Iomega ix12-300r for SMB? iSCSI or NFS?

[ThorinOak]

We are currently running two ESX 3.0 hosts using local storage, an Openfiler NAS (NFS) and a Western Digital NAS (NFS).

I  would like to upgrade to ESX 4.1 with two hosts and a single shared storage device that would use  either NFS or iSCSI. With this setup we would at the minimum get vMotion, HA, and vDR. I would like an enterprise level device (not like  what we have) but that is cost effective. In the past I have worked with  Dell PowerVault MD SANs but these are out of budget I think and also  overkill for our environment I think.

Storage always seems to be  the most difficult part to pick for a VMware environment. I would like  to get away with SATA for money reasons but also don't want a  bottleneck. We are currently running 12 VMs ranging in utilization and  access.We currently have Exchange (this might move away), some SQL, IIS, DCs, etc. We have say 30 employees internally.

I am considering an  Iomega StorCenter ix12-300r 4TB which I have used before and was nice.  but something even cheaper would be nice.

http://go.iomega.com/en-us/products/network-storage-rack/ix12-300r/ix12-300r/?partner=4760#overviewItem_tab

If I do end up going with this should I use NFS or iSCSI?

[Saadat]

What kind of VMware license you have?

If you have two host, you should be able to handle the whole load on one of your host for all VMs. (not sure if you can)

Also I don't like the fact that iomega has one NIC. There is no load balancing on your storage.

One solution is to use on of your existing Servers, fill it with SAS drive (I prefer SAS to SATA) and use something like Starwinds software.

There are a lot of parameters to consider for your design. How important is to have HA? If it is important you have to consider all the aspects for redundency.  (For example SAN with two controller, Two switches for redundency,...)

Good Luck,

[ThorinOak]

I don't have licensing yet, that is still to be determined.

This particular NAS has 4 gigabit NICs

The current servers we have are a PowerEdge 2900 and 2950. The 2950 is dieing and both have no support. I am more inclined to retire these systems and get something I am confident in.