May 01, 2000, Issue: 1108
Section: Cover Story
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RFP: Storage Area Networks -- An enterprise that constantly moves terabytes of large-file data needs the highest level of storage capacity available. Five SAN providers offer a solution for our fictitious storage-hungry enterprise.
Dave Fetters
Over the years, we've come to view direct-attached storage as the systematic approach to building up storage in an enterprise. We've accepted the complex management issues, high TCO (total cost of ownership) and unscalable characteristics that direct-attached storage has had to offer. Why? Because it has been our only choice-until now. With the emergence of SANs (storage area networks) we no longer have to accept an inferior approach to storage infrastructure. A SAN provides a high-speed storage network that is not only extremely scalable but is designed for uncompromising availability.
Several forces are driving the SAN market. Most obvious is the explosive data growth with which many organizations are now wrestling. In the past year, the total amount of shipped disk storage doubled from around 700,000 TB to more than 1.4 million TB. With no end in sight for this high storage growth, the FibreAlliance, the FCIA (Fibre Channel Industry Association) and other organizations project that by 2002 the Fibre Channel market will surpass $2.4 billion.
Parallel to this storage growth, companies are seeking a way to manage the effects of these growth patterns. With a SAN's inherent scalability, organizations can shift storage management from a reactive strategy to a proactive one. As evidenced by the recent trend toward server clustering, a SAN will be practically mandated. Unless a SAN is running on the back end, the server cluster is severely limited in its ability to scale.
Other driving forces toward SANs include both HA (high availability) and disaster recovery. With a central storage pool, there is no need to replicate data across servers. If a server crashes, a secondary server can be brought online seamlessly, with full access to the exact data store. Furthermore, additional storage pools can be brought online and datasets rebuilt without hindering server performance. With a robust SAN infrastructure, concerns over HA are addressed with a mesh of fiber interconnects that remove points of failure in the storage subsystem.
Who should install a SAN? This decision requires careful consideration, as well as educated speculation, about current and future storage requirements. If you expect your storage requirements to exceed 1 TB, consider installing a SAN. With the distinct advantages of flexibility and the capacity to mold storage configurations, fiber-attached storage also can help accommodate future growth of emerging and smaller companies. Such storage affords the flexibility needed for a company to migrate to a SAN rather than play the SCSI-attached catch-up game.
In addition to the appeal of high disk availability, SANs become increasingly attractive when we consider the benefit of high-speed consolidated tape backup. Maintaining and managing a distributed network of SCSI-attached tape libraries is both expensive and a headache. These distributed tape libraries rarely mimic the storage requirements of the data they back up. Whether they're underused, wasting backup capacity, or overused, increasing the size of your backup windows, they're not going to be configured optimally. With a fiber-attached tape library, centralizing data lets you formulate an aggregate backup scheme that makes capacity planning more efficient and maximizes your capital investment. As with disk storage, the ability to scale the backup pools dynamically and allocate internal tape drives and capacity into virtual backup pools make data management more robust and efficient.
Our RFP
To get a sense of today's SAN solutions, we distributed an RFP for MediaMasters, our fictitious publishing company. Since its inception, MediaMasters has used a server-centric approach to address its storage needs. By continually enlarging the server storage pools on each of the separate servers and keeping up with evolving SCSI technology, MediaMasters has maintained operations. System backups and server-to-server and server-to-workstation file transfers have been performed over MediaMasters' switched 10-Mbps network. Because of the company's rapid growth, however, MediaMasters has begun to experience network bottlenecks from the increased number and size of files being shared. These bottlenecks are hurting productivity, so a solution is imperative.
