MSA 2000fc Single Controller Configuration Query .. !

[Thiwanka]

Dear All,

Our organization has desided to implement a SQL 2005 cluster on a Blade enviorenment.
The Blade has Q-Logic FC HBA in place.

The Query is ...

1. If I buy MSA 2000fc Enclosure (Single Controller) with HDD's and TWO LC FC Cables. Can I implement the cluster, using the existing TWO Fibre Channel Ports, on the controller ... ? (Diagram Attched).

2. Do I need to Purchase a separate Fiber Switch, to connect the two hosts .... ?

3. In future, the organization is planning to migrate to a SAN. Then can I buy the switch .. ?

Pls Advice ... !

Thanks,

Thiwanka.

[Gene Laoyan]

1) Yes. If I understand you right, you will be connecting Port 0 from Blade A to Port 0 on MSA Controller and Por 1 on Blade B to Port 1 on MSA controller.

2) No. Not this time. You can go point to point just as your picture shows.

2) Depends. If the SAN will be Active/Active with single ports, then Yes. If your SAN will be Active/Active with dual controllers with Dual ports, technically No.
If you are going to have more than two servers connecting then Yes.
See, it all depends.

[Thiwanka]

Thanks .. Gene Laoyan !

One more question .. The reputation for MSA 2000 is not in good books in this forum. DO u have any idea about actual reliablilty and compatiblity ... ?

I have worked with many MSA 500 and 1000, which are robust and reliable upto now.

Pls share your comments ... !

Thanks,

Thiwanka.

[Uwe Zessin]

In a HP meeting not too long ago I was told that they have sold __many__ of these boxes. I don't remember the number but I was impressed by the short time the MSA2000 has been available. I don't follow too many forums besides ITRC and VMware and I don't have time to watch the usual press -- anybody aware of negative critism besides ITRC & VMware forums?

[Thiwanka]

Thanks Uwe Zessin ... !

Dear Forum Guy's / Gals ...

Appreciate, if you can send us some feedback on MSA 2000fc Storage Box. I really need this, cause I have to deside for oneof our coporate customer.

Pls help ... !

Thnaks,

Thiwanka.

[Patrick Terlisten]

Hello,

I'm having now two MSA2212fc running at one of my customers. The boxes run in a homogeneous windows enviroment. The performance with 15x 300 GB 15k disks in a RAID 5 is very impressive. We reached > 6000 IOPS (32 KB sequential write) with this 15 disks in a RAID 5 (tested with IOmeter). The customer is running DataCore SANmelody on top of it. DataCore SANmelody has problems dealing with a controller failover. But this is a problem of SANmelody, not a problem of the MSA.

The price is and the performance are very good, the path handling is very special for an A/A storage. But it works...

Best regards,
Patrick

[Thiwanka]

Dear Patrick Terlisten,

Thanks for your feed back ... !

Pls do let me know, why you have said "path handling is very special for an A/A storage. But it works..." .... ?

Did u encounter any unusual problems when configuring MSA 2000fc ... for path fail over ?

I am really scared to propose MSA 200fc, after , getting bad comments on the box. But there is no other option for entry level storage from HP.

Pls advice .. !

Thanks,

Thiwanka.