Low Cost Direct Attactched storage

DeChache

DeChache

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Oct 30, 2005
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I work for a smallish public university and we have an enterprise VMware cluster but I have to pay per instance to use that clusters. I have 2 Dell Poweredge 2950s that have been repurposed into esxi hosts for my departments low use and testing systems. I am getting to the point were I need some more Disk performance for my systems. (Starting to add test systems with MSSQL databases) My servers right now are Dual Quad core systems with 32 gig of ram with 3tb usable internal sata disks (6 7200k 750gig drives Raid 5 hotspare).

I am looking for a low cost $1000 or less direct attach storage I could use with these systems. I'm not opposed to building my own but my supervisor perfers off the shelf systems.

Option B is my old Windows File server with 15k sas drives using Microsofts free ISCSI target. I'm not a big fan of this idea but it would work.
 
what are the specs on the windows server HW? how many sas drives? depending on the hba, installing some flavor of opensolaris and napp-it gui could work very well for you.
 
danswartz said:
what are the specs on the windows server HW? how many sas drives? depending on the hba, installing some flavor of opensolaris and napp-it gui could work very well for you.
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Its another Dell Poweredge 2950(I have a bunch of these) 1.86 quad core 2 gig of ram 2 73 gig sas and 4 300 gig SAS drives using a Perc5i
 
Probably want another 2GB of ram, but the rest of it sounds like it should run openindiana or solaris express 11 just fine (I'm pretty sure the perc5i is supported...)
 
If I go the NFS route I'll probably go with Debian just because I'm comfortable with it
 
Fair enough. I do think it's nice on a SAN/NAS being able to use ZFS, which is not really feasible right now with linux.
 
I live in a windows world were all I have is hardware raid. So I'm not going to be missing out on anything on the ZFS front.
 
What is the total storage you need? Or is it just anything you can get your hands on?

If I were you with your budget, I would take the PE2950, drop another 2GB of RAM into it, and boot Openfiler or Open-E off a USB drive. I would then take out the 2x 73GB and replace them with 2 300GB 15k drives, RAID everything in 5 with the Perc, add a 4 port gigabit nic, and present everything as a NFS store to your hypervisors. With a 2GB link to each HV machine the performance will be good (Better then SCSI attached, almost as good as SAS direct, not as good as FC).
 
In storage need. The 3tb bulk storage I have is sufficient what I'm looking at is fast storage for my I/O intensive stuff. The ~1.3TB from the potential 6 x 300 gig 15k sas would be more than sufficient. That maybe my plan then. I need to look into some of this nas distros a little more.


So I see openfiller and open-e both support fiber channel targets. I have spare 2 gig fiber controllers here would it be worth it to go that route
 
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For a NAS attaching to ESXi definitely use NFS over lots of other things. I have had much better performance out of NFS then iSCSI. Openfiler 2.99 preforms much better then FreeNAS 8, and Open-E outperforms both (however isn't free).
 
If I could get fiber I would always use fiber. However for cheap storage fiber isn't always an option.
 
C7J0yc3 said:
If I could get fiber I would always use fiber. However for cheap storage fiber isn't always an option.
Click to expand...

Well I guess I'm thinking I have fiber and and fiber controllers. I also see openfiller will act as a fiber target so thats got me thinking that maybe I will use openfiller to make my 2950 a fiber channel san.
 
That could definitely work. I have no personal expirence with using openfiler as a fiber target, however I do know that there are success stories with it.
 
DeChache said:
Well I guess I'm thinking I have fiber and and fiber controllers. I also see openfiller will act as a fiber target so thats got me thinking that maybe I will use openfiller to make my 2950 a fiber channel san.
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Centrix International has StorageTek FLC200 units for $200.

SATA but still sounds like a better option.
 
LightningCrash said:
Centrix International has StorageTek FLC200 units for $200.

SATA but still sounds like a better option.
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I have sata storage coming out of my ears. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 tb. (I run the systems for the multimedia group). I have very little sas storage. I have plenty of bulk storage. I'm only using about half the internal 3tb on the server. I just need something fast for my databases
 
DeChache said:
I have sata storage coming out of my ears. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 tb. (I run the systems for the multimedia group). I have very little sas storage. I have plenty of bulk storage. I'm only using about half the internal 3tb on the server. I just need something fast for my databases
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14 spindles wouldn't be fast enough? :confused:

How many IOPS are you shooting for here?
 
