Questions tagged [storage-area-network]
A SAN is a Storage Area Network, for providing block-level access to storage subsystems across a network.
921
questions
8
votes
6
answers
3k
views
What are the most important aspects to consider when choosing a SAN for a small office virtualization project?
I am in the process of consolidating 6 physical servers running 6 different operating system flavors (don't ask) into two identical physical servers (Dell PowerEdge 2900), using the free VMware ESXi 4....
- 870
8
votes
2
answers
9k
views
Can I run iostat on a Synology?
I have a Synology RS812RP+ which I'm using for a little bit of departmental testing. I've stuffed a bunch of SSD disks in it, and I'm curious about monitoring the disk IO.
iostat doesn't come pre-...
- 395
8
votes
4
answers
3k
views
What Makes Cloud Storage (Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, google Apps) different from Traditional Data center storage networking (SAN and NAS)?
Some confusion because of my question so to make it simple :
"What kind of storage do big cloud providers use and why?"
As far as i understand, however I am not able to find any kind of official ...
- 431
8
votes
2
answers
4k
views
How Fibre Channel Frames are populated and traverse a Fabric?
Trying to wrap my head around how Fibre Channel Frames are actually populated and sent through a switched fabric. I Understand WWNN WWPN, WWNN is a WWN of the actual HBA, and WWPN are the WWN of the ...
- 988
8
votes
4
answers
9k
views
How to efficiently share host's folder with KVM guests?
I am configuring the service which stores plenty of files uploaded by nginx in /srv/storage dir on host system. These files are processed by worker KVM guests which may create new files or assign ...
- 1,117
7
votes
3
answers
15k
views
How can I use NTFS and iSCSI and not corrupt my SAN?
I know you can't use multiples NTFS machines/servers with the same SAN iSCSI target without corruption. I have multiple servers, however, that need access to the same data on the same SAN.
I do not ...
- 2,348
7
votes
7
answers
1k
views
What is a storage area network (SAN)? and What are some of the ways that it can be used? [closed]
I need some good examples and links to companies that you are already using for buying SAN hardware, SAN data centers, etc.,
- 199
7
votes
2
answers
6k
views
Does adding more drives to a RAID 10 Array increase performance?
I'd like to know if I were to add additional drives to an existing Raid 10 if this would increase the speed of the entire array?
- 371
7
votes
2
answers
734
views
EMC ScaleIO vs Starwind Virtual SAN
I'm setting a test lab to evaluate best solution for future production use. The production farm intended for an SMB, so budget is present, but it is also limited.
Goal for production: 3 ...
- 297
7
votes
5
answers
4k
views
Using SAN Replication/Snapshots for SQL Server disaster recovery?
We have a web application that utilizes SQL Server 2008 on a single database server. All storage is local. For the past year we have been trying to get any form of SQL Server Replication to work ...
- 1,833
7
votes
3
answers
10k
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 ...
- 465
7
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Miserable performance of Hyper-V storage on CSV
I recently setup a new environment consisting of:
- QSAN Storage with 10Gib network
- Mellanox switches 10Gib
- 4 x Physical nodes connect to LAN and SAN 10Gib
The physical hosts are connected ...
- 231
7
votes
2
answers
1k
views
iSCSI using uplink ports on switch
Do the uplink ports on switches typically work okay as iSCSI ports?
We're adding a 10gb iSCSI SAN, and want to get a combo switch (48x1gb & 4x10gb SFP+ uplink ports) and use the 10gb for the iSCSI ...
7
votes
1
answer
13k
views
Windows 2008 Unknown Disks
I have a BL460c G7 blade server with OS Windows 2008 R2 SP1. This is a brand new C7000 enclosure, with FlexFabric interconnects. I got my FC switches setup and zoned properly to our Clariion CX4, ...
- 101
6
votes
7
answers
2k
views
Rough estimate for speed advantage of SAN-via-fibre to san-via-iSCSI when using VMware vSphere
We are in the process of setting up two virtualization servers (DELL R710, Dual Quadcore Xeon CPUs at 2.3 Ghz, 48 GB RAM) for VMware VSphere with storage on a SAN (DELL Powervault MD3000i, 10x 500 GB ...
- 914
6
votes
2
answers
898
views
Suggestions for a NAS for VMware storage [closed]
I have been looking at Openfiler, and it appears to be a great open-source solution. I haven't seen very much documentation on limitations of OF. We are by no means a Fortune 500 company (yet:) so our ...
