Question

Advice on choice of SAN. Equallogic or NetApp

Asked by: asbowen

Hi,

We are currently undergoing a major redevelopment of our server / storage infrastructure, and are in need of some advice.

We currently have 9 Servers, including Exchange, MySQL, two domain controllers etc. We plan to Virtualise all of these onto two Dell R610s (Dual Xeon E5504, 24Gb RAM) running VMWare's ESX server.

We have narrowed the quotes down to two possible providers, however, the choice is going to be based on the chosen SAN. Both companies have had the data from VMWare's capacity planner on which to base their quote.

We also have a requirement to replicate data offsite so we would potentially be purchasing two of either SAN for Phase 2 (Disaster Recovery) development.

One company has come back with an EqualLogic PS4000E iSCSI with 8TB; 16x500GB 7,200 RPM Sata II drives.

The other company has suggested a Netapp FAS2040 with one shelf of 300GB, 15,000RPM drives and one shelf of 300GB SAS drives, giving approximately 4TB of storage capacity.

Having spoken to representatives from both EqualLogic and NetApp, we don't seem to be able to split the two except on cost.

We are now desperately in need of some advice, can anyone offer any suggestions that would make our decision easier. What are they like to live with, in your opinion are they suitable for our needs, etc. I can give more information about requirements if needed.


Thank You


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Asked On
2009-10-21 at 01:18:35ID24829702
Tags

SAN

,

Dell

,

Equallogic

,

NetApp

,

VMware

,

ESX

,

MySQL

,

Exchange

,

storage

Topics

Storage Technology

,

VMware

,

Hard Drives & Storage

Participating Experts
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Comments
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Answers

 

by: BAAAASSPosted on 2009-10-21 at 01:40:29ID: 25621759

Some time ago we had the exact same predicament.
Things to note:
1. Both these products are really good products - honostly!
2. SAS is much better than SATA in a SAN for VMGuests, SATA is better for Cost saving in applications like Archiving or flat File storage.
3. Equallogic includes all the software that they currently have for that SAN - which is greate because that means that you get all the options from word "Go"; where you will have to purchase the software seperately with the NetApp, which means that you can get it marginally cheaper from word "Go", and build up the SAN's capabilities as your needs grow...
4. Support is a very large factor in choosing a SAN, who will support each of these products and how good is their reputation for support - very important

FYI - We chose the NetApp

 

by: asbowenPosted on 2009-10-21 at 01:53:21ID: 25621835

BAAAAS,

Thank you very much for your reply,

1. Good to know.

2. How would this affect the likes of MySQL data storage or exchange running on VMware?

3. This is one of the things we are aware of and tends to make us lean towards the EqualLogic as far as software is concerned as if we find we need something further down the line, we wouldn't have any additional costs.

4. We have been very specific about support as part of the quotation, and are happy that both providers have come back with good support plans.

Why did you go for NetApp?

Are there any technical reasons why we should chose one over the other? Speed, reliability etc etc

Thanks again

 

by: za_mkhPosted on 2009-10-21 at 02:11:48ID: 25621972

We use a DataCore San Melody SAN running off FC with both a mix of SATA and SAS Drive trays. We have two SANs and they are are synchronously mirrored. All ESX hosts are connected to both SANs via seperate fabrics - so the solution for us is highly resilient due to it's planned design. Of course it is 'twice' as expensive too!

In our testing with I/O meter on the SAS and SATA disks. SAS massively outperformed SATA when it came to moving huge files. So in our case, after our exhaustive testing, we stick to SAS for high IO usage VM's (exchange / SQL / Oracle /  etc) and use SATA for file servers and low I/O usage systems. It's a good mix and thanks to vSphere allows us to move vmdks across the SAS / SATA depending on need.

Since you are starting out, use this time to also pay attention to the alignment issues (64K boundary etc). NetApp have a fantastic tool called MBRalign that aligns the VMDK, which squeezes out the performance of what ever SAN you use. I love this article ... it's one of my favourite ones - it could be beneficial to you too. http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2009/06/vmware-io-queues-micro-bursting-and-multipathing.html


 

by: larstrPosted on 2009-10-21 at 02:16:27ID: 25622004

I would go with NetApp any day if I had to choose. It's an extremely good storage solution for VMware. NetApp also has some promo packages available for the SMB boxes including the 2040 now with all the software included (All snapmanagers, FC, iscsi, nfs, ++).

The dedupe functionality of NetApp is also very neat...


Lars

 

by: BAAAASSPosted on 2009-10-21 at 02:24:24ID: 25622065

2. There are several advantages using SAS over SATA, but both has their place in the world.  SAS is more expensive, with much better performance (some say even more reliable), where SATA is cheaper with marginal performance.  SAS generally performs at 15,000 RPM where SATA performs at 7,200RPM.
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Computer_Science/2007/sas_sata.asp
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_difference_between_ide_sata_and_scsi_hard_disk
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Storage/Q_21879542.html

3. Some companies prefer to spread the cost out a wider over several years, so this completely depends on your budget.

5. We got the NetApp, because of point 1, point 3 and the fact that the NetApp guys where more willing to be flexible with the price

6. There are no technical reasons to choose 1 over the other as per Point 1

 

by: BAAAASSPosted on 2009-10-21 at 02:28:13ID: 25622093

7. Always remember to compare apples with apples, your quotes that you got above showed 1 SAN with 8TB storage and the other with 4TB storage.  You should do proper capacity planning: How much space do you need right now, then times 2.5 per year (estimate for 5 years), then ask for that much space.  By doing it this way you will be able to compare Apples with Apples.

 

by: asbowenPosted on 2009-10-21 at 02:37:47ID: 25622158

The Equallogic quote shows raw capacity, which when formatted equates to roughly 3.1 TB, wheras the NetApp quote shows actual storage capacity. We have been through a full capacity plan including storage requirement growth and potential business growth. Both companies had this data available when producing their respective quotes.

 

by: paulsolovPosted on 2009-10-23 at 21:47:13ID: 25650856

I agreee with asbowen, make sure that both vendors give you net capacity.  The NetApp loses 3-4 drives per controller but makes up in Flexvol and dedupe.  I'm sure the other vendors lose quite a bit as well but the Netapp has parity on the controller and is very fast for VMWare, especially when using NFS.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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