Server Virtualisation Project

LordSplodge said:
Are we comparing Apples with Oranges? Is the HP in the same league as the EqualLogic (or the equivalent NetApp) with the appropriate intelligent features?

Skimping on a SAN doesn't make much sense unless the data you are putting there really isn't that important...
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The EVA is a very serious system indeed, it's also fibre channel, which in my book (and so far I've deployed about 1.2PB for our company) is a lot more reliable than iSCSI. There have been too many problems with the initiator software under windows for comfort and unless you shell out loads on 10Gbit switching then performance over 1Gbit is far from wonderful.

But given the feature pack in software the EVA can do everything I've asked of it. Sure, Netapp offer better replication technology and snapshot features but it costs a lot more, use it where you need it but not as a general thing is my view.

We used Dell once, never again. Their support has been absolutely awful compared to HP (which means I can beat HP into sending me replacement parts when I say the RAID controller is broken, Dell demand 3 different diagnostics to be run first - I don't have time, I want the parts now!)
 
bigredshark said:
We used Dell once, never again. Their support has been absolutely awful compared to HP (which means I can beat HP into sending me replacement parts when I say the RAID controller is broken, Dell demand 3 different diagnostics to be run first - I don't have time, I want the parts now!)
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My experience is so different. Ring Dell, tell them what's up. Get new part with engineer to fix it. Job done.
 
You could consider DataCore for the shared storage. It is not a SAN or iSCSI but is a cheaper way of running shared storage and will require a normal server with decent raid card and appropriate capacity.
 
Come on guys. There's only one choice for Enterprise level kit...in fact all kit.

EMC

You know it makes sense. IDC says 43% of all VMWare external storage is on EMC. Another 7% or so is on Dell....which is mostly EMC kit anyway :)

If you can't make your mind up on Fibre or iSCSI there is a combo box that does both
 
Not everybody has a budget for enterprise storage.

Nine servers isn't exactly a lot of servers, I've seen some perfectly decent setups running twenty VM's with an entry level HP SAN and three ESX hosts.
 
JonRohan said:
Not everybody has a budget for enterprise storage.

Nine servers isn't exactly a lot of servers, I've seen some perfectly decent setups running twenty VM's with an entry level HP SAN and three ESX hosts.
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EMC competes with the likes of HP at all levels, not just 'enterprise'. Low, midrange and enterprise.
 
Biffa said:
Personally I'd rather use Netapp
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I agree, I'd take Netapp over EMC given the choice. Both are expensive solutions with a lot of features, which isn't what the SME market needs - though netapp have some new little box which is targeted at that market...
 
Thanks for your replies folks. You've given me a lot to think about. Next stage is get a server in and test. I really can't see me being able to get a shared storage solution though however beneficial it might be.
 
Vanilla said:
Come on guys. There's only one choice for Enterprise level kit...in fact all kit.

EMC

You know it makes sense. IDC says 43% of all VMWare external storage is on EMC. Another 7% or so is on Dell....which is mostly EMC kit anyway :)

If you can't make your mind up on Fibre or iSCSI there is a combo box that does both
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Omigods, EMC IDC marketing spam! :D

I prefer a 3000 series FAS to a Clariion. Symmetrix is a different ball game.

RAID DP (don't tell me you can do RAID 6, I need some performance!), a nice, easy to manage chunk of virtualised storage (mid-range companies don't "do" RAID sets, they get them wrong!), thin provisioning (although iirc it's out now/very soon on the Clariion), no DOS like effect when having to rebuild a single disk (you base usable size on RAID 5 so I'll base rebuilds on rebuilding a priority RAID 5 array!), WAFL snaps and restores, flexclone, SnapManager for Sharepoint, CIFS (no NS for me please!) and NFS... NetApp have a great product set for a mid-range market, it's just pricey.

EMC have powerpath, clustered heads by default (might just be due to the way a Clariion works perchance!), iscsi and fcp on board with no extra licensing, a simple licensing structure and the big kickers.... massive product set, established name (counts for more than you'd think) and the real biggie... price. EMC annihilate anything that moves when it comes to pricing. Try and justify the NetApp advantages when EMC are beating NetApp's lowest price by 20% or more... that's a large amount of money when you're reaching 6 figures on storage.

Anyway... I'm going to Cork soon :rolleyes:
 
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Shaz]sigh[;11838061 said:
Omigods, EMC IDC marketing spam! :D

I prefer a 3000 series FAS to a Clariion. Symmetrix is a different ball game.

RAID DP (don't tell me you can do RAID 6, I need some performance!), a nice, easy to manage chunk of virtualised storage (mid-range companies don't "do" RAID sets, they get them wrong!), thin provisioning (although iirc it's out now/very soon on the Clariion), no DOS like effect when having to rebuild a single disk (you base usable size on RAID 5 so I'll base rebuilds on rebuilding a priority RAID 5 array!), WAFL snaps and restores, flexclone, SnapManager for Sharepoint, CIFS (no NS for me please!) and NFS... NetApp have a great product set for a mid-range market, it's just pricey.

EMC have powerpath, clustered heads by default (might just be due to the way a Clariion works perchance!), iscsi and fcp on board with no extra licensing, a simple licensing structure and the big kickers.... massive product set, established name (counts for more than you'd think) and the real biggie... price. EMC annihilate anything that moves when it comes to pricing. Try and justify the NetApp advantages when EMC are beating NetApp's lowest price by 20% or more... that's a large amount of money when you're reaching 6 figures on storage.

Anyway... I'm going to Cork soon :rolleyes:
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Too..much...information.. :)

Is EMC taking you out to Cork? A Briefing?
 
Aye, pre-sales and tech demos. Should be interesting seeing as i'm biased towards netapp for the project the kit would be for but i'm open to suggestions!
 
Heh we tend to get NetApp at cost, just have to pay for the disks. But then we do use a *LOT* of em :)
 
Don't bother with a SAN for your size of environment as it will be overkill. Secondly I doubt you will need the feature set provided by ESX enterprise and the cost is significantly more. You also do not need Virtual Centre unless you manage a large host deployment or deployment large numbers of templates on a regular basis. A good cost effective solution is a pair of HP DL 380's with local storage. If you have spare hardware and you want a SAN I would recommend trying San Melody from Datacore.
 
Have you considered Citrix Xenserver? Is should do all you need at a lot cheaper price than VMWare... including Xens version of VMotion... Xenmotion

I think its a really good upcoming product.
 
The virtualization people at our place at the moment reckon that the Citrix offering will be good when it is finished, but needs more work done on it to be Enterprise Ready.

They look at VMWare, Citrix and Microsoft offerings, and at the moment VMWare has the edge, but you do pay for it.
 
I think Novell are offering support for SLES running Windows 2003 Paravirtualised in Xen.....
I guess you don't really need the performance benefits of paravirtualisation anyhow.
 
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