- 472
6
votes
5
answers
695
views
Why do they use laptop form factor HDD's for storage servers?
The storage servers I've seen generally use 2.5" drives instead of 3.5" drives. In my experience the larger drives have better capacity, speed, and durability. Why are the smaller ones favored in ...
- 608
6
votes
8
answers
3k
views
What are SAS external storage options (Promise, Infortrend, SuperMircro, ...)?
We are looking for a ~32T external storage solution for two 48-core AMD servers. These will be used for a small Linux OpenVZ cloud for CPU intensive web-servers and data warehousing. Dual path with ...
- 2,495
6
votes
8
answers
14k
views
Can you use your own drives on Dell PowerVault MD3000i?
I would like to use my own drives in the Dell PowerVault MD3000i.
Does anyone know if you are able to?
We are looking at different SANs for our VM farm and would rather be able to replace a drive in ...
Chris
6
votes
3
answers
5k
views
With 200TB of needed storage, is a SAN a good idea?
My employer has, what I consider to be, a lot of data. We currently have about 10TB of data on our NAS, which is about its capacity, and we would have more data on it if we didn't constantly move ...
- 343
6
votes
3
answers
5k
views
Open-source Shared Storage file system?
Can anyone advice for a production-level, open-source shared storage (SAN) file-system?
I read about GFS and GFS2, but the first one seems a bit outdated, and the second is not considered stable for ...
- 3,189
6
votes
3
answers
2k
views
So what really makes a server grade NIC?
We have a couple servers hosting Citrix VM's. We are planning on adding SAN storage to our network so that we can do the quick migration and high availability thing. The question comes up with ...
- 336
6
votes
4
answers
3k
views
What would cause IO Wait on a SAN?
I understand IO wait when I see it on a server, it means that the CPU is blocked while I wait for the IO to catch up [source].
I am trying to understand why a SAN stats would show a high IO wait - ...
- 2,186
6
votes
4
answers
382
views
Storage Architecture
Related to this question: When building a storage area network, do storage administrators generally create the physical disk arrays based on I/O type (sequential versus random access) and provision ...
- 111k
6
votes
3
answers
4k
views
Sparing level on HP EVA 4000
One of the disks of our EVA4000 died today. This diskgroup (all volumes vraid5 with sparing level 1 and almost no space left for more volumes, 1TiB drives) is being rebuilt with "spare space" right ...
- 125
6
votes
6
answers
2k
views
SAN alternative for VMWare
Has anyone utilized something aside from a SAN to run their VMWare images off? We are looking to drop in two HP Servers and VMWare on them and run them off a SAN. Due to the cost of SAN though our CFO ...
- 522
6
votes
3
answers
2k
views
diffrence between virtual machine storage and san storage
What is the difference in performance between VM storage that created on SAN and use storage directly on SAN to read and write data?
I mean, we have SQL server that is installed on VM-basis and use a ...
- 63
6
votes
2
answers
10k
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 ...
- 5,886
6
votes
4
answers
14k
views
What is the difference between SAN Hard Drives and Normal Hard Drives?
At work, we have decided to finally virtualize and have decided to upgrade out SAN setup with higher capacity Hard Drives. However, what exactly is the difference between Hard Drives that come ...
- 73
6
votes
3
answers
730
views
Shared Disk in modern data center (SAN, virtualization, etc)
I'm a developer...treading here on foreign terrain. Please pardon any naivete.
I work on an application that stores data both in a database and the filesystem.
Context: Clustering and Network ...
- 325
6
votes
4
answers
9k
views
SAN or NAS 100-200TB - where to start looking? [closed]
I'm starting a project to consolidate a bunch of data and make it available on our LAN. I'm thinking that we may have a need for anywhere from 100-200TB at any one time.
What factors should I be ...
- 61
6
votes
4
answers
2k
views
SAN system upgrade/design
Greetings, I'm a long-time lurker, first time poster. For brevity, let me ask my question up-front and then give the longer backstory, so you can choose how much you want to read.
Short version...
...
- 304
6
votes
1
answer
2k
views
SAN Performance Slow
I have an iSCSI HP P2000 loaded with 12 x 300gb DP SAS drives. This is connected to 2 DL385 servers with 64gb RAM running XenServer. The SAN network is multipathed via 2 gigabit switches (4 x copper ...
- 5,436
6
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Completely disjoint iSCSI networks vs dedicated switches and VLANs
I'm looking for best practice or pros/cons for deploying an iSCSI storage network.
