[Linzi1980]

Hi there,

At first kindly excuse my failurs in english but I hope you can understand me. I'm new to this forum and I have a question I didn't found in the forum's archive yet.

I'm looking for a shared-storage for a planned environment as follows:

- 3 hosts, vmware vsphere standard 5.1
- 15 virtual machines
-- windows
-- 1x oracle db (mainly write operations)
-- several times mssql server (mainly read operations)
-- 1x ms exchange
- iSCSI or NFS preffered
- in-storage-backup-solution would be appriciated, NAS for backup is available
- at least 4,5 TB of available disk space for the VMs (all together the machines have 2,6 TB of disk space, it's expected that there is a need for another 5 vm in the next 5 years)

On the websites of the storage manufacturers I found several products but I didn't find any information how to find out what product fits best for my needs.

Can anyone help to find out which products probably perform in an acceptable way?

Thanks
L

[Linzi1980]

Oh, I forgot:

- redundant power supply!
- redundant controller!

[Linzi1980]

Anyone with an idea?
What do you think about IBM DS3500 or HP P2000 MSA?
What NetApp product would be compareable to these two competitors?

[Brian]

You are asking very good questions but the answer is not as clear as perhaps you would like. It sounds to me that you could run most of this in compute only, without a storage system necessarily, can you tell us more about the needs of the VMs, and what sort of budget you're working with? I don't see anything terribly difficult about what you're looking to do. Feels like you'd be at the lower end of NTAP's line, or you could even consider a NAS for these needs...or possibly even the new breed of active/passive guys like Nimble, Tegile and Starboard.

[Linzi1980]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. At first I also thougt that the task could be completed without a centralized storage. But all VM have to be available 24/7 with only a minimum of downtime and as far as i know vmove and HA (or equivalent from other software manufacturers) assume a centralizes storage to provide this features.

I also thougt of a NAS-Solution but I am afraid that this would slow down the databases. I don't like that there are so many databases with similar informations but i don't have influence on this development (it's an R&D thing)

Budget for this project is not fixed yet. But I expect $30k for upgrading 2 computers as hosts, 1 new host, switches, software and storage.

Thanks for the hint for Nimble, Tegile and Starboard. I did't know them and will have a look for it.

[Linzi1980]

Has anyone an idea what Dell product would be compareable to HP P2000 MSA or IBM DS3500?

[Brian]

EqualLogic PS4110 perhaps? Pretty nice array but probably more than your budget allows.

[Linzi1980]

Thanks for your answers!

We'll see what negotiations with management and supplyers bring.

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