Hitachi USP VM

[nonsparker]

We are about to buy a new SAN and start virtualizing our servers. The USP platform from Hitachi looks very compelling. Has anyone used it? If so how is it working for you? have you tried using it with VDI? I can not find much info on it, if you have not used it can you post some links you have come across? Thanks!

here is the link to the solution we are looking at.

http://www.hds.com/products/storage-systems/universal-storage-platform-vm.html

[abaum]

Nonsparker - Since your post doesn't really tell me the tie-in (new SAN, virtual servers, and USP), I am just going to say "Do not confuse storage virtualization with server virtualization." The USP is meant to virtualize your storage. I don't use this product, but have recently installed a competing storage virtualization product. You will find that the USP is a really good product that has some limitations. All the storage virtualization products have limitations of some sort. Some are in band, out of band, host based, etc. Each one has plusses and minuses and all will work with VMware. I might be jumping the gun a bit by using the word "all", but the main storage virtualization products that I know of are on the ESX compatability list.

adam

[nonsparker]

Sorry for not being more clear. I do understand that their is a difference between storage and server virtualization. THe info I was looking for was any pros and cons of the Hitachi storage system. We have a triditional SAN right now and we are buying new. I'm looking to see if anyone here has any Major issues with Hitachi SANs.

What Storage Vitrulization are you using? How has it worked?

[abaum]

We are using iNSP from Incipient. It falls under the category of SPAID (split path architecture for intelligent devices) in that it sits on/in our Cisco MDS switches. One nice benefit to it is that we can switch between storage vendors and still use our storage virtualization software, and all of its functions (snapshot, mirror, replication, etc). It works OK. We're still getting used to it so some of our issues may be from lack of familiarity with it.

adam

[G_T]

Yes, HDS storage is really good product, and I deployed for another HDS product line (WMS / AMS) with VMware. USP is enterprise class storage, and used by many world-wide banks. HDS claims that USP can provide 99.999% uptime of storage, and data avaialbility. Inside USP, most components are highly redundant, or clustered.

For your case, I think you are about to deploy a centralized storage for multiple applications or projects, and one is VMware. Otherwise, I will wonder the reasons behind to deploy VMware on USP, such a costly hardware, and in which VMware itself have already many HA features.