hp-compaq

[hpuxhelp]

HP is using Pvlinks or veritas volume manager for load balancing and multipathing..
what does hp-compaq use for load balancing and multipathing? will that be the same?
How does EMc storage differ from ESS (IBM)? I worked with ESS before, but haven't work EMC product yet?
thanks for your help...

[Paul Sperry]

Check this link out
http://www.tek-tips.com/gviewthread.cfm/lev2/7/lev3/52/pid/491/qid/260383

[Byron Myers · Accepted solution]

Dido,
I can comment a bit on ESS vs. EMC (Symmetrix). The ESS is a cluster solution - two UNIX servers set up in a modified HACMP cluster. There are many components in the ESS that can fail and result in an HACMP takeover - resulting in you losing 50% of your processing capacity until fixed. EMC does NOT use this design. For this reason, ESS is in a much lower class of storage subsystem than EMC Symmetrix. I've seen many people trying to compare ESS with EMC - but this is comparing apples to oranges. Symmetrix is more scalable, faster, more reliable, and seasoned. ESS is still in its infancy, so there are many bugs, software problems, software delivery problems, etc.. My shop has Symmetrix and ESS. To date, there have been 3 instances (in 1.5 years) that we have had to shut down EVERY server attached to our ESS's to upgrade its microcode to fix bugs. We have NEVER had to do this with our Symmetrix systems. In my opinion ESS is good for average reliability, average speed, and provides large disk capacity for a reasonable cost. EMC Symmetrix provides industry leading reliability, speed, and disk capacity for a larger but reasonable cost - if your requirements justify the cost.

[Chris Vail]

I'll chime in on the EMC bandwagon: they're the best, but expect to pay for it. We have 157TB of EMC disk here, so we have a major committment to the technology. Its like everything else: there's an easy way, a cheap way, but there is no easy, cheap way. EMC stuff is easy to manage, and their toolset is comprehensive. But again, its costly. Their PowerPath Product makes PV Links look amateurish, but its ~$50,000USD per system. So its not for the faint-hearted or the empty pocketbooks.
They have _excellent_ support, both sales and technical. With as much disk as we have, we of course have problems, but we have yet to see any actual downtime--its just that reliable.
Stay clear of Clariion products however. They're blindingly fast, but 'not ready for prime time' in terms of reliability.

Good Luck
Chris