Greetings,
I've had first hand experience with Netapp 270s / iSCSI on
couple of windows host. (past life)
Nutshell: SLOW, don't try exchange on it,
it kept timing out on me. I've also seen a large client have issues with Lotus
notes when using Gfilers 980c and HDS as the backend storage. (this was a poor
configuration issue, too many LUNs over a 1 gig connection)
I've also tried it for another purposes and I lost my
LUN a few times. The only way of getting it back then was by restarting the
client! not a fun thing to do when you are running multiple apps on the same
server.
Suggestion would be, directly attach application
servers via GigE across to your iSCSI device. If direct connecting your app
servers is not realistic. use VLANs to segregate traffic, dedicate iSCSI traffic
to a set of bonded ports.
Start slow, make sure that the number of LUNs being
provisioned to the app servers are provisioned in a control manner.
(meaning, see how your application behaves in a controlled environment
before doing any big role out) Monitor performance, use a
testing tool (iozone) to see how much performance you would gain or loose
from moving away from current solution.
Also, consider the advantages and disadvantages an iSCSI
solution would bring your environment. (replication, HA, speed, easy of
management, backup, etc)
TOE ? I think that the purpose of having iSCSI in your
environment is to lower the investment of FC (SAN) solution by leveraging your
current network infrastructure and current staff expertise so, if you start
purchasing the TOE cards, you will in fact start cutting into the
savings a properly architected and managed IP SAN (iscsi) solution would offer
your company.
I have not had the opportunity to try a TOE card nor have I
needed it to yet since I am able to reach almost wire speeds on GigE at the
moment.
Can not comment on the HDS and EMC solutions but I can't
believe they would be better than what Netapp has to offer since their main
business is in the FC world.
Hope this helps guide you!
Best Regards,
From:
owner-toasters@mathworks.com [mailto:owner-toasters@mathworks.com] On Behalf
Of Raj Patel
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2006 11:40
AM
To: toasters@mathworks.com
Subject: iSCSI SAN
Queries
Hi,
We're in the preliminary scoping phase for a low/mid-range
iSCSI SAN solution. I was wondering if anyone had any positive or negative
real-world experiences with -
NetApp 270c
HDS AMS200
EMC
CX320
At the moment the NetApp is the most familiar to me as I have used
one of their NAS boxes before and the simulator provides a pretty good
indication of how it works. However the iSCSI seems a bit of a 'bolt-on' and its
not clear if it will handle tiered storage as well as the other vendors (then
again does it matter?).
The HDS & EMC are unknown quantities (other
than what I can glean from the web).
Any feedback concerning ease of use,
expansion, licensing, snapshot mechanism (the EMC seems clunky from their
literature but I don't know if that's the case in operation).
Also does
anyone have any iSCSI 'gotchas' ? Is a TOE one of those 'nice to have but not
really necessary' things on a modern server or should it be factored into the
solution ?
Cheers,
Raj.