Which iSCSI device to go for ?

[Thorsten_Schnei]

Hi,

we want to implement a solution with 2 ESX hosts connected to two iSCSI storage devices. Each of the boxes will have 1TB of storage. We want to go for two storage devices to get more performance and another level of availability.

I'm wondering which device to go for. All of our kit is HP but the MSA1510i is only supported with software initiator and does not allow SP failover. I'm tempted to go for hardware initiators to have multiple path to the storage.

Which model do recommend and have good experiences with ? It must be on the HCL obviously.

Thanks in advance

Thorsten

[BUGCHK]

EqualLogic[/url]

Works great + feature rich. Fully qualified with ESX V3.0.1; even the new PS3900XV is on the compatibility list already. And it is pretty easy to manage.

[christianZ]

Agreed.

Go away from HP MSA1500.

Check this for a direction:

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=73745

[PatrickMSlatter]

We tested out a HP MSA1510i a while back and it was very slow. We sent it back. They need to do a lot more work on it before it gets to the point of being considered for use with ESX.

Personally I have had very good experiences with NetApp systems but they are certainly more expensive than what you are looking for I think.

[crendall]

I use EqualLogic for my iSCSI SAN and the performance is excellent. I'm very happy with this product!

[Paul_Lalonde · Accepted solution]

I'm definitely in favour of Equallogic as the iSCSI solution. I've done a lot of testing and benchmarking of various iSCSI solutions, and no array could compete with the Equallogic unit in terms of performance \*or* ease of use.

Not to mention it includes almost every SAN feature you could ever want...

Paul

[Osm3um]

I have had good luck from my EMC AX150i. No complaints at all.

I have heard so many good things about Equallogic I really wanted to go that route, but the EMC unit was less expensive for a dual controller.

Bob

[jliu]

I knew AX150i is SATA based, and Is Equallogic SCSI disk based ?

[crendall]

They have both SATA and SAS devices. I'm using a EqualLogic SATA SAN and the performance is excellent.

[admin]

So the MSA1510i is a total non-starter?

Shame, it's a lot of storage for the money, but I guess there was always going to be a catch.

Reminds me of the golden IT rule. Cheap - Fast - Reliable. Pick two.

[letoatrads]

Yep, you definitely have to invest a little in getting the better solutions.

However, if you compare Apples vs Apples EQL is very much a cost effective solution, and I can say I have been %110 happy with the product and the support has been pretty good.

[Paul_Lalonde]

Hey Bob,

You know, the AX150i is one of the few iSCSI SANs I \*haven't* had a chance to play with. I'd like to get my hands on one for a day and really run it through its paces.

I've heard it's a good stand-up box though... all the more reason for the eventual consumer to "try and buy" before making his purchase!

Paul

[femialpha]

I use a number of the AX150i's for ESX, backup and file servers. They are ok for low utilization systems so if you need to decent iops, you'll need to spend some more. For the price though, it is a good bargain and very reliable. Its probably the limited cache, 512MB/controller that is its biggest limiting factor. Do a search for it on the forum and you'll get some decent feedback unlike the MSA1000/1500 series.

I have about 20 vm's on my AX150 running both windows and redhat and the developers who use them have never complained.

Message was edited by:

femialpha

[Thorsten_Schnei]

Thanks a lot for all your feedback. I'll get some quotes for the Equallogic kit.

Thorsten

[acr]

I just finished a ESX install on two EQL SAS Boxes, ok performance was remarkable and it was unbelievably simple to configure..

After everything was up and running i decided to play with replication etc..

I had one 500G VMFS LUN on one of the EQL Boxes, the other EQL Box was at a different location (fiber link)..

With multiple VMs (10) all running on the single EQL Box i moved the entire LUN from one SAN to the Other .. No outage, Live and ESX with its VMs never knew, everything kept running..

Almost VMotion at the SAN Level....!!

Yeah id say i was suitable impressed... (or is there any other SAN that can do that...??)

[BUGCHK]

So the MSA1510i is a total non-starter?

He was looking for a storage array that can provide redundancy.

While you can put two controller modules into the MSA1510i, it is an active/passive controller device. On Windows, for example, you need an MSA-specific MPIO DSM which is incompatible with any other MPIO solution!

[admin]

I know only a single controller is supportedin the MSA1510i when using it with ESX, I can live with that, what I'm worried about is the performance of the box, is it suitable for running say 35 medium-low use VMs on?

[JNorberg]

Let you know soon...... we have a hp only policy So we didn't really have a choice...... most of the bits arrived yesterday so within a week we will probably have it all up and running.

[letoatrads]

Never used one myself, but a couple of folks at the Atlanta area User group had an MSA 1510 and they were not thrilled about it at all. This was a small use system, 2 ESX servers and like 20 VM's I believe ( was about a year ago so I'm pretty fuzzy).

[admin]

Thanks, be very interested to hear your opinions.

letoatrads - oof, only 20?! Had hoped it might do a bit better than that!