Midrange Storage Choices

[Craig Johnson_1]

IMHO, HP isn't offering much in the low to mid-range for RAID storage. With the discontinuation of the AutoRAID 12H, the prices on new equipment has jumped.

I'm wondering what other low to mid-range RAID solutions people are using. Is there a reliable third party vendor selling dual-controller RAID subsystems for use with HP-UX servers? Are you buying used HP equipment? What?

I'm not at all interesting in the Compaq Storageworks devices. I had two DEC versions of these and have no intention of buying more.

[Michael Tully]

Take a look at this one from EMC. They also have a special offer on at present. See the below link.

http://www.emc.com/products/systems/clariion_fc4700.jsp

[Vincent Fleming]

I think the VA7100 and VA7410 are pretty reasonably priced, especially when you consider what you're getting for your money.

I don't think that EMC will be any less expensive, either.

There are quite a few no-name disk vendors out there, too. They're your best bet for great pricing, but you are taking your chances with the quality and support.

Yahoo! has a list of storage device vendors (some do not sell to the public, nor are they necessairly appropriate, and they may not work at all with HP-UX), but it's worth a look if you're thinking of buying non-HP equipment. It should be enlightening, at least:

http://messages.yahoo.com/yahoo/Business___Finance/Investments/Sectors/Technology/Computer_Storage_Devices/index.html

Good luck!

[Vincent Farrugia]

Hello,

For the cheapest RAID solution, but a RAID 4Si card and a standard JBOD array (SC10 or DS2300) and use RAID through it.

HTH,
Vince

[Craig Johnson_1]

That's kinda what I figured. Isn't Veritas offering a software RAID solution for HP as they have for Sun, for years?

[Vincent Fleming]

Yes, Veritas' Foundation Suite for HP-UX will allow you to create RAID sets on JBODs... but you're not talking the same reliability or ease-of-use that hardware-based subsystems provide.

This is why software tends to be less expensive then hardware - but don't forget that you're giving up a lot of features.

Good luck!

[Leif Halvarsson_2]

Hi
I dont think buying used storage devices is a good idea. Price/performance are decreasing/increasing very fast and upgrading a old device is often more expensive then buying a complete new.

If you look at 3-party storage, check which RAID controller is used. It is the most important component of a storage device and different vendors often use the same controllers (CMD,Mylex etc.). Check for the Mylex FFx2 controller which is VERY fast. Another interesting RAID solution is the Chaparral RIO RAID.

[Martin Johnson]

We have over 15 Terabytes of EMC storage and about 400 GBs of IBM Shark storage. Less problems with the EMC Storage.

HTH
Marty