Sun Storage 7110

[Hebdenlad]

I too am a bit worried that 2tb per box is not going to be enough for the next 5 years and can make a good case for going for the 4tb one instead of the 2tb one. As long as it is not massiveley more expensive. Will be looking to buy through Cutter next week.

 

Also Phil - while your on "matching grant hero" duties - if you could get an Ultra 24 put on to matching grant (dual or quad core, not to fussed really!) - I and I am sure others would be looking to buy lots of them too! Already going to be buying servers storage and monitors - so why not make it the whole range!

 

Will be buying at least two servers - if as DMcCoy suggests the Nehalems can be put on MG - I can make a good environemental case for moving to them too.

 

All I need now is to negotiate matching grant on hot dogs from the canteen and I will be one very happy bunny!

 

Butuz

Butuz,

 

Thanks for the posting. I'll see what can be added to the Matching Grant list - mind you, I'm on the storage side of the business... those servers are just bits of tin really

 

Cheers,

 

Phil

[Hebdenlad]

Hi,

 

Can i ask does the 4TB version uses SAS 15K or 10K disks? The problem is the capacity of the disks really because by the time you setup decent amoutn of raid protection i.e. raid 6 with DP or similar the 4TB is gone and will probably be down to 2.5 to 3Tb (usuable) at best.

 

TIA,

 

Ash.

the up and coming S7110 4TB will use the 300GB SAS 10k drives. This will give you roughly 4TB RAW and then RAID down to lower capacities once you have decided on your RAID level. Remember when you're configuring your S7000 (and simulator) you determine what combination of Availability, Capacity and Performance suits your needs and click on the commit button to configure once you have decided. Easy or what?

 

Cheers,

 

Phil

[Hebdenlad]

I am not 100% certain what the effect of the "matching grant" would be on price, but we are very pleased to hear that the 4TB version was coming out as we felt that the 2TB was going to be too small for us. The 4TB versionn at the right price will be a very difficult offer to refuse.

 

Jonathan

In terms of commercials on the S7000 I'm probably not the expert (Andy is good on that) but I reckon the matching grant would bring the price difference down from £9.9k to not much more than the £4.3k that the 2TB one is pitched at. The matching grant prices are based on list price as far as I am aware though.

 

Cheers,

 

Phil

[pete]

As discussed through other channels, sufficient arm-twisting and pleading might get me 4TB instead of the 2TB. So you can include me as a "would probably purchase the 4TB if it gets included in matching grant".

[cookie_monster]

We would be very interested I'm checking the budget and should be able to proceed.

 

We will be using it connected to 2 Sun X4150 servers and using XenServer 5, we know that Xenserver works with the current 2Tb model will the 4Tb model be identical other than the amount of storage? Our Xen supplier says it can be sensetive to change.

 

Thanks.

[m1ddy]

As discussed through other channels, sufficient arm-twisting and pleading might get me 4TB instead of the 2TB. So you can include me as a "would probably purchase the 4TB if it gets included in matching grant".

 

Same here. If the grant drops the price below £5k, we would probably have 2 of them.

[m1ddy]

Did we ever get a link to the new version of the Vplayer SIM? Couldnt see it after looking back a few pages.

[kmount]

m1ddy,

 

It's not quite tipped up yet.

 

Phil did offer for anyone to pm him if they were eager to get their mits on it before it does make a public appearance.

[Soulfish]

I just wish the 4tb version was around when we were ordering

[Ric_]

We will be using it connected to 2 Sun X4150 servers and using XenServer 5, we know that Xenserver works with the current 2Tb model will the 4Tb model be identical other than the amount of storage? Our Xen supplier says it can be sensetive to change.

 

 

Your XenServer bloke really doesn't want you using Sun kit!

 

XenServer supports iSCSI and NFS storage repositories (plus CIFS for the ISO repository). The Sun kit exports the disk space as any of these following the standards that were put in place for a reason. Changing the size of a disk drive will not change how the LUN/share is presented to the client device.

[DMcCoy]

Your XenServer bloke really doesn't want you using Sun kit!

