[plug] SAN Advice

[Paul Antoine]

Mark,

The SAN/NAS choice is getting harder as NAS prices drop.  How important 
is it to have redundancy?  NAS tends to have single points of failure, 
whereas SAN tries to avoid them (though can't entirely.)

Also it depends on how you're running your virtual machines... what are 
the specs for the machines that will run the VM's? How many VM's will be 
accessing the NAS? What OS's are the VM's running? What performance are 
you aiming for?

Here are some drive prices to give you a benchmark for the pricing on 
the Intel box:

	100GB drives - phased out
	320GB SATA, 16MB cache: $99
	750GB SATA, 16MB cache: $249

So at *full* retail, the drive config for which you've been quoted is:

	$99 + ($249 x 6) = $1593

Ergo, you are paying $8407 for the box, CPUs of your choice, RAID card 
and M$ license.  BTW, I would suggest buying 2x320GB drives for the OS 
to run as a RAID1 (mirrored) pair.

Hate to say it, but Dell has a better deal if price is an issue.  A Dell 
4U server with redundant power supplies, RAID card etc. is probably 2/3 
or less of the Intel price all up.

Paul

Mark Slatem wrote:
> Paul,
> 
> Thanks for the advice and the link you provided. The inquirer url shows 
> the exact device we have been quoted on, the given price includes 1 x 
> 100GB and 6 x 750GB Seagate SATA Drives. At the moment we are undecided 
> on the SAN VS NAS, what is your opinion on both considering we want to 
> run virtual machines on them. Also if we went for the "Intel Storage 
> Creek 2" what OS flavor would you recommend?
> 
> Mark.
> 
>  
> 
> On Fri, 2007-10-26 at 08:33 +0800, Paul Antoine wrote:
>> Mark,
>>
>> Do you need a SAN or a NAS?
>>
>> The info I have seems to indicate that you could run Linux on the Intel 
>> box if you wished as it's really just a server with lots of drive bays 
>> at the front :-)
>>
>> Does the $10,000 include any drives?  Is it the version with the RAID 
>> controller?
>>
>> Here's a link to the release from the Inquirer:
>>
>> http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2007/04/16/intel-updates-storage-offerings
>>
>> Hope this helps,
>> P.
>>
>> BTW: I pointed my friend Casper at the Drobo, which runs Linux.  They 
>> are apparently producing an gigabit ethernet version to compliment the 
>> current USB2.0 version which has had good reviews. Casper contacted 
>> Drobo about an Australian distributor - they said they're working on a 
>> 240v version to satisfy global requirements. http://www.drobo.com
>>
>> Silly American companies often save a few $$s by putting in a 110v only 
>> switchmode PSU...  always bites them in the bum by delaying time to 
>> market elsewhere in the world.
>>
>>
> 
> 
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