Question

Steps to implementing a SAN

Asked by: kaidyneichler

What are the detailed steps to implementing a SAN (20 terabyte) ?

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Asked On
2009-10-29 at 19:48:09ID24856935
Tags

Storage

Topic

Storage Technology

Participating Experts
2
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500
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2

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Answers

 

by: BigSchmuhPosted on 2009-10-30 at 06:01:36ID: 25702472

Step 1/ Buy it

Better invest in your own white box with iSCSI support and good hw and onsite service...

I would buy a 2U "generic storage" $11k white box covered by good onsite and online services

  • 2U boxes using 24x 2,5" hot swap (like the Supermicro SC216) or a classic 12x 3,5" hot swap 
  • dual cpu 
  • 16-18 DIMM of 4GB (8GB is too expensive) each allowing for a >60GB read cache 
  • on site next day hardware warranty / online 24-7 software support  
  • 2x 12 ports hardware raid HBA offering up to 4GB write back cache backed by battery and remote management (only 1x 12 ports raid HBA for the 3,5" 2U rack) 
  • iSCSI target software (OpenFiler or IET) : OpenFiler offers a 24/7 online support ($2500 a year per node) where IET relies on less reliable opensource forums 
  • 4 ports 1Gbe or 2 ports 10Gbe or Infiniband 40Gb/s 
  • shipping 

and some drives between the below list

  • 12x SATA 3,5" (only 12x 3,5" case) 2TB in RAID 10 for 12TB (or RAID 60 for 16TB) and sequential io usage pattern (Backups...) (+$3.5 = $1.2 per r10 GB or $0.9 per r60 GB) 
  • 24x SATA 500GB in RAID 10 for 6TB capacity and 2200 iops (+$5k = $2.7 per GB) 
  • 24x OCZ Vertex 250GB SSD in RAID 60 for 5TB capacity and 12000 iops (+$17k = $5.6 per GB) 
  • 24x SSD Intel X25-M 160GB in RAID 60 for 3.2TB capacity and 32000 iops (+$11k = $6.9 per GB)  

Note: Servers requiring more than 2x 100MB/s io bandwidth may get a 10Gbe HBA

I would start with the 2U 12x SATA 2TB for live backups and 2U 24x SATA 500GB to confirm that the 6TB ($2.7 per r10 GB) used with 60GB read cache and 8GB write cache is more than enough for all my non production usage.

I would soon have to consider that most non critical production usage can use those 2U boxes too.

I would start looking for 2U with SSDs for database and IOPS intensive apps just after...

==> Now you got some rock solid prices, please let us know what quotes you get from the SAN vendors ;-)

Step 2/ Manage it


Handles all io related design tasks:

  • Help the design team to estimate their capacity and iops needs on the next 5 years 
  • Provide documentation to handles io bottlenecks related production moves (from 2TB SATA LUN to 500GB SATA to Vertex 250GB SSD to X25-M 160GB SSD and backward) 
  • Provide documention to copy a production LUN to a certification LUN 
  • Provide easy ways to backup (on disk or offsite) / restore LUNs or group of LUNS 
  • Focus on budget using a "per GB" or "per IOPS" TCO 
  • Design as many Disaster recovery plans as needed (at least 3) 
  • Plan offline hours (per rmonth or per year) for maintenance period 

Handles all production tasks:

  • Monitoring : availability / SMART data / io usage / iSCSI system bottlenecks 
  • Assigning capacity and iops to LUNs 
  • Extending LUNS 
  • Moving LUNS 
  • Backuping (on disk or not) / Restoring 

 

by: andyalderPosted on 2009-10-30 at 09:30:16ID: 25704580

Since you haven't given us any idea of how much performance you want from it I would just buy a fibre channel attached tape library, a SAN switch and an HBA to go in a server. You have to have some idea of how many IOPS you want from it. The capacity is secondary to how fast it has to go. What do you want it for?

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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