HP StorageWorks 9100 Extreme Data Storage System and CIFS

[Eli_Dezman]

I am want some info about HP StorageWorks 9100 Extreme Data Storage System

Can it be used as CIFS or NFS only ?

How it will be attached ?

BR

[Patrick Terlisten]

Hello,

you can access the ExDS9100 on three ways: NFS, HTTP or Polyserve Direct IO. AFAIK it will be connected to you network over ethernet. The ExDS includes blades (performance block) and storageworks hardware (storageblock). Take a look at the homepage for the ExDS9100:

http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/cache/592778-0-0-225-121.html?jumpid=ex_r2880_go/extremestorage

Best regards,
Patrick

[Eli_Dezman]

1.if i understand correct it cann't be used in Microsoft environment , correct ?

2.how NFS can be used with Windows 2008 Serve ?

[Patrick Terlisten]

Hello,

surely it can be used in a Microsoft enviroment, but it depends on the planned purpose. This system isn't designed for fileservices or things like that. It's rather storage for web services and things like that.

Best regards,
Patrick

[Eli_Dezman]

I want to use it as replacement for my NetApp systems . NetApp works fine with CIFS and NFS , but i have a Microsoft enviroment and looking for a way to replace NetApp CIFS with HP StorageWorks 9100

you scoring points ))

Best Regards
Eli

[Patrick Terlisten · Accepted solution]

Hello,

the ExDS9100 is not a candidate for you replacement, but it's good that you want to replace the filer. ;)

Take a look at the ProLiant NAS products:

http://h18006.www1.hp.com/storage/disk_storage/storage_servers/index.html

Some of my clients use the HP ProLiant DL380 G5 Storage Server, either with a MSA or connected to a SAN. You can use NFS, CIFS, iSCSI to connect to it.

Best regards,
Patrick

[Eli_Dezman]

i am looking for NAS with 40-50TB of storage at least . i guess i will have to use EVA4400 with Windows 2008 as a gateway or to stay with the filer :-(


BR

[Patrick Terlisten]

Hello,

mmhh... in case of such a big amount of data it's better to take a ProLiant Storage Server (NAS Model) in combination with a EVA4400. Then you can serve storage with NFS, CIFS, iSCSI and FC. Think about the RAID 4/DP of the Filer, the costs for licenses and the support. You will be more flexible with such a HP solution.

Best regards,
Patrick

[Kevin Hobbs]

High availability CIFS support is available today on the ExDS9100 for many common use cases. Minor manual configuration is required to activate the feature. Out of the box support including integrated management commands will be available with version 2.0 in Q3. Cluster wide scale out CIFS support is a stretch goal for version 2.0 and if not addressed in this release will follow in version 2.5 in Q4.

ExDS9100 now supports NFS, CIFS, HTTP, WebDAV and FTP.

[macosta]

As Kevin mentions, it does not currently support CIFS out of the box, but if you speak with your account rep, you'll find that you can in fact utilize other protocols than the default NFS and httpd methods.

[Emil Velez]

The exds is based on SUSE Linux but the standard Polyserve product which EXDS is based on is available in two flavors Windows and Linux and in the windows flavor with the File Serving Solution Pack it speaks CIFS natively. In addition it does have a option for SQL server failover and management and version 3.6.2 now supports SQL 2008.

May be able to get the NAS 4400 in a windows flavor too. I think EXDS may be just Linux based.

[macosta]

The current version of ExDS (v1.0.2) is based on RHEL 4.4. The next release, v2.0, will be based on RHEL 5.2 initially.

For ExDS, you can get a CIFS option (failover-only with the current version) - with v2, Samba CTDB will be included, meaning scale-out CIFS serving, which does not yet exist in an image solution with Cluster Gateway/EFS, although you could always add-on yourself.

The CGW/EFS system images are still based on SLES9/10 (depending on version - 3.5.1 is on SLES9, 3.7.0 is on SLES10.)

As always, if you check with your rep, you can get better details on specific use-cases.

[Patrick Terlisten]

Hello,

if I understand you right: CIFS will be native supported in v2, but currently only v1.0.2 is available? CIFS support in v1.0.2 can be used with SAMBA? It this right?

Thanks for you help.

Best regards,
Patrick

[macosta]

Hi Patrick,

In both cases Samba can be used. In 1.0.2, you can manually configure Samba. In 2.0, Samba will also be used, but it will be intergrated into the ExDS management utilities, simplifying setup.

[Patrick Terlisten]

Hello macosta,

thanks. Now it's clear.

Best regards,
Patrick