sun and VMware with specific requirements to be able to virtualise our entire server infrastructure and connect to the Sun SAN - so you should definitely be fine.

[arndawg]

I don't see ourself needing over 20TB of storage in the near future (or even half of that) so we will probably will do okay.

Any thoughts on 2gb vs 4gb cache? And is there any huge difference in Fibre Channel cards for my servers?

Thanks.

edit:

One thing i forgot to ask about. Does it support replication to a remote site? We might need to set up an identical SAN at another city for disaster recovery purposes.

Message was edited by:

arndawg

[arndawg]

had some more questions.

[Crowey]

I'd go for as much cache as you can afford (its expensive to upgrade) - but if you reckon your storage requirements will always be modest, then its a good place to save a little money too by sticking with the 2gb cache.

To have data replication/mirroring at a remote site you'll need Sun StorEdge Data Replicator or something along lines of Symantec Storage Foundations (which apparantly can mirror).