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Re: EVA vs. P4000

 
Paul Hutchings
Super Advisor

EVA vs. P4000

I've some familiarity with the P4000 as I've downloaded and used the virtual appliance.

What I've no knowledge of (other than the HP website) is the EVA4400.

In a few months our entire SAN/Server setup gets replaced (not HP right now) and I'm looking into LeftHand and also intend to look into the EVA.

I'd be interested if anyone has a bit of an overview of where the two families overlap or are completely different.

In particular I'm keen on the P4000 licensing model i.e. it's all included, as at some point I'll want to do snapshots (SQL and Exchange as well as file LUNs) and replication between SANs.

Thanks very much.
4 REPLIES 4
Jan Soska
Honored Contributor

Re: EVA vs. P4000

Hello Paul,
the biggest difference is EVA is FC Array (with iScsi option) and Lefthand is iScsi option.
If you do not have build FC infrastructure - switches, HBA's in servers - probbly it is not worth to switch from iScsi to FC. Lefthand has as well very good options for remote mirroring/replications etc.

So - probably stay with Lefthand.

Jan
Paul Hutchings
Super Advisor

Re: EVA vs. P4000

The servers will be replaced too, so whilst I know that FC will always be more expensive than iSCSI due to dedicated HBAs and FC switches, I'm not ruling it out due to not already having infrastructure, IYSWIM.

I guess what I'm unclear on is once you get beyond iSCSI vs. FC why might one look at EVA over P4000 or vice versa?
Jan Soska
Honored Contributor

Re: EVA vs. P4000

Hello,
just to know -
you can buy specialized iScsi HBA's as well, the same witch dedicatd iScsi switched, but generaly iScsi is cheaper than FC.
Regarding performance - our HP account manager positionned both Eva4400 and LeftHand at the same performance level.

Jan
Benjamin Wold
Frequent Advisor

Re: EVA vs. P4000

Just to start with basic info, the EVA is a standard frame based Fiber Channel Storage Array. Licenses are based on capacity and function. Replication solutions are optional licensing.You can have Fiber Channel and FATA (Fiber ATA) in the same enclosure (shelf). Enclosure connect to a set of controllers and the controllers connect to the SAN switches. You can add an iSCSI option that will connect to the switches or directly to the EVA.

P4000/Lefthand is based on commodity hardware. Namely the Proliant DL180 load with either SAS or SATA drives but not both. The P4000 is frameless storage, meaning that as you add enclosures, you add controllers, cache and I/O ports. So as you add capacity you also add performance and depending on your setup, redundancy. Redundancy/resiliency is provided by the ability to replicate the data (LUNS) across the various nodes using Net RAID. You can have a LUN mirrored to 1,2 or 3 other nodes. Similar to RAID but with storage Nodes. This is a very unique feature in the industry. I believe Net RAID 5 is or will soon be supported but it is only intended for use with applications like archiving. It is IP only and can have either 1GbE or 10GbE ports. All licensing for all functions are included with the purchase price. With the P4000 you can also run a version of it as a VM allowing you to utilize your existing equipment as a secondary/DR target.

Both CommandView for EVA and the CMC for the P4000 are fairly simple interfaces and easy to manage.

There is plenty of overlap in terms of market placement but it really depend on your usage. The P4000 is very popular for a very good reason.