MediaMasters considered two alternatives: Gigabit Ethernet and a SAN. In that MediaMasters sends large files-upward of 5 GB-over the wire, the chosen solution would need a high capacity to keep pace. Although high-speed Gigabit Ethernet offers many benefits for the LAN, this technology isn't adequate for MediaMasters' back-end storage needs. Both Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel commonly support 100 MB per second. A detailed look at Gigabit Ethernet reveals some inherent weaknesses, however. Sending large files over the LAN is less efficient because Gigabit Ethernet is limited to a maximum packet size of 1,518 bytes. These small packets would cause a large-file transfer to throttle the servers with all the interrupts and overhead for packet processing. Fibre Channel, on the other hand, is based on frames rather than packets and can cluster a sequence of frames into a single block as large as 128 MB. The larger blocks reduce the number of interrupts and packet processing.
MediaMasters not only requires a high-performance back end, it also calls for this performance to be delivered to the workstations. In addition to the transfer issues, Gigabit Ethernet does not address storage consolidation or management issues that a SAN would handle well. It became apparent that Gigabit Ethernet complements a SAN in delivering content to the desktop; however, MediaMasters' immediate needs call for a high-speed back end to deliver all the way to the front end. With this knowledge, MediaMasters has chosen to implement a SAN.
Like many businesses, MediaMasters is a 24x7 company and relies on the guaranteed availability of its servers and accompanying storage. As a publisher of CD-ROMs, DVDs and interactive media, MediaMasters also requires a pipe fast enough to transfer large files across its storage systems and workstations. To achieve the highest availability, we asked vendors to provide a fault-tolerant solution that minimizes points of failure across the entire SAN. We suggested the vendors design their SANs with scalability and performance in mind, and listed no price cap for this RFP.
MediaMasters' network consists of three virtually identical buildings, each of which contains a different department. Two of the buildings reside on a corporate campus, and the third resides in a new office subdivision five miles away. Each building has four production servers. Three act as file servers, and the fourth is a backup server with a SCSI-attached DLT tape library. Additionally, each building contains a media lab that houses 15 Sun Microsystems Solaris workstations. In the basement of one of the campus buildings, an additional data center houses two application servers, a database server and two Web servers. The two campus buildings are wired to the remote building via frame relay. Media projects are handled in a workflow fashion, with data moving from department to department among the three buildings.
Five vendors responded to MediaMasters' RFP: ADIC, Amdahl Corp., Compaq Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and McData Corp. All but McData and Amdahl, whose proposals still meet the core SAN fabric requirements, turned in complete SAN solutions that met the needs of MediaMasters' storage requirements. We were surprised and disappointed that industry leaders EMC and Unisys said they lacked the personnel resources to participate. Of the proposals we did receive, prices ranged from around $500,000 to more than $2.8 million.
One of the hang-ups in bringing SAN solutions to market has been the certification process involved in verifying hardware compatibility. Of the participating vendors, not one offers a complete in-house-designed solution. Compaq comes the closest, with hardware such as Brocade Communications Systems SilkWorm switches that it resells and optimizes for its own needs. Other vendors, such as McData, produce their own switches but partner for providing storage. The SAN infrastructure market does have major players. In the fiber-switching market, Ancor Communications, Brocade, Gadzoox Networks, McData and Vixel Corp. are market leaders. In the Fibre Channel HBA (host bus adapter) market, Emulex Corp., JNI Corp. and QuickLogic Corp. are at the forefront.
We reviewed all the proposals for scalability, fault tolerance, performance, management, interoperability, support and price. In the end, Network Computing gave HP's proposal the bid. HP provided two separate solutions: One focused on price and performance; the other was both resilient and highly manageable, which was our primary consideration. The choice of solutions demonstrated HP's capabilities, product support and flexibility in this arena. The high-end solution turned out to be the Cadillac of SANs that would accommodate even the most stringent requirements.
The other vendors' solutions laid the foundation for MediaMasters' SAN initiative and should be given further consideration in a purchasing situation. With the most cost-effective solution, Compaq receives our Best Value award. You'll find summaries and evaluations of all five vendors' proposals on the pages that follow. In addition, you'll find diagrams of the proposed solutions online at www.networkcomputing.com/1108/1108f1.html.
