iSCSI cards

RSR · 2 Oct 2008 at 11:41

Can any one recommend any good iSCSI TOC (PCI Express) cards other then Qlogic ones?

Ive been trying to get a quote on Intel ET NIC but not one seems to stock them.

Thanks Chaps.

Andy

bigredshark · 2 Oct 2008 at 12:01

Adaptec 7211 seems to work OK or the HP TOE (NC370) nics are very good.

RSR · 2 Oct 2008 at 13:03

bigredshark said:
Adaptec 7211 seems to work OK or the HP TOE (NC370) nics are very good.

Cool. Ill have a look.

Andy

RSR · 2 Oct 2008 at 13:12

What are the Intel ET NICs like?

Have you used this one before HP NC380T PCI Express Dual Port Multifunction Gigabit server adapter ?

Andy

RSR · 2 Oct 2008 at 13:27

These are going to be for a VMware install. As we are going to be booting from a Netapp filer.

Is it worth getting a TOE card? As i would rather spend the extra money on getting a good quailty Intel NICs

Andy

bigredshark · 2 Oct 2008 at 19:46

What servers are you using, new HP boxes have a TOE option on the built in NICs which just requires a license...

EDIT: Also, if your filer supports fibre channel, use that instead. It's still better than iSCSI, more expensive yes but if the box already supports it then it's not a big cost compared to iSCSI.

RSR · 2 Oct 2008 at 23:06

bigredshark said:
What servers are you using, new HP boxes have a TOE option on the built in NICs which just requires a license...

EDIT: Also, if your filer supports fibre channel, use that instead. It's still better than iSCSI, more expensive yes but if the box already supports it then it's not a big cost compared to iSCSI.

HP DL380G5's (its there top spec one haha)

Its a Netapp 3020 filer we are using. Thats the reason we have chosen the iSCSI router over FC as the cost is a lot more and the performance difference from reading a few reports isn't that much different. Plus the iSCSI is already in place with the old servers.

RSR · 2 Oct 2008 at 23:10

Ive just checked and the onboard NIC, do have inbuild TOE.

bigredshark · 3 Oct 2008 at 14:06

andyd said:
Ive just checked and the onboard NIC, do have inbuild TOE.

Indeed, they're very good as well, as good as any add in card will be. Despite what the reports say, every benchmark I've run has shown Fibre channel to be significantly faster than iSCSI, it's also a lot more reliable in my experience, fibre channel was designed for storage traffic, iSCSI is storage tacked on top of IP...