SAN to a SMB 3 Setup for Hyper-V

[ChrisH]

For the last 9 years we have used a SAN for our main storage including user files and virtual machines I have had 1 HP and two EMC (3100, 3200). I have always been happy with the performance of these and I can't say they have ever had any trouble with the load. We have only ever had one SAN though utilising different hardware for disaster recoveries. The first SAN we got represented good value for money, but as later purchases were made and requirements changed with redundancy etc the cost is getting too high and I would really like a proper redundant solution with two matching units for which SANs are a bit prohibitive now to be replacing every 3 years.

 

I have been toying with the idea of utilising the Server 2012 features for storage and getting my moneys worth on the hardware side with storage capacity and two servers. I know that this sounds like a bit of a backwards step but I am trying to balance cost, storage capacity and redundancy here. Has anyone got experience of both kinds of storage systems for Hyper-V (SAN and SMB3 based cluster) and would like to comment? I already have two servers running FreeNAS stacked with SATA drives and reflashed LSI storage cards which I use for block storage for DPM etc but I am looking for a more generally supported method as no doubt with all this academy conversion I will undergo some kind of audit at some point.

 

I would likely be looking at some kind of 8 bay servers with an extra quad NIC plenty of memory etc.

 

Our setup is:

300+ clients

20 Virtual Server (plenty of service sprawl there!)

 

The usual school software, so not a lot of large files flying down the wires.