Executive Summary -- Storage Area Networks
Organizations that move terabytes of data every day have storage needs that likely exceed what's available in the direct-attached storage arena. To meet these growing needs, vendors are offering SANs (storage area networks) that provide high-speed transmissions, great scalability and uncompromising availability.
To get a sense of available SAN solutions, we created an RFP for the fictitious company MediaMasters, a publisher of CD-ROMs, DVDs and interactive media. After considering and rejecting Gigabit Ethernet, MediaMasters chose the Fibre Channel infrastructure. Fibre Channel's ability to transfer large packets of data can prevent some of the bottlenecks that still exist when very large files are transferred over gigabit. Five vendors responded to our RFP: ADIC, Amdahl Co., Compaq Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and McData Corp. All but McData and Amdahl turned in complete SAN solutions for MediaMasters' storage requirements.
We analyzed the vendors' proposals to assess how each approaches scalability, fault-tolerance, performance, management, interoperability, support and price. In the end, Network Computing gave HP's high-end, fault-tolerant proposal the bid. On the other end of the spectrum, Compaq received our Best Value award for its extremely cost-effective solution.
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In Hewlett-Packard Co.'s Words: Solution Summary
Several alternatives are possible because of the wide range of solutions HP offers through the HP Equation Architecture. The solution that meets MediaMasters' various needs includes HP SureStore E Fibre Channel bridges, HP ProCurve and HP AdvanceStack switches, Brocade Fibre Channel switches, HP SureStore E disk arrays and tape libraries, and HP storage management and backup software. Fault-tolerance is provided by redundancy in key components: array controllers, power supplies, batteries, Fibre Channel links, gigabit links and fans, and so on. Ease of maintenance is accomplished with hot-swappable modules and power supplies.
With HP SureStore E enterprise storage solutions, up to 1 TB of data can be configured to meet MediaMasters' storage requirements today. This solution can scale to accommodate the company's expected tenfold growth by 2001. Key to its scalability is storage management. HP SureStore E SAN Manager DM (device management) and SureStore E SAN Manager LM (LUN management) bring these benefits to MediaMasters.
With the Disk Array FC60, you get the highest performance necessary in the data warehousing of the large 200-MB to 20-GB files required by MediaMasters. The HP SureStore E Disk Array XP256, however, is offered as the most manageable, scalable solution for Microsoft Windows NT consolidation and heterogeneous connectivity. The XP256 has ample power to handle all MediaMasters' mission-critical data and applications. The XP256 offers fully scalable, modular solutions that provide stress-free storage of up to 11 TB. With flexible configurations, high capacity, scalability and performance, it provides full software and solution integration, Fibre Channel-attached, heterogeneous server support, host failover and alternate path support. The XP256 comes with a comprehensive software suite that delivers unequaled value with functionality.
HP also offers an extensive array of service and support products to ensure the network will run at peak performance through its year-round 24x7 operation.
Finally, HP offers MediaMasters the first-ever written 100 percent satisfaction guarantee. It consists of a 90-day refund or replacement for any reason from the date of receipt and applies to all HP-branded enterprise-storage hardware. This is a storage-specific guarantee that complements HP's existing 99.5 percent high-availability systemwide uptime commitment for a complete enterprise-computing environment.
Hewlett Packard Co., (650) 857-1501. www.enterprisestorage.hp.com
Network Computing's Evaluation of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s Proposal
Hewlett-Packard's solution takes a holistic approach to SAN integration. Leveraging its experience in the enterprise-server storage market with the FC60 and XP256 RAID enclosures and 10/180 tape library, along with its cross-platform support and Ethernet expertise, HP created a solution that exceeds our expectations for a SAN implementation. With the most capable storage array, edging out Compaq's ESA 12000 in capacity and features, and tape library, HP has the foundation for a superior SAN. Built around 16-port Brocade switches, HP's overall fiber backbone is impressive, only mildly overshadowed by the pair of 32-port switches McData runs at its core. Paying particular attention to every detail in our SAN, HP proved to be well up to our tasks and gets the bid with its $2.2 million high-end SAN solution.
