Spec me a storage solution..

[mrbios]

This is the current setup...

 

1 x Infortrend Eonstor A16E-G2130-45 with 8 x 2TB SATA drives - This is an iSCSI box with 4 1GB Connections

This has 2 RAID6 arrays, one is used for all the schools storage split in to two partitions - one for home folders and the other for all the other data. The other array is also split into 2 partitions both used for VMware storage (ALL our servers run off this array)

 

1 x Infortrend Eonstor A12U-G1410 with 8 x 500GB SATA drives - This is a directly connected SCSI box

This is connected directly to an ML350 and is used purely for DFSR (all data on the A16E is replicated to this box) backups, and shadow copies.

 

All our servers are Server 2008R2, iSCSI and 2008R2 seems to have an issue with shadow copies over iSCSI connected devices hence the way we're doing this, the A12U is incredibly slow and the backups have occasionally have issues thanks to this box.

 

This is what i want to achieve:

1) Improve backup time/speed while keeping the current system of replicated storage and working shadow copies - The A12U is very old now, willing to scrap it.

2) Split the VM storage off the same box as the student+teacher data on to it's own storage device

3) Give redundancy to the new VM storage device

 

Now i'm not too clued up on storage devices so I'm after some advice from people here who have some level of expertise in this area, all advice appreciated

 

EDIT: i should add that the backup program in use is Backup Exec 2010 R3 with SP1

EDIT2: I should also add that we only need 1.5-2.5TB of data storage and 1-2TB of VM storage space (after raiding) - so 12 or 8 bay units would suffice.

Edited November 2, 2011 by mrbios

[mrbios]

Does anyone know how much this costs: ESVA E10-2130 ?

 

Could be a viable solution to part 2) and 3) of my requirements if it's not stupidly expensive.

[mrbios]

Well it's very quiet in here

 

For anyone interested i got a price back on the ESVA and at a shade under £11k for the enclosure alone that one's off the list haha. Now looking at an Eonstor DS S12E-R2140 along with the remote replication software it looks like it might provide a solution at half the price, still not sure how to solve the backup speeds from the old eonstor to the ML350 running backup exec without losing volume shadow copies capability though.

[Millgate]

Hi there,

 

I'd recommend the Huawei Symantec 2600 with 12 x 300 or 450 GB SAS drives

 

You would need to replace your primary unit with this and use veeam or double take to replicate data from his remaining EONstor unit

 

You could go with two units and use the Huawei Symantec replication software

 

If you need more info on Huawei Symantec (i know they're not well known as yet) let me know.

 

Price to you would be circa 12k and will depend on level of support required

 

Also, if you want me to quote on other solutions that you have found, just say.

 

Hope this helps