ESXi - Fiber channel storage

N

Nacho

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 23, 2005
Messages
474
Despite best efforts, no find information on the web about this setup.

What I want to do,
2x Dell R610's w/ single quad / 24gb of ram. Nothing unusual here. Running esxi. (yes, I may custom build these servers depending on price)

Storage
The price of netapp ds14mk2 fiber channel shelves on ebay are quite good (14x144gb w/ dual 2gb controller <$1000). Now I am wondering, is it possible to use this type of shelf WITHOUT having a head-end (direct attach to a FC HBA)? If a head-end is required, then can I use something open-source? This is just a home lab, no need for anything crazy expensive. If I cannot use FC shelves, then I will be doing a homebuilt iscsi box.

Thanks in advance.
 
No. They need to talk to a FAS controller for you to do anything with them - they're just a dumb drive shelf otherwise. AFAIK, there's no way to control them otherwise.

Now, fwiw, it's not hard to find used FAS controllers cheap... just make sure you get one with an up-to-date firmware (>7.2.X), or you'll have to cough up about 60k to get them to update them :)
 
Was guessing this, but I haven't used any netapp appliances so didn't know. I would hate to buy a FAS headend (few on ebay for decent) and realize that it isn't up to date enough.

For ease of use a small iscsi box may be easiest (and very scalable).

Only real downside is the temptation to use sata drives in a iscsi box, but.. I know all too well the oh so wonderful sata raid performance... (or lack thereof)
 
Just do iSCSI or NFS. Cheaper and easier unless this is prod AND you need the throughput of FC.
 
Yikes I never thought of this. 8% cashback from Bing also! Starts making those things affordable except that bing caps out the annual payout.
 
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