burgemaster Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 As per title has anyone had a play with the Lenovo SA120 disk array? ThinkServer SA120 Direct Attached Storage |Direct Attached Storage SolutionsÂ| Lenovo US It looks pretty good and very cheap for a lab setup at £500 for the dual controller/PSU model. We are planning to test a setup with 2012R2 storage spaces and this as a JBOD BT Business Direct - Lenovo ThinkServer SA120 Storage Enclosure (70F10002UK) Or maybe has anyone else played with a different cheap array/JBOD? 1
PotNoodleTech Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 (edited) I'll be looking at Jbods in the next month and that is _really_ well priced! Thanks for the find!!!! * surely the price has got to be wrong? The single PSU single controller version is $2800 on the Lenovo website! Edited February 3, 2015 by PotNoodleTech
burgemaster Posted February 3, 2015 Author Posted February 3, 2015 (edited) Quick google on the single IOCC single PSU version: 70F10003UK Lenovo ThinkServer SA120 261.66 Lenovo ThinkServer SA120 257.20 Lenovo ThinkServer SA120 £260 Ebuyer: Lenovo ThinkServer SA120 70F1 Storage enclosure 12 Bay 2U Rack Server - Ebuyer 293.74 We are going to test the single controller version, and if it works to plan we will buy another one and use the controller and PSU from that.. We only lose about £20-30 doing it that way and get a spare enclosure! Edited February 3, 2015 by burgemaster
PotNoodleTech Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 Lenovo ThinkServer SA120 JBOD Review | StorageReview.com - Storage Reviews Good review there. This can't be used to create a high availability cluster with two hosts though as each controller only has one port (and one daisy chain to more storage). It would make the ideal "lab" set up though!
localzuk Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 (edited) Wow, that's pretty darn cheap - especially as it is certified for Windows 2012/2012 R2 for use with their Storage Spaces/Failover Clustering! Lenovo ThinkServer SA120 JBOD Review | StorageReview.com - Storage Reviews Good review there. This can't be used to create a high availability cluster with two hosts though as each controller only has one port (and one daisy chain to more storage). It would make the ideal "lab" set up though! Can it not be used with a single SAS channel to each server? Microsoft have certified it to work with the technology... Edited February 3, 2015 by localzuk 1
burgemaster Posted February 3, 2015 Author Posted February 3, 2015 Lenovo ThinkServer SA120 JBOD Review | StorageReview.com - Storage Reviews Good review there. This can't be used to create a high availability cluster with two hosts though as each controller only has one port (and one daisy chain to more storage). It would make the ideal "lab" set up though! It has an input and output on each controller I think?
localzuk Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 Lenovo seem to think it can do it too. The SA120 has dual connectors per controller.
PotNoodleTech Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 It may be me being a newbie as I'm learning all about this HyperV and in particular Jbods but I thought to have two inputs per controller (not output/daisy chain) so you could plug two servers in to each controller and then if a controller fails, both servers will still be able to communicate with the other controller? With that set up you have one server plugged into one controller, so if the controller fails the server loses total communication with the JPOD? Though saying that I am looking carefully into whether dual controllers are actually worth the money as, frankly there's no moving parts on a controller so what are the chances it would fail? It's all a steep learning curve!!
MrJDH Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 You would just add a second controller in the JBOD, to provide for this. Remember that the JBOD would be linked to a 'header' server - 2 SAS HBA cards could be used to connect to each controller on the JBOD, accounting for fault tolerance. Alternatively, connect two header servers to the JBOD, with each SAS card on each server connecting to a dedicated controller on the JBOD. These file servers could then be setup as a SoFS cluster, which would provide fault tolerance for any Hyper-V hosts connecting through to the file server cluster - if one file server dies, there is still another that is connected to the JBOD. 1
PotNoodleTech Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 Thanke MRJDH this is where I am a bit unsure. IT would be great if you could clarify a bit more. From what I can tell, SoFS overcomplicates / is above what I need? All I need to do is provide shared storage to two HyperV hosts to give High Availability in HyperV - so Each HyperV host connecting directly to the JBOD via a single SAS card would provide this wouldn't it? I.e if one host dies, the other copes, if one sas interface dies it would take out the host that is connected to it but the other host would then cope. The biggest risk of failure would be total loss of the JBOD device in which case it would be time for VEEAM to flex it's muscles?
MrJDH Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 Take a look at this... Hyper-V over SMB – Sample Configurations - Jose Barreto's Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs It helped me. 1
PotNoodleTech Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 Thanks that is handy. It seems I am barking up the wrong tree with HyperV Host straight to JBOD.
MrJDH Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 SoFS would over-complicate the setup you desire. A SoFS cluster would protect against one of the file servers connected to the JBOD going bang. With the other node of your SoFS cluster, at least one file server would still be connected to the JBOD.
PotNoodleTech Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 OK here's a Q. If I set that up a SoFS, 2 x file server and 1 jbod. Could I install the hyperV role on both the file server nodes, or would I need separate HyperV nodes?
MrJDH Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 I don't think there would be anything stopping you, but I can't imagine it's a setup that most would employ. The single point of failure is still the JBOD, having 2 file server nodes in a SoFS cluster still won't help that, but having two 'header' servers connected to the storage at least covers you for the complete failure of one of the nodes connected to the JBOD. Check out Aidan Finn's blog - Hyper-V don! http://www.aidanfinn.com/ 1
PotNoodleTech Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 Yeh I think I need to buy his HyperV 2012 R2 book coz it doesn't look like I'm gonna get any other sort of training!
MrJDH Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 I started here - Server Virtualization with Hyper-V & System Center Training - Microsoft Virtual Academy Really, there's a ton of info out there on Server 2012 Hyper-V - have fun! 1
burgemaster Posted February 4, 2015 Author Posted February 4, 2015 The SA120 arrived today. Bit of a let down, it is full of dummy drive trays and doesn't come with any to install! Cant find a part number or anything similar to buy! Will have to call Lenovo
TronXP Posted February 4, 2015 Posted February 4, 2015 After Buying IBM/Lenovo servers for many years... None of them come with trays, The trays come attached to the relevant drives you buy. I believe we got some trays separately once before from a spares supplier.
PotNoodleTech Posted February 4, 2015 Posted February 4, 2015 Dell are the same. I bet 12 drive trays will cost as much as the enclosure!
JRowley Posted February 4, 2015 Posted February 4, 2015 After Buying IBM/Lenovo servers for many years... None of them come with trays, The trays come attached to the relevant drives you buy. I believe we got some trays separately once before from a spares supplier. HP do the same thing, I think this is pretty typical for all manufacturers.
burgemaster Posted February 4, 2015 Author Posted February 4, 2015 (edited) Cheapest we have found so far... £16.99 I think they are compatable, but do not say for the SA120 For Lenovo ThinkServer RD330 RD430 RD530 RD630 03X3969 31050780 3.5"SAS HDD Tray | eBay Edited February 4, 2015 by burgemaster
PotNoodleTech Posted February 4, 2015 Posted February 4, 2015 To be honest, at those prices, for a dev environment I'd just shove the drives in without a caddy. Might need to space the HDD up slightly to get it to slot in straight.
burgemaster Posted February 27, 2015 Author Posted February 27, 2015 Our JBOD is working really well. Currently 77% off from here!!! http://www.ballicom.co.uk/70f10002uk-lenovo-thinkserver-sa120---no-hdd--gige--monitor--none.p1015809.html £194 for the twin controller and PSU version. 2
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