Heavy-Duty Storage
Heavy-Duty Storage
By Alan Zeicheck, Sm@rt Partner
October 11, 2000 7:56 AM PT
URL: zdnet.com
Network attached storage appliances are currently all the rage. Companies like Maxtor Corp., Quantum Corp. and Cobalt Networks (which is being acquired by Sun) have ap pliances that offer up to a couple of hun dred gigabytes of storage for pretty low price points. While they're great for small businesses or for workgroups, let's be serious here. Those appliances aren't ready for prime time in the enterprise. Their IDE-based hard drives only crank data at up to 66 megabytes per second—slower than standard file servers. RAID is in software, not hardware. No hot-swap hard drives; no redundant power supplies; no SNMP manageability that can be integrated in to a platform like IBM's Tivoli or Computer Associates' Unicenter TNG.
Real enterprise data needs a real enterprise file server, and that describes Network Appliance Inc.'s F720 Filer. The only thing that NetApp box has in common with the above mentioned systems is the word "appliance." Based on a custom operating system, and with high-availability hardware comparable to that found in rack-mounted data-center servers, the F720 is fast, efficient—and scalable. Forget the 32GB limit on Cobalt's NASRaQ, or even the 240GB found in Quantum's newest Snap Server 4100. When taken to the limit, the F720 tops out at about 500GB.
When testing a 126GB F720 Filer in our lab, we found that it's not as easy to set up as one of the inexpensive appliances. The computer's installation requires careful planning to determine the optimal drive configuration, as well as to implement its security features, remote management, and compatibility with Windows and Unix and NFS- compatible workstations and servers. Forget plug-and-play—however, NetApp's new Web-based administration program does help. But once set up, you'll probably never need to touch the con figuration again.
So what's the big deal? Why not get two Snap Servers to get that much storage? Reliability. In our tests, the NetApp's OnTap operating system never hung or crashed. It also was hard to kill the hardware. The system unit and each storage shelf have hot-plug power supplies and fans that can be swapped. Drives can be hot swapped if they fail; the RAID striping ensures that data is not lost. Battery backup on the RAID controller preserves data in the event of a catastrophic power failure. And its SNMP-based management tools ensure that the IT staff is in control all the time. That sounds ideal to us for big, mission-critical, data-intensive applications.
It's also fast. Unlike the IDE-based appliances, the F720 uses Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) hard drives, with a maximum throughput of 400 megabytes per second. Use it with Fast Ethernet, plug-in ATM, Gigabit Ethernet or FC-AL interfaces, and this baby rocks.
The Filer isn't cheap. But what's the value of the data and the ability to always have quick access to that data? When viewed that way, it's one hell of a bargain. Just don't try to lift it all at once—at 64 pounds for the CPU and 43 pounds for each drive shelf, the F720 really is heavy-duty storage.
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NetApp F720 Filer
Network Appliance Inc.
www.networkappliance.com/products/filer
MSRP: $21,995, as tested
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