Upgrade built-in storage to SAN

[Thomas_VDB]

Hi,

We have 2 HP Proliant ML350 servers (1x G6 and 1x G5).
Each server is running VMWare ESXi independantly. They have their own built-in SAS-hotswappable drives, where the VM's are stored. They are used in our company (20 clients), and have about 6 VM's running, SBS2008 being one.

I would like to create a VM cluster from these 2 servers, which requires shared storage such as a SAN.
I would like to use an iSCSI SAN with sata drives, such as an Iomega Storcenter.

2questions regarding this :
- can anyone give me an indication (ballpark) if switching from built-in storage to such a gigabit iSCSI SAN will give noticable slower performance for the users?
- Do I need special add-in cards on the server or can I just use the built-in NIC?

Thanx!
Thomas.

[Johan Guldmyr]

Hey!

There are 10GbE iSCSI SANs these days.
There are also the Ethernet NICs with TCP Offload Enginer/Chimney around that you may want to look into. Some vendors also have some kind of iSCSI multifunction/accelerator card.

The SAS drives you have at the moment - how many, what raid level and what raid card? Do you have a BBWC connected to it?

In VMWare/Guest OS:s you are using - is it hard to measure the amount of i/o or MB/s that your current setup is using and then you can use that to size the storage you need?

[Thomas_VDB]

Hi,

Thanks for your quick reply. Some answers to your questions :
- 10gbE iSCSI : i think these are pretty high-end solutions and we 're not really looking for that. Just looking for an affordable iSCSI solution. Also the reason why I am looking into the iomega storcenter in stead of the P4000 from HP.
- iSCSI NIC's : looks interesting. I googled around and found the Broadcom NetXtreme II. About 250â ¬.
- Our ML350 G6 has 300GB SFF SAS drives in Raid5.
- Measuring the current situation : I'll try this.

Nevertheless I would like to know if such a 1gbE SAN will do for a small company with about 20 clients where SBS2008 is the main VM.

[Johan Guldmyr]

Hi, OK, I've never done an upgrade like this so I hope somebody else reads this post and can answer :)

The 300GB in R5, are the 15k? How many in each ML350?

Found this one: http://h30144.www3.hp.com/SWDSizerWeb/default.htm

But looks like you'll need a HP sales person to help you out with that.

Of course, why not get in touch with HP sales anyway and say that you're looking into upgrading it and primarily on the iomega - maybe they'll give you a good offer on something else? :)

[Zygmunt Krawczyk]

From performance point of view, the best solution is to upgrade to the SAS shared solution. Good solution is HP P2000sa SAS SFF array - shared SAS storage for up to 8 hosts in single SAS link or up to 4 hosts with dual (redundant) SAS links. One of the benefit from using HP P2000sa SAS SFF array is that you can move your SAS SFF disks to the array. P2000sa SFF array uses Proliant SFF disks. You need to buy the following (for dual redundant links):

1 x AW594A HP StorageWorks P2000 G3 SAS MSA Dual Controller SFF Array System
2 x 614988-B21 HP SC08e 6Gb SAS HBA
4 x 407339-B21 HP Ext miniSAS to miniSAS 2m Cable

[Johan Guldmyr]

Oh, I was under the impression that the disks were not the same between the MSA2000/P2000 and the Proliants.

Before the MSA2000 disks were usually Dual Port and the Proliants were usually Single Port - has this changed? Are the SAS SFF always dual port?

But true, the P2000sa does 6G I believe (you'll need new cards yes), there is iSCSI controller for the P2000 and I believe quite recently HP released a 10GbE iSCSI controller too.

[Thomas_VDB]

Hi,
thanks for your reply!

Indeed I was looking into the HP storageworks SAN solutions. The P2000 indeed looks interesting but it is approx. 5x more expensive than the Iomega 8TB solution and it comes without disks.
Can you give me the advantages of the P2000 over the Iomega storworks? I guess the fibre in stead of gigabit ethernet connection is one.

[Johan Guldmyr]

Could you provide a link to the iomega?

P2000 g3 specs are here:

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13551_div/13551_div.html

[Thomas_VDB]

Thanx, looks promising.

One last question though :
4 years ago , we bougth our G4 server, which had U320 disks. Our G5 had SAS LFF disks, and our G6 now has SAS SFF. Keeps changing...
Do you have an idea whether these SAS SFF disks will remain a standard for the next 5 years or so? Because we would like to invest in this kind of SAN, and keep using this SAN while we replace the server each 2 years or so.

[Zygmunt Krawczyk]

>> Oh, I was under the impression that the disks were not the same between the MSA2000/P2000 and the Proliants.

SFF disks are the same, LFF disks are not.

>> Before the MSA2000 disks were usually Dual Port and the Proliants were usually Single Port - has this changed? Are the SAS SFF always dual port?

Currently all SAS SFF Proliant disks are dual port. In Proliants one port only is used, in MSA2000/P2000 and MSA70/D2000 dual domain both ports are used.