Ultrastor RS16-IP4 ?

[bonald]

Ultrastror SAN applicance is pretty cheap and is on the HCL.

Anybody using it? How does it perform ? Problems ?

[Futurist7]

The RS16 IP-4 comes with the quad-port GbE iSCSi with truncking capability, MPIO (Multi-path I/O validated), and MetaSAN certified.

Here's a case study where someone uses RS16 IP, the dual-port version.

http://www.enhance-tech.com/case_study/case_music_mountain.html

Also, here's the RS16 IP-4 product review on PC World

http://www.enhance-tech.com/case_study/case_music_mountain.html

I hope this helps.

[bonald]

I've put my RS8-IP4 on the bench today.

4 NIC plugged into a gigabit switch

Jumbo frames disabled

8x SATA 500gb Seagate ES.2

OS Windows 2008 - 2GB RAM

DL380 G3 Dual Xeon 3.06GHz, 8GB RAM

Only 1 nic plugged into Gigabit switch

Using VMware Software HBA

Using IOMeter I got 3410 IOPS , 50/50 read/write

[vmthunder]

How's this product going for you? Curious to know if your OS VMDK's are local or they are on the RS8 / RS16 as well?

[bonald]

Everything is on the RS8-IP4.

I currently have 14 VM running on(fileservers,dc,exchange,sql...). Works good. It's a very basic SAN with no extra special functions like the Equalogics, very basic.

Since it was so cheap we bought two of those, the other one is sitting and waiting with all the backup vm.

We use veeam to back everything up on the other RS8-IP4.

I can't complain for the price.

[ConstantinV]

Can I ask why you`ve chosen this decision?

StarWind Software Developer

[vmthunder]

I assume the question was for bonald, but from my perspective it is a great balance of functionality (iSCSI), redundancy and storage for the cost.

[bonald]

To answer your question ConstatinV,

That was our reflection at the time:

Limited budget,

We need at least 4TB of storage

We want to have a SAN to use all of vmware capabilities

We want a backup SAN in case SAN1 dies

The ultrastor was on VMware HCL and the cost was good, installation was easy and we had a 3 years warranty with it.

The total was 6,800$. That included 2x RS8-IP4 and 16x 500gb HD

Hard to beat.

[ConstantinV]

I cannot disagree with you I`m asking to know why customers choose other decisions. You have very good configuration, the only I can say - minimal functionality of SAN solution, in all other - good choice.

StarWind Software Developer