SANs provide block-level access to servers across a network. Commonly used SAN technologies are iSCSI and Fiber-channel (sometimes spelled Fibre-channel) A Storage Area Network is distinctly different from Network Attached Storage (NAS). SAN systems don't provide any file-level access, although ...
0
votes
1answer
22 views
MD3200i Slow Performance and Queue Depth
Read performance on our SAN is slow under certain workloads. When we compare this to some local storage, we find the local storage performing 2x as fast. The SAN performs well with a high Queue ...
0
votes
1answer
18 views
What is the maximum number of FC switches in a switched star-topology fabric with a 4-domain fabric license on the hub switch?
I have 2 blade chassis, with 2 built-in FC switches each.
And I inherited a "budget" FC-Switch with a 4-domain fabric license.
I need a reality check, please:
When I connect each of the 4 built-in ...
0
votes
2answers
77 views
Setting up centralized storage (e.g., NAS/SAN) for a SaaS application
I have a SaaS application running on 6+ servers in HPCloud which creates large amounts of data (GB/TB). Users talk to the application through a RESTful api which replies back with a link to our CDN ...
2
votes
1answer
58 views
Virtualisation current physical environment
We are planning to do a migration with our current physical environment to a new, virtualized SAN infrastructure.
To keep it short, we want to migratie first our DC (3), Exchange (1) and file server.
...
0
votes
2answers
72 views
How to get SAN like flexibility from a NAS?
Initially only a few TBs of space is needed for a storage solution (<10TBs).
My initial plan is to have a NAS with other servers mounting the data stored on the NAS device, pushing and pulling ...
0
votes
0answers
27 views
How to track physical drives to server LUNs & mount points
I need to document which physical drives each server depends on ( SAN, on an external array, iSCSI etc). Since this potentially a many-many relationship, with dependencies, finding a usable solution ...
0
votes
1answer
44 views
hp DL 370 G5 hpacucli shows 2 drives as Predictive Failure - safe to try a rebuild 1 by 1?
I have:
Openfiler SAN
ML370 G5
Smart Array 6400
slot 1
Array B
Logical Drive 2 is a RAID5 array of 6 x 148GB 10k hot plug drives making 680GB
no spare
Last Friday, the power went out, this machine ...
1
vote
2answers
55 views
How to check fiber connectivity in ESXi 5.0?
On a VMware ESXi 5.0 host, how can I check if fiber storage adapters are properly connected to the fiber switch/SAN, i.e. if the fiber link is up?
0
votes
0answers
55 views
Best way to architect and attach 5TB of storage using a VM and a SAN?
I've been cautioned not to create huge LUNs on a SAN (ours is effectively 19TB) but I admit I'm not very knowledgeable about storage issues.
As far as application requirements, I need a 5 TB mount ...
3
votes
1answer
61 views
How Do I Create Multiple Physical Partitions/Volumes in openfiler on a Single HDD
I'm attempting to build my first iSCSI storage area network, using openfiler version 2.99 as an iSCSI target. I want to present storage to both vSphere 5 and Windows Server 2008R2 Hyper-V as ...
0
votes
0answers
19 views
Migrating to virtual network [closed]
Hi all I'd like to migrate my company infrastructure to a vSphere 5 infrastructure.
I'll have two Windows Server 2008 domain controllers, one file server and a SQL Server.
We have 3-4 TB of images ...
2
votes
3answers
95 views
CentOS Superblock corruption?
I'm on CentOS 5.2 and I'm having a problem booting my two database servers. Our IT department performed a SAN upgrade over the weekend and now I can't boot - they say the upgrade went fine but ...
-1
votes
1answer
76 views
Free SAN Storage Software for Linux [closed]
I'm looking for a free solution to build virtual disk targets accessible over SAN (iSCSI). Primary requirement for me is data deduplication support. After much search on the internet i came across ...
1
vote
3answers
107 views
Does MPIO aggregate bandwidth for a single connection?
Consider the following setup:
Windows 2008 R2, MPIO feature installed. Two iSCSI NICs (not bonded), 1Gb each.
Storage: Compellent, 2x 1Gb iSCSI ports, single controller.
In my tests I have ...
0
votes
0answers
66 views
SAN Boot CHAP'd iSCSI Target?
I have a few computers on my network that boot via iSCSI (due to dead HDDs) using chainloaded iPXE over DHCP. I wanted to enable CHAP for my iSCSI target to increase security (and learn). However, ...
2
votes
1answer
67 views
Hide network path displayed in mapped drive name
Is there a way to hide the network path that is displayed by default in a mapped drive name?
We've got Windows 7 and XP machines and we're migrating from a fileserver to a SAN.
