SANs

[iMash]

I couldnt find any threads similar to this one.

 

Our storage server is well out of warranty and we have decided to upgrade it.

 

What I would really like to do is put either iSCSI or FC SAN in place (to allow me to cluster Hyper-V) and so that we can scale up and down without all the rig ma role of dropping services.

 

I'm a complete noob when it comes to SANs, I understand the most basic concepts but the most I have ever done regarding them is implement a test deployment of both openfiler and freenas.

 

Can anyone either point me in the right direction of a "complete beginners guide" so to speak, or tell me what equipment I will need to get it fully implemented. I would ideally like the cost to be as low as possible (< £15,000) and am open to all suggestions. But the biggest importance is that Hyper-V can use some of the storage for clustering, and there should be some redundancy in there.

 

Any help would be much appreciated, all the guides I find assume a reasonable level of knowledge of SANs already and I have tried playing with openfiler and the iSCSI target for Win 2K8R2 and neither seem to have the option for redundancy reliably.

 

Thanks,

 

Ash

[Guest Guest]

Redundecy on Openfiler is using DRBD accross 2 clustered openfilers. It's not actually that difficult once you get your head round it. Basically it duplicates any write requests to both the local hard drive and the remote one (accross a dedicated NIC preferably). A heartbeat between them (also on a dedicated nic) checks they are both up. If one dies some jiggery pokery happens (the heartbeat no longer sees the other openfilers) and the remaining Openfiler seizes the IP which iSCSI/etc is using. Clients then swap over to the backup openfiler seamlessly.

 

Did a fair bit of testing on this and time between one dieing and the backup taking over is a couple of ms.

Edited March 26, 2012 by Guest

[cpjitservices]

May I recommend the SANS we use....

 

Pillar Axiom 600

[iMash]

Redundecy on Openfiler is using DRBD accross 2 clustered openfilers. It's not actually that difficult once you get your head round it. Basically it duplicates any write requests to both the local hard drive and the remote one (accross a dedicated NIC preferably). A heartbeat between them (also on a dedicated nic) checks they are both up. If one dies some jiggery pokery happens (the heartbeat no longer sees the other openfilers) and the remaining Openfiler seizes the IP which iSCSI/etc is using. Clients then swap over to the backup openfiler seamlessly.

 

Did a fair bit of testing on this and time between one dieing and the backup taking over is a couple of ms.

 

I did look at the DRBD within openfiler but to build redundancy into it fully required lots of addon packages. Also, due to it being open source rather than a purchased product there is no real support that goes with it. As I am still reasonably new to implementing and supporting SAN I would really like a product that can offer after sales support while I get to grips with it fully.

 

Does anyone have any experience with IBM SAN technologies. In particular I have been recommended an IBM V7000 to support redundancy and virtualization. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

Many thanks,

 

Ash

[Guest Guest]

I did look at the DRBD within openfiler but to build redundancy into it fully required lots of addon packages. Also, due to it being open source rather than a purchased product there is no real support that goes with it. As I am still reasonably new to implementing and supporting SAN I would really like a product that can offer after sales support while I get to grips with it fully.

 

Does anyone have any experience with IBM SAN technologies. In particular I have been recommended an IBM V7000 to support redundancy and virtualization. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

Many thanks,

 

Ash

 

It doesn't require any addons iirc, all out of box.

But anyway another option I looked at was Nexenta Systems: Enterprise Class Storage For Everyone which gives you some options on what hardware you use.

[dhicks]

I did look at the DRBD within openfiler but to build redundancy into it fully required lots of addon packages. Also, due to it being open source rather than a purchased product there is no real support that goes with it

 

LinBit provide sales and support for DRBD:

 

www.linbit.com: LINBIT - Your Way to High Availability