 

XenServer supports iSCSI and NFS storage repositories (plus CIFS for the ISO repository). The Sun kit exports the disk space as any of these following the standards that were put in place for a reason. Changing the size of a disk drive will not change how the LUN/share is presented to the client device.

 

Actually that's not *quite* true is it? If you only have 2TB then you can't present a single LUN bigger than that, but with 4TB you can, and quite a lot of the hypervisors are limited to 2TB LUNs as the maximum size. I would expect even different firmware versions require retesting to become a supported device, vmware is similarly strict when it comes to support and what is on the HCL.

[Ric_]

Actually that's not *quite* true is it? If you only have 2TB then you can't present a single LUN bigger than that, but with 4TB you can, and quite a lot of the hypervisors are limited to 2TB LUNs as the maximum size. I would expect even different firmware versions require retesting to become a supported device, vmware is similarly strict when it comes to support and what is on the HCL.

 

But you could present 2x 2TB LUNs... my point remains the same though that the underlying protocol is the same.

 

Obviously getting on an approved HCL is another matter but I don't think that Citrix has released one. They are also making storage connections more 'open' through their new 'StorageLink' technology.

[cookie_monster]

@ Ric_ - They're going to be offering support and they do support Xen but they haven't worked with Sun kit before, I think they would prefer we used HP but they're happy to proceed they just want to make sure it's all going to work. Edited May 7, 2009 by cookie_monster

[m1ddy]

Can't get the simulator working Got it running on a test box and I have started it, configured its IP address / subnet etc but no other machines can see it. Bit stuck

[kmount]

Can they ping it?

[linescanner]

Can't get the simulator working Got it running on a test box and I have started it, configured its IP address / subnet etc but no other machines can see it. Bit stuck

 

Have you got your VMware networking set up correctly ?

[m1ddy]

Nothing can ping it. I believe I have the VMWare setup done ok.

[kmount]

Check it's on Bridged and not NAT.

[Hebdenlad]

Drop me your address and I'll burn a CD for you...

 

Cheers,

 

Phil

[Hebdenlad]

Same here. If the grant drops the price below £5k, we would probably have 2 of them.

Not sure we can get the grant price down to below £5k as they have a list price of just over £12k. Talk to Andy at Cutter - I know he's been working on some "attractive" pricing for the new 4TB version.

 

Cheers,

 

Phil

[Hebdenlad]

I just wish the 4tb version was around when we were ordering

Sorry about that one :-(

 

not me but someone else at sun who took the decision to start with 2TB.

 

Cheers,

 

Phil

[Hebdenlad]

But you could present 2x 2TB LUNs... my point remains the same though that the underlying protocol is the same.

 

Obviously getting on an approved HCL is another matter but I don't think that Citrix has released one. They are also making storage connections more 'open' through their new 'StorageLink' technology.

Just remember guys that the 4TB is RAW capacity and you will lose a certain amount of that through RAIDing and spares.

 

Cheers,

 

Phil

[Soulfish]

Sorry about that one :-(

 

not me but someone else at sun who took the decision to start with 2TB.

 

Cheers,

 

Phil

 

I just hope that JBOD expansion on the 2tb 7110 is on that elusive roadmap . Otherwise I'll just have to look at getting some of the 4tb (or whatever they may be by then!) 7110's in a year or so.

[teejay]

Anyone else using them live yet or are you all still testing?

Gradually moving more and more stuff onto them, have all the main shares on them and now have two year groups home directories across and I am really impressed with the performance. Have had a few periods this week where all the ICT suites were logging in on accounts on one of these boxes, so about 300+ machines and the status page Sun symbols only moved from 'sunny' to 'partially cloudy' on disks and CIFS!

The new firmware update is working really well, especially the shadow copy integration with the windows previous versions client. Works so much better than on our old Windows 2003 Servers which would randomly just decide to dump all the shadow copies just as you needed them.

[kmount]

The new simulator for both VMWare and VirtualBox (Q2.2009) has turned up on the Sun Download Area here.