At the core of HP's SAN is a partially meshed backbone of seven Brocade SilkWorm 2800 16-port Fibre Channel switches. This backbone eliminates any single point of failure throughout the SAN. Delivering a full 100 MB per second (or 1 Gbps) on each port utilizing a nonblocking backplane, the SilkWorm switches should fulfill MediaMasters' need for a high-speed storage backbone. Additionally, the SilkWorms feature a self-healing fabric to isolate a problem port and reroute traffic onto an alternate path. Despite the solidity of the SilkWorms, we have a complaint. We would have liked at least one backbone switch with a port density higher than 16.
The heart of the storage system is the XP256 disk array, which has a stellar reputation in the high-end storage market. Of the SAN solutions we received, the XP256 was by far the most robust disk array. Scaling up to 9 TB, the XP256 gives MediaMasters room to grow. More impressive, however, are the XP256's performance and fault-tolerance features. Virtually all the array's critical components are mirrored. Although the disk array in our RFP was configured with only 4 GB of write cache, the XP256 can support up to 16 GB, which is divided into equal segments on two power boundaries. All write data are mirrored across both segments, and the cache is "destaged" to the disk. For connection-state redundancy and performance, the XP256 is configured with eight Fibre Channel ports. In our model, it has four concurrent connections to two separate switches and offers up to 400 MB per second, full-duplex, to each switch.
To complement the XP256 disk array, HP has also integrated a 20/700 tape library. With a capacity of up to 28 TB and support for as many as 20 DLT or 12 HP 9840 tape drives, this tape library is hard to beat in terms of features or scalability.
In the area of redundancy, we were satisfied with the pair of JNI HBAs in each file and application server crossed between two Brocade switches. HP is one of only two vendors (the other is ADIC) that would pull fiber to MediaMasters' Sun workstations. This gives MediaMasters the ability to stream and edit multimedia files over the wire without having to create local copies.
With HP's networking lineage, it's no surprise that the vendor recognizes the Ethernet deficiency in MediaMasters' LAN/MAN. As a result, it rolls a miniature gigabit solution into its SAN proposal. Given HP's previous success with gigabit networks (see "RFP: Gigabit Ethernet Networks," at www.networkcomputing.com/1009/1009f1. html), we appreciate the opportunity to retool our LAN at the same time. The catch is that it adds about $36,000 to the basic SAN solutions and a whopping $500,000 to the high-end solution.
The price of the HP solution described above is slightly more than $2.8 million with the Gigabit Ethernet option and $2.2 million without. It's expensive, but we think the resiliency, performance and scalability are worth the money. HP also included a much more price-competitive solution for $1.26 million with a gigabit LAN upgrade, or $1.23 million without. We were impressed by the range; however, the high-end approach meets MediaMasters' current storage requirements and provides the foundation for a SAN that can handle its growth and increasing need for availability.
PROS AND CONS
Hewlett-Packard Co.
Pros
- Uncompromising performance and resiliency
- Scalability
Con
- High price
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In Compaq Computer Corp.'s Words: Solution Summary
Compaq's solution is based on its unique ENSA (Enterprise Network Storage Architecture) SAN approach, which allows vast amounts of storage to be pooled across an enterprise for use by heterogeneous application servers.
At the heart of our solution is the Enterprise Storage Array (ESA) 12000 Fibre Channel, which offers 1 TB as required now, plus room for significant growth; no single point of failure; support for Unix as well as Windows NT devices; and shared storage for multiple, distributed application servers.
The basic configuration shows the ESA 12000 connected to a fabric of one 16-port and two eight-port switches. This fabric provides multiple high-bandwidth connections to meet the servers' performance needs. Included are all the cabling, adapters, drives and other hardware needed to implement the SAN. Compaq's TL895 Library provides up to 6.7 TB of Fibre Channel-connected DLT to meet immediate incremental backup requirements.
