[Gllug] Hitachi SMS-100

[N. Pauli]

On Fri, 26 Mar, Simon Wilcox wrote:
> Hi Nigel,
> 
> On 25/3/10 18:52, N. Pauli wrote:
> > We're currently considering one of these as a SAN to replace our
> > current directly attached storage RAID5 file server.
> 
> Looks quite nice. Have you got more detailed specs on it as there's nothing much in the marketing blurb.
> 
> Apologies if you've already asked this but I would be asking questions like:
> 
> How does it compare to your raid-5 file server in terms of disks and raid configuration ?
> 
> How are you using the raid-5 system now in terms of IOPS, data rate, read/write ratio etc ?
> 
> They should be able to give you expected performance for given r/w ratios and disk configurations although they probably won't publish that anywhere (it's often considered proprietary information).
> 
> > We're a school with about 500 user accounts. Next year we would like
> > to virtualise some of our current servers [mainly lightly loaded
> > database servers but also one handling WSUS and acting as a BDC]
> > which means they too would be using the SMS-100.
> 
> Which virtualisation technology do you plan on using ?
> 
> Make sure the Hitachi management software allows you to monitor the read/write ratio and the IOPS performance of the SAN.
> 
> Use perfmon to measure the disk activity on the physical Windows boxes. This will give you a good idea whether you have enough capacity in the SAN to take the extra workload.
> 
> > Is anyone out there using an SMS-100 as their main fileserver and/or
> > can tell me whether it would be up to the job?
> 
> You need to understand what your current workload is before you can say whether it will be suitable.
> 
> Also, of course, make sure you allow for backup in your solution and have a contingency plan for when this single point of failure fails. Because it *will* fail at some point.
> 

Simon,

Thanks for those very useful questions to ask. We're pretty sure that we can better what we have in terms of access speeds and I've done as much due diligence as I can in terms of right-sizing and manageability.

Most usefully I've found some other schools who've got them.

Regards,
Nigel

-- 
Nigel Pauli
I.T. Manager
St. John's School, Northwood
http://www.st-johns.org.uk/




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