Currently in My ...
4
votes
2answers
164 views
How good is failover of the iSCSI target on a two-node linux san?
I'm evaluating the possibility to use two off the shelf servers to build a cheap iSCSI redundant SAN. The idea is to run linux, pacemaker, and an iSCSI target - something like the SAN Active-Passive ...
0
votes
1answer
31 views
Force-enable write cache on an AX150 disk array or fake APC SmartUPS communication
I have a Dell-branded EMC AX150i disk array that refuses to enable its write cache. After calling Dell support, it turns out that the system will refuse to enable its write cache unless an APC ...
3
votes
2answers
112 views
RAID10 volume write latency on Windows on ESXi 5
I have a VMware ESXi 5 environment running on Fujitsu BX922S2 blade servers, connecting to a Fujitsu DX90 SAN.
I've had no problem with RAID5 volumes, but RAID10 volumes (for MSSQL) are exhibiting ...
11
votes
1answer
131 views
What's the point of SAN routing?
I'm familiar with extending fabrics by adding more switches to it, but i don't get why sometimes it's better to do routing between fabrics (considering all the switches are from the same vendor, using ...
2
votes
1answer
107 views
Data Store/Volume disconnecting. How to resume copy of VMDK?
I'm having an issue with my ESXi 4.1 hosts losing the datastore with FC SAN after a power outage. All 3 hosts disconnect so it's definitely a SAN issue. I've tried to resolve the issue on the SAN side ...
0
votes
5answers
187 views
Centralising Logfiles - Sending via TCP, versus SAN replication?
We have several (20+) application servers spread across multiple data-centres. We need to centralise the logfiles and monitor them from a single box.
Requirements:
Large logfiles, in the order of ...
0
votes
1answer
101 views
Is it possible to use iscsi to create a red hat cluster?
I have a netapp fast 2xxx with iscsi support, with 2 san switches. Is it possible to use one iscsi lun with cluster purposes?
The idea is to create a clustered service which needs storage, the ...
1
vote
0answers
67 views
Advice/guides for building and expandable virtual environment [closed]
I am looking to build a virtual environment to run virtual machines (propably using vmWare products).
Can any give any good advice, or point me towards some good documents, regarding best practices ...
7
votes
5answers
299 views
VMware VMFS5 and LUN sizing - multiple smaller datastores, or 1 big datastore?
With VMFS5 no longer having the 2TB limit for a VMFS volume, I'm considering which scenario would be more beneficial overall:-
Less LUNs of larger size, or
More LUNs of smaller size.
In my case, I ...
0
votes
2answers
55 views
Hide iSCSI targets in linux?
My SAN reports the same targets with multiple IP addresses. Is there a way to hide some of those IPs so I don't see the same targets multiple times?
1
vote
5answers
196 views
Mount LUN from SAN at the same time in Windows and Linux
I have a mounted NTFS partition under Windows (2003) and Linux (RHEL 5.7) at the same time. The LUN resides on SAN and is presented to both servers at the same time. At first, the setup looks ok as I ...
1
vote
0answers
37 views
Can I re-assign the scsi letter for virtual floppy?
Having issues with oracle starting up in our cluster environment due to disks not lining up properly. For example, on the problematic host, I see the following.
[1:0:0:0] cd/dvd AMI Virtual ...
0
votes
1answer
61 views
Bandwidth efficient software RAID [closed]
I have this crazy idea .. that might just work if I find my missing piece
Take network with 40 windows workstations (on 24 hours)
Each machine uses 20 GB out of 500 GB capacity
Install free copy of ...
2
votes
1answer
34 views
How do I wipe a Sun Santricity SAN Array
I need to wipe all data from an out of support SUN Santricity array before we send it to EMC for a trade in.
(Yes EMC is took our SUN in part for a CX-480)
Does anyone have advice on how to wipe ...
2
votes
1answer
56 views
double mount check with ext3
I have two nodes connected to a SAN, and I want to be able to mount an ext3 partition on node B when node A goes down.
I know I could use a shared filesystem, but for simplicity and performance I ...
1
vote
3answers
164 views
SAN Distro with iSCSI and software RAID 5
Im looking for an OS, to install on a server, which has 4x 1Tb disks. Id like to couple those disks as an RAID-5 array, and share it over iSCSI to VMWare ESXi 5. Im not sure if this exists...
I have ...
0
votes
4answers
119 views
Dell MD3200i config query
Just a short query: I have a Dell Md3200i setup to serve LUNs to my 2 physical hosts and I'm running vSphere/ESXi v5 with a number of VM's. Is it normal behavior for ALL VM's and LUN's to run off the ...
0
votes
1answer
60 views
iSCSI drive dropping connection
I have a problem at the moment with one of our main shared folders.
The network speeds to this drive will suddenly slow right down and occasionally completely stop. The shared folder is an iSCSI ...
3
votes
2answers
194 views
SAN replication
My company has only a single storage box (SuperMicro hardware + chassis with a LSI raid card and 12 SAS 7.2k drive) in its current setup. It runs on linux and we hook it up to our fileserver via ...
1
vote
2answers
193 views
Gracefully Shutdown an Equalogic SAN
Like many others I have jumped on the VMware bandwagon. We are hosting all of our data on an Equalogic SAN and need a "gracefull" way to shut down the VMs and the SAN if the battery backups reach a ...
1
vote
2answers
92 views
Do I need to have 2 RAID arrays to utilize both controllers in Equallogic unit?
I'm trying to figure out how EQL works with multiple controllers. Dell sales people recommended having one RAID array on one EQL unit. But will this set up allow utilizing both controllers? Or will ...
3
votes
2answers
326 views
When using thin-provisioning with ZFS, how do you make sure you don't run out of physical disk space?
Forgive me if this seems like a fundamental question, but I couldn't really find anything concrete on Google, and I'm not a system administrator by trade.
We are setting up a SAN at our office using ...
2
votes
2answers
217 views
How does a SAN architecture work and more importantly scale?
I'm trying to understand some SAN infrastructure and I was hoping some of you with more experience than me could help me understand scaling with a SAN.
Imagine that you have some computer servers ...
3
votes
4answers
178 views
Is there a performance advantage to isolating database logs and data on different volumes (same RAID array) across a SAN?
On my old server, I separated them on to different RAID arrays to improve performance. Using a SAN is new to me, so I'm not sure of the optimal configuration.
SAN: 48 drives. 10K 600GB SAS. RAID 50. ...
2
votes
1answer
61 views
Multipathing vs. bonded connections
I recently tried to sell the idea of multipathing one of our production databases (thanks to Brent at SQL Pass summit!) currently using just 1 database file (189GB!!!) on a physical server with 2 ...
1
vote
1answer
92 views
Is it possible to reduce the size of a storage pool or storage pool member in an equallogic array?
We have inherited responsibility for a Dell Equallogic PS4000 SAN that was configured with a single default pool and a single RAID 5 member that was using all 8 disks.
Having now added 8 additional ...
3
votes
1answer
256 views
HP LeftHand vs VMware VSA
I am trying to compare VMware's new VSA with the HP LeftHand VSA. Both products allow you to run the SAN node as a VM. Reading VMware's documentation I get the impression that VMs on the same host ...
4
votes
5answers
220 views
Need help with estimating required bandwidth for SAN array to SAN array replication over WAN
I have a long-term goal of setting up a DR site in a colo somewhere and part of that plan includes replicating some volumes of my EqualLogic SAN. I'm having a bit of a difficult time doing this ...
2
votes
1answer
171 views
iSCSI SAN - Network adapter bottleneck
My new database server (Windows Server 2008 R2) has a 4 Gbps connection to my Dell EqualLogic iSCSI SAN. I've been testing it by backing up multiple databases at the same time. There appears to be a ...
2
votes
2answers
128 views
How to install additional hard drives into a Dell EqualLogic PS4000
We have a PS4000 that came with 8 drives. We have bought an additional 8 drives from Dell to fully populate the SAN but I can't find any information to confirm that it's as simple as just popping ...
1
vote
1answer
83 views
Good SAN sequential I/O throughput
We have an EMC San - CX4-240C filled with 15k (4Gb) Fibre Channel disks setup in RAID 5. Our applications that run on this SAN do primarily Sequential read and write of large text data files. I'm ...
3
votes
2answers
87 views
Fiber Channel SAN hooked up to 2 ESXi Hosts
I have a PowerVault with 4 FC modules at 8gb/s. I don't want to jack the SAN into our 10/100/1000 switch because of the max 1gb/s speed.
My question is can I jack both ESXi host's FC into the SAN's ...
1
vote
1answer
74 views
Custom SAN with multiple servers using the same iSCSI targets
I'm trying to create my own SAN out of existing hardware. I have four identical NAS devices. Each one has four 1 TB drives that they do RAID-5 across. On each NAS I have created a 1 TB iSCSI share. ...
0
votes
1answer
398 views
EqualLogic vs. PowerVault [closed]
Alright, looking at SAN options.
We have a vendor we're working with, and they're obviously pushing EqualLogic hard. They just released the 4100 series which is a bit nicer, and they're trying to get ...
