Considering MSA2050 / 2052

[richa3312]

Hi All,

We're currently considering a MSA2050 or 2052 for our virtualized infrastructure.

Has any one had got an opinion on these and if they are reliable or not?

Also how is HPE's support on these products?

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks,

[HPSDMike]

Well, I'm an HPE employee so you may call me a bit biased. I can tell you that I have worked extensively with the MSA Gen4 (1040/2040) for years and now the Gen5 (1050/2050) series. I have worked with some very large and demanding clients who have had enormous success with deploying large quantities of MSA's in their environments and those of their customers. I've seen them be extremely reliable when deployed using the published best practice guidelines and they perform very well in many use cases. 

However, HPE makes a number of primary storage products (MSA, Nimble, 3PAR, etc) and each address slightly different use cases, budget, and have varying feature sets. This is why we have them. If one product was the best fit for every budget and use case, then we wouldn't have all the options to choose from.

If you haven't already, I would suggest you reach out to an HPE authorized reseller/partner, and/or your local HPE sales team, and talk with them about your specific requirements to help get some personalized guidance on what the best product, and options, might be. Your workload, budget, connectivity/performance/reliability/disaster recovery requirements, and applications you have in your environment all play into the decision process. 

If you decide on the MSA; read through the best practice guide before purchasing and decide (up front) exactly how you will lay it out and grow it in the future. You don't want to get the system deployed in production and realize you should have chosen a different RAID type, set size, or disk type; it will be more difficult to clean up the configuration after than it is to invest proper time and effort into the sizing, specing, and buying phase. Again, this is where your reseller and/or HPE team can help you. Take advantage of the resources available to you so that it makes your journey easier.