SAN Storage

[DevilsAdvocate]

Hi all,

 

I'm new to SAN storage and want to look at virtualising (Hyper V Cluster) our servers and storing the VHD's on a SAN. Will also be using this SAN for storing our files, application data and local backups.

 

Can anyone recommend any manufacturers or models that I could look at? We use HP servers mainly but their SAN offerings have me confused to be honest.

 

Also, is Fibre Channel worth spending the extra money on or is iSCSI acceptable for the most part? Just running the usual kind of applications - Exchange, Lync, SCCM, DPM.

 

Thanks,

Rob.

[Asgard]

We use Netgear ReadyData 5200 SAN

 

 

20tb SAS (10x2tb SAS)

200gb MLC (Read) SSD and

50gb SLC (Write) SSD

Onboard dual 10GB

 

I think it gives about 14tb raw storage

 

Runs our Hyper-V 2012 R2 cluster shared volume ( about 30 Virtual servers via 5 physical hosts ) for a sixth form college

 

We have a second one that is a direct replica at the opposite side of the campus. With a third at another college for a total offsite replica.

 

Rough cost was 7k ex vat, which includes £700 each for the SSD drives. Comes with a 5yr warranty (inc the drives)

 

It blew our existing Dell Equalogic's out of the water ; replication, dedupe, compression, unlimited snapshots and block level clones all built in as standard.

 

 

This video shows it in action and it's instant expansion

Edited March 16, 2015 by Asgard

[snagrat]

FC is OK but depends on your needs.

 

Our SAN is only 1GB and is fine running 10+ VMs.

 

You can get 10GB on a lot of SANs now in either fibre or copper. Copper is ideal as would work with current switches of only at 1GB. You can then upgrade switches to 10GB if required later.

[ColinP]

make sure you user server 2012 - 2008 has a maximum Vdisk size of 2TB - rubbish if you plan on having your file servers as part of the cluster

[ColinP]

just to add if you are having just two hosts, use sas ports 6gbs for almost no extra

[tmcd35]

Depends on size of school/network and budget available. FC is great, but I've seen switches come in almost as much as we paid for our entire storage array (16x SAS and SSD's included). Our network is a little non standard for a combination of budget and legacy setup reasons - we use two Windows 2012R2 servers with loads of drives in each and got them to mirror each other with various technologies such as Hyper-V Replica and DFS-R. If I was to start again from scratch I'd do things a little differently...

 

For context we are a 700 pupil school with around 250 clients and 30 virtual servers running across 3 host servers.

 

I'd have a JBOD array connected via external SAS to two head servers running Windows Server 2012R2 Storage Spaces and Cluster Shared Volumes. Personally I'd use 2Gbps bonded NICS to connect the head servers to the virtual hosts using iSCSI.

 

For a school our size or slightly larger that should provide plenty in terms of speed and reliability, especially if you use SAS and SSD drives in the JBOD, and should come it at an affordable price. When I got quotes recently about £10k-12k was average for this type of set up. That was with one head server, so nearer £15k complete?

[bossman]

Another storage solution provider worth a look is Synology NAS/SAN hybrid systems incorporating SSDs for cache level SAN and SAS or SATA support for 8TB drives for DATA storage.

 

Hypervisor verified with Citrix, Hyper-V and VMWare

 

https://www.synology.com/en-global/products/RS3614xs+