LightningCrash said:
14 spindles wouldn't be fast enough? :confused:

How many IOPS are you shooting for here?
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Also should have mentioned I have a 3tb shelf similar to that one siting in storage its fantastically slow. (Well I guess that shelf is IDE but its 15 spindles)

It prob would be fast enough but it takes an act of congress (Figuratively and literally ) to get new hardware. I'm just gonna be told to use the enterprise cluster. I don't want to have to pay to run my test stuff when I have the hardware to do it.
 
LightningCrash said:
So you don't need DAS after all?
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I'm going for a poor mans cluster (Vcenter but no vmotion). I just really don't want to use Sata disks again less I get to a point to where I am now where the array is half full but I'm out of IOPs. I would rather have 14 150gig 15k sas drives than a 15tb san that i only get really use 2 tb of.


To get a fast sata disk unless I use raptors and at that point i might as well go sas I'm gonna be filling it with at least 500 gig drives thats a lot of storage that would be better used else where.

This move to HD is making me wonder how I'm gonna keep up with the storage needs.
 
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I happen to know that a fiber SAN full of 600GB SAS6 15k drives will come in under $20k So when you make your big push for your production environment that would be the way to go. Alternatively if you are just looking for tier 3 storage that is fast then 2TB NLSAS 6 drives will be just fine in 10GB iSCSI or fiber. I have a client with a HP P2000 full of 2TB NLSAS 6 drives that are so fast I would swear they were faster then 7200RPM.
 
C7J0yc3 said:
I happen to know that a fiber SAN full of 600GB SAS6 15k drives will come in under $20k So when you make your big push for your production environment that would be the way to go. Alternatively if you are just looking for tier 3 storage that is fast then 2TB NLSAS 6 drives will be just fine in 10GB iSCSI or fiber. I have a client with a HP P2000 full of 2TB NLSAS 6 drives that are so fast I would swear they were faster then 7200RPM.
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$1000 limit here
 
DeChache said:
I work for a smallish public university and we have an enterprise VMware cluster but I have to pay per instance to use that clusters. I have 2 Dell Poweredge 2950s that have been repurposed into esxi hosts for my departments low use and testing systems. I am getting to the point were I need some more Disk performance for my systems. (Starting to add test systems with MSSQL databases) My servers right now are Dual Quad core systems with 32 gig of ram with 3tb usable internal sata disks (6 7200k 750gig drives Raid 5 hotspare).

I am looking for a low cost $1000 or less direct attach storage I could use with these systems. I'm not opposed to building my own but my supervisor perfers off the shelf systems.

Option B is my old Windows File server with 15k sas drives using Microsofts free ISCSI target. I'm not a big fan of this idea but it would work.
Click to expand...

You really don't want to use the MSFT initiator - trust me on this.
That being said, look at the Dell MD1000 series and hte like - or an MSA 500. Pick the JBOD from the manufacturer of your choice.

MD3000s is also an option, and pretty cheap with a VAR.
 
lopoetve said:
You really don't want to use the MSFT initiator - trust me on this.
That being said, look at the Dell MD1000 series and hte like - or an MSA 500. Pick the JBOD from the manufacturer of your choice.

MD3000s is also an option, and pretty cheap with a VAR.
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Waring noted. I wish I could find the funds for a Dell MD1000 or a MD1200
 
I don't need 3tb of sas. Thats just what I have now in Sata storage. I will be fine with around a tb. Most of my VMs are really low usage. I just have 2 that I need some fast disk for. Really probally could make due with 500 gig. If I spilt the databases out onto its own volume
 
DeChache said:
I don't need 3tb of sas. Thats just what I have now in Sata storage. I will be fine with around a tb. Most of my VMs are really low usage. I just have 2 that I need some fast disk for. Really probally could make due with 500 gig. If I spilt the databases out onto its own volume
Click to expand...

Call your reseller - see if they can swing an MD1000 with a half shelf of SAS?
 
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