Sun Storage 7110

[m1ddy]

I was thinking of having the following setup....i could of got it horribly wrong

We will be having 2 x 7110s mirrored for DR. Linked to these via a SAN only network would be 2 x Sun 4160's with 32GB RAM. Running on these will be ESX VI3.

I was going to create 2 projects on the 7110. One holding the NFS shares for my VM images and 1 holding my shares using CIFS for users documents.

I am a bit confused of when exactly I need to use iSCSI for block level access. A couple of the VMs will have databases on them (not SIMS, thats staying stand alone). Do I need to setup a LUN for the VMWare image AND a LUN for the d: with the data on it or can I just get away with having a LUN for D:? and still using NFS for windows. I assume doing it either way I will have to use the windows iSCSI tool.

How does that setup sound to you guys?

[RobFuller]

NDMP is definitely the best way to backup these boxes - simply plug in a SCSI or FC card depending on your backup environment (FC cards are more expensive than SCSI but give you greater throughput) and plug into the tape drive /library.

Talk to Andy on the tape drives / libraries and I'm confident he will churn out a competitive quote.

We have either the standalone LTO drives or the SL24 / 48 (max 2 drives, 24 slots on Sl24 and 4 drives, 48 slots in the SL48). don't forget to order the media and for the libraries you'll need to think about barcodes and numbering. Most of the popular backup applications (Symantec, Legato, Tivoli, plus others) are supported.

Cheers,

Phil

Do these backup units have to be connected directly or can this be pulled over the network to a remote server? I'm assuming this will backup live locked LUNs as well?

Thanks,
Rob

[teejay]

I was thinking of having the following setup....i could of got it horribly wrong

We will be having 2 x 7110s mirrored for DR. Linked to these via a SAN only network would be 2 x Sun 4160's with 32GB RAM. Running on these will be ESX VI3.

I was going to create 2 projects on the 7110. One holding the NFS shares for my VM images and 1 holding my shares using CIFS for users documents.

I am a bit confused of when exactly I need to use iSCSI for block level access. A couple of the VMs will have databases on them (not SIMS, thats staying stand alone). Do I need to setup a LUN for the VMWare image AND a LUN for the d: with the data on it or can I just get away with having a LUN for D:? and still using NFS for windows. I assume doing it either way I will have to use the windows iSCSI tool.

How does that setup sound to you guys?

The 7110's have multiple nics, so you can create seperate nic teams, one for your SAN only network and one for your main network to host your CIFS shares.

Your other option would be to use replication, but I haven't played with that yet so can't really comment.

Get hold of the simulator and do some playing, it's the best way to understand what you can do.

[sjl]

Thanks for that,

I have had the simulator playing with it and it definitely does help.

I am going to draw up a diagram of our proposed whole setup and hopefully people could have a look and see if there are any problems with it or amendments to improve it.

One thing I need clearing up is the amount of storage you get left with on the 7110 (2TB) - am I right in thinking: -

Start with
146GB x 14 Drives = 2044GB

Two of the drives are mirrored as the system disks: -

2 x 146 = 292GB loss

Then if you go with RAID5 Double parity: -

~ 2 x 146GB = 292GB loss

Then you have one drive as a spare

So 146GB loss

So you will have about

1.3TB worth of usable storage to then split up

Is that right?

Cheers

[Soulfish]

The 7110 actually has 16 disks - 2 are used for the OS and the other 14 are for you to use for storage . Currently got mine setup with the ZFS raid-6 equivalent giving me 1.4tb of usage storage.

[cookie_monster]

You can config it as RAID 5 as well can't you to give you more like 1.6Tb storage?

[kmount]

Couple of blog posts from us on this that might help.

Sun 7110 Storage Layout

Sun 7000 Series Space Calculator

[torledo]

Do these backup units have to be connected directly or can this be pulled over the network to a remote server? I'm assuming this will backup live locked LUNs as well?

Thanks,
Rob

i believe with ndmp, with the appropriate ndmp support/licensing in the backup software your using, you should be able to backup to a media server as an alternative to backing up to direct attached tape.

you should consult your backup software documentation to be sure.

[RobFuller]

Thanks, Symantec Backup Exec seems to have the option so will have to see if that’s a possibility.

[cookie_monster]

I can't get the simulator to work on Virtualbox, it starts to boot then says that it can't update the microkernel then restarts. Is there an option that I need to set on the VM or mimimum RAM requirement? or an FAQ even?

[kmount]

How much memory have you given it? (It defaults to a gig when imported if I recall correctly).

[cookie_monster]

Not enought then I'll give it a real amount

[sjl]

Hi,

I have just created a fist draft of our proposed solution with the 7110, and 2 x X4140s and knocked it up in Visio.

The set up is splitting the 7110 into two using a LUN for our ESXi VMWARE images and a CIFS share for storage.

There is a private network for the SAN / iSCSI bit

I have left quite a few labels off and also the networking of the management interfaces.

I have attached it as an image – any feedback would be appreciated.

thanks,

Steve.

[teejay]

Hi,

I have just created a fist draft of our proposed solution with the 7110, and 2 x X4140s and knocked it up in Visio.

The set up is splitting the 7110 into two using a LUN for our ESXi VMWARE images and a CIFS share for storage.

There is a private network for the SAN / iSCSI bit

I have left quite a few labels off and also the networking of the management interfaces.

I have attached it as an image – any feedback would be appreciated.

thanks,

Steve.

Apparently NFS is quicker on these boxes than iSCSI and you can also get better analytics on it. Best speaking to Phil from Sun or Andy from Cutter about the backup side, there are a few gotchas on it.
You may want to do this in stages and check the performance, should be fine though with that amount of VM's.

[Hebdenlad]

All,

I have been as ked by many of you how and when we plan to impliment User Quotas on the S7000 range.

I can now point you at the OpenSolaris.org website and to a specific public domain reference. Now this relates to ZFS but as you all know we are using ZFS under the covers as the file system for the S7000 so it kind of makes sense that stuff that appears in ZFS gets to appear in the S7000 appliance. I must add though that not all stuff appears straight away and sometimes stuff won't appear but please do not be disheartened. The guys that develop this stuff has brains the size of planets and come up with some really good stuff that makes the S7000 such a cool piece of kit.

Anyway, enough rambling.... here's the URL http://arc.opensolaris.org/caselog/PSARC/2009/204/mail

Any questions then please come back to me. Don't email the guys on the OpenSolaris page as I'm trying to give a single consistent message back into the development team.

Cheers,

Phil