VNXe

[nowlan]

Hello,

I have just sat the EMC ISA exam.

I was wondering who here has deployed or sold the vnxe systems.

I am interested to hear what requirements were, and what swayed your decision.

I dont work for a partner so unlikely to actually touchone myself.

 

[Child of Wonder]

I've deployed and sold a few. Not my favorite product to work with. Very buggy.

The main reason any of them have been sold to my clients was cost.

 

[cyr0n_k0r]

we looked at the VNXe and decided to go with Dell EqualLogic.
The VNXe's 2TB lun limit was a deal breaker.

 

[vektor777]

Being a EMC field support architect for 11 years and now a partner I have deployed about 40 or so VNXe's.. Being a NAS + iSCSI product relegates it SMB and NAS customers, then when VNXe was new and now its still a very buggy storage system.

I agree with cyr0n_k0r, the Dell PowerVault or EQLogic is a better value for your dollars in the end for a iSCSI based solution with some limited CIFS/NFS functions.

 

[vektor777]

...

 

[Vader]

we looked at the VNXe and decided to go with Dell EqualLogic.
The VNXe's 2TB lun limit was a deal breaker.

I've deployed a couple of EqualLogic's at my new job and i'm pretty impressed and i'm coming from an EMC VNX/Clariion and HP Lefthand background. It takes all of an hour to install new and all of 15 minutes to add one to an existing group.

I like the fact that everything is built in replication..etc ..and replication that actually integrates into vSphere without using SRM..though it's not as nice as SRM, it's your Poor Man's DR that actually works quite well if you don't care about all the automation you get with SRM.

They claim you can do a non-disruptive firmware upgrade, I have yet to see it even though there are two controllers..so that needs to be addressed.

On a side note Dell is also releasing a NAS head for the EqualLogic to support file and have a somewhat "unified" system.

 

[Jay_2]

I have always gone more for the VNX 5300 over the VNXe

 

[nowlan]

I havent drunk the EMC koolaid yet. I read the book which struck chord with me on redundancy and backup/DR etc.
Sat the exam because I didnt like Comptia Storage+ renewal policy. Learned a heap about SANs in the process.

I asked about VNXe since it was priced for lower end of the market.
Last year they were pushing vm in a box. VNXe, cisco small biz switch, and vmware on cisco UCS servers.
Didnt find out the exact price all up.

The Enterprise companies can justify the high end gear, lost productivity vs cost of equipment.

I am interested to know factors smaller companies use to step up to enterprise kit.

Redundant vmware boxes needing shared storage.
Im guessing a single server can keep direclty attached storage.

Curious what falls between the cheaper synology/qnap and 8-10k san stuff.
Are these not taken seriously at all ?

 

[Jay_2]

I think the NetApp FAS2040 is about the same as a VNXe, Lefthand also have on ein that range as well. I still think the VNXe is the best in the range but the Dell MD arrays are also pretty good.

 

[Wrench00]

For small fries I use Qnaps, supprisingly very good.

Vmware VSA is pretty good as well.

Jetstor has some nice shit as well.