Help understanding SAN technology
My company is relatively small but looking into getting a SAN to help manage our electronic data growth so I'm looking for some guidance.
First please clarify the following:
1. When using a SAN, I can make it so that my other windows servers "see" these hard drives and think they are directly attached to that server. i.e. it's not a shared folder that I would have to map a network drive to right?
2. Does the previous apply to virtual servers in a VMWare environment also?
3. My SAN OS/Controller/Config allows me to allocate hard drive space to my other servers, and also allows me to increase/decrease this amount when necessary.
Secondly, any input on choosing a SAN vendor would help. My biggest requirement is that while we don't need a lot of space today I want to have the option to grow in the future without having to purchase a lot of extra hardware (basically only want to buy additional hard drives). I'm open to iSCSI or Fiber Channel but cost is a big factor in my decision.
Thanks
First please clarify the following:
1. When using a SAN, I can make it so that my other windows servers "see" these hard drives and think they are directly attached to that server. i.e. it's not a shared folder that I would have to map a network drive to right?
2. Does the previous apply to virtual servers in a VMWare environment also?
3. My SAN OS/Controller/Config allows me to allocate hard drive space to my other servers, and also allows me to increase/decrease this amount when necessary.
Secondly, any input on choosing a SAN vendor would help. My biggest requirement is that while we don't need a lot of space today I want to have the option to grow in the future without having to purchase a lot of extra hardware (basically only want to buy additional hard drives). I'm open to iSCSI or Fiber Channel but cost is a big factor in my decision.
Thanks
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The FAS270 with about 4TB of raw storage will run around $40k. They also have a StorageVault line for simpler configuration options and is much cheaper.
Equallogic also makes a great and easy to use SAN.
Equallogic also makes a great and easy to use SAN.
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Thanks for the help
ASKER
Can you help explain what is a LUN, and what is an HBA? Also what SAN features should I be looking at when selecting a specific vendor?
Cleaner:
Do you know an approx. starting price for the FAS270, as well as storage capacity (min, max)
Netman:
Are there particular HPs that you like?
Thanks again