SWCC (StorageWorks Command Console) provides centralized management of both fabric and storage arrays. SWCC, working with SSP (Selective Storage Presentation) in the array, makes it possible for non-cooperation hosts to safely share the storage array. Additionally, volumes can be moved instantly to facilitate backup and recovery.
Technological excellence is a key determinant for MediaMasters' RFP. Compaq believes its unique ENSA is the basis for a next-generation solution that meets the need for technological sophistication. Yet ENSA also respects MediaMasters' business requirements with a flexible approach and logical growth path for the future.
Compaq Computer Corp., (800) 345-1518. www.compaq.com
Network Computing's Evaluation of Compaq Computer Corp.'s Proposal
Like HP, Compaq leverages its server, network and storage divisions to provide a well-designed, versatile SAN solution. Built around the ESA 12000, Compaq's solution provides a scalable, high-performance SAN. From a features standpoint, the ESA 12000 falls just short of the HP XP256's standards, with less capacity and less write-back cache. However, it offers many of the features of the XP256 for less than half the price. To address SAN backups, Compaq uses its TL895 DLT Library, which provides 3.35 TB of uncompressed storage. To round out the solution, Compaq integrates eight- and 16-port Fibre Channel switches throughout its design. Unlike the HP solution, which uses strictly 16-port switches, Compaq trims the overall price a bit by putting eight-port switches at the SAN's edge. Extremely functional and the most affordable proposal we received, Compaq's solution earns our Best Value award.
Compaq submitted two solutions, the first of which includes a simple three-switch SAN without redundancy. The second has redundant switch connections in a partially meshed configuration. Because MediaMasters demands high availability, we prefer the redundant switch solution.
The main component, Compaq's ESA 12000, stores up to 5.2 TB; however, with the dual controllers Compaq suggests in its proposal, the array would support only 1.3 TB. Like the XP256, the ESA supports a mirrored write-back cache, but it's limited to 512 MB per controller. The write-back cache lets servers commit their data writes to the cache and continue processing other events. The more servers hitting the disk array, the more cache is needed to buffer the writes. With up to 14 GB more cache than the ESA 12000, HP's XP256 should be able to handle the thrashing of a larger number of servers. Bandwidth is piped through a pair of dual-port Fibre Channel controllers for a combined throughput of 400 MB per second. Compaq designed the array to eliminate points of failure.
The TL895 DLT Library exceeds MediaMasters' current backup needs. Like the ESA 12000, the TL895 offers a great price-to-capacity ratio. Of all the vendors, Compaq provides the most comprehensive SAN management package. StorageWorks bundles seven applications, two of which run in the Fibre Channel RAID controller and process I/O requests from hosts. The Command Console monitors, configures and troubleshoots storage systems. The Enterprise Volume Manager lets the fiber controllers create triple or quadruple mirror sets as well as snapshots. The Data Replication Manager creates a mirrored data set to be used in a failover situation, and the Secure Path utility enables multiple HBAs to support failover in NT and Solaris environments. Like HP, Compaq has done an exemplary job of platform connectivity. Priced at $514,074, Compaq's SAN solution is a great value.
PROS AND CONS
Compaq Computer Corp.
Pros
- Highly integrated software and hardware
- Excellent value
Cons
- Doesn't include Sun workstations in the SAN
- High degree of integration equals questionable third-party support
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In ADIC's Words: Solution Summary
With ADIC's SAN solution, MediaMasters will save time, optimize file-transfer operations and add workflow collaboration by letting all its workstations access shared data on centralized disk arrays at local disk speeds. At the same time, the system offers fully redundant connectivity, centralized backup, and single-call service and support.
Because the system is based on ADIC's CentraVision SAN storage-management software, which supports true file sharing among heterogeneous hosts, MediaMasters' artists at different workstations will be able to work concurrