Affordable entry-level SAN

[islack]

Hi guys,

I am looking to add a SAN to my setup and do it on the cheap. I know that for the most part a Storage Area Network is expensive, but maybe there are appliances that were released in 2006 that I can get for cheap to build what I need.

My needs:

- High I/O concurrent read-write

- At least be able to deploy/use SAN with 3 servers

- Some kind of redundancy and fault tolerance/RAID.

I was looking at an old SATA EMC AX100 Clariion. But I was unable to find performance benchmarks,right now I am running several 1U single SATA 7200RPM servers that I would like to consolidate with vmware.

I can build my own SAN, if there are recommendations on how to do so affordably, esp: enclosures, software any feedback is welcomed.

Thanks

[AndreTheGiant]

Have a look at Dell MD3000i.

It has a good redoundancy (with the 2 controllers configuration) and can also grow with MD1000 bay.

Andre

[golddiggie]

"Affordable" is a very subjective term. It can mean completely different things to everyone you ask...

I would look into the MD3000i, as mentioned able, as a good starting point. If you need good IOPs then you'll want to have fast SAS drives inside it. Forget about SATA drives all together. Get at least 10k or 15k SAS drives either in the unit you purchase, or get them to fill it after. Then use RAID 10 for the arrays, using enough spindles per array to provide high performance (I would use the entire array as a single RAID 10 volume).

VCP4

[ToreTrygg]

Hi!

Give a shot to StarWind - It is cheap, comparing to competitors,it has High Availability feature, so itlives up to your needs.

Believe me, it helped in my situation, that was similar to yours

You can test it first:

http://www.starwindsoftware.com/download-free-trial

[Chris_MacDonald]

Another option would be an HP StorageWorks P4000 Virtual SAN applicance, formerly the Lefthand VSA.

You can evaluate it for 60 days.

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/storage/software/vsa/index.html