The two options are:
A completely disjoint iSCSI storage network
Dedicated switches with a separate VLAN for ...
- 101k
6
votes
3
answers
10k
views
IOMeter - What values should I test with?
In some ways I guess this is a piece of string question, however even if there is a "this fits most situations" answer I have no idea what it is, so...
I have a SAN on evaluation, an HP P4000. I'd ...
- 2,364
6
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How to connect two Dell storage arrays to a to a Dell Poweredge server (daisy chain vs direct)?
I purchased two Dell MD1000 storage arrays together with a Dell Poweredge 1950 server and need help setting them up (I am a complete novice to SAN/iSCSI).
The Poweredge server has two SAS SFF-8470 ...
- 1,677
6
votes
2
answers
1k
views
links between switches for iSCSI
We inherited a SAN/vmWare/iSCSI setup with both Dell and HP equipment purchased for it, but not fully setup, and we need to get some additional switches to make it all work. But we're getting ...
6
votes
4
answers
238
views
Secure storage solution sought
I need an end-to-end multi-client/multi-supplier secure storage system, I can build it using various bits and pieces but it feels overcomplex - am I missing a trick?
Specifically I need to offer ...
- 102k
6
votes
1
answer
4k
views
can I share the same datastore between different VMware 6.5 clusters?
Is it possible to share the same datastore between multiple VMware clusters of the same version (both 6.5 or both 6.7)?
It is the norm to share the datastore between multiple hosts in the same ...
- 5,886
6
votes
2
answers
2k
views
SAN, ISCSI and Multipath (MLAG?)
I'm a bit confused regarding the setup of a SAN with ISCSI and multipath. We are upgrading our network to 10Gbit, so there are 2 10Gbit switches that are configured with MLAG for normal ethernet ...
- 231
6
votes
2
answers
681
views
Fibre channel zoning by port: bad idea?
I have a single FC switch here that has a bunch of servers hanging off of it. Currently it is zoned (as per my previous question, Fibre Channel zoning best practices) by WWN, one zone for each pair ...
- 11.1k
6
votes
3
answers
5k
views
zpool autoexpand doesn't change size of pool
We have some old Solaris 10 servers (SunOS name 5.10 Generic_142909-17 sun4u sparc SUNW,Sun-Fire-V490) now connected to our new IBM SAN. These Solaris servers still have mostly UFS file systems. A ...
- 63
6
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Which events specifically cause Windows 2008 to mark a SAN volume offline?
I am searching for specific criteria/events that will cause Windows 2008 to mark a SAN volume as offline in disk management, even though it is connected to that SAN volume via FC or iSCSI.
Microsoft ...
- 938
6
votes
1
answer
2k
views
SAN booting Oracle VM from a UCS blade
We have an Oracle VM Cluster that we are provisioning on a Cisco UCS B series blade chassis. It has 2 fabric interconnects (FC0 and FC1) provisioned to the (3) Oracle VM service profiles and it is set ...
- 143
6
votes
1
answer
2k
views
fibre channel debian problem
I have a QLogic Fibre Channel card installed in a Debian box (Lenny), and after some tiffs with the firmware, I managed to get the operating system to recognize the card (DKMS driver, and the "...
- 425
6
votes
3
answers
7k
views
At rest encryption with a SAN?
I would like to make sure at-rest encryption is done in one place and correctly. If there's shared storage, that seems like the right place rather than DAS.
Mainly I'd like to cover the case of ...
5
votes
8
answers
2k
views
Practical SAN Question
I am designing the next evolution of our IT infrastructure. I am considering implementing an iSCSI SAN. My current plan is to connect only our servers to the SAN, and then implement any file sharing ...
- 293
5
votes
1
answer
861
views
popular mass storage options
Can someone give me some examples of common mass storage devices people are using?
Specifically, say you have front end servers that all need to connect to a mass storage device (SAN?), that provides ...
- 1,152
5
votes
4
answers
5k
views
What are the choices for iSCSI target support for Linux?
I recently purchased an IBM BladeCenter E chassis with HS21 blades. I'd like to build a SAN so the HS21 blades will have more storage space.
From everything I've read, iSCSI seems to be the best ...
- 437
5
votes
3
answers
5k
views
What differences are between a NAS, a shared disk file system on a SAN, and a distributed filesystem?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clustered_file_system#Network-attached_storage says
Network-attached storage (NAS) provides both storage and a file
system, like a shared disk file system on top of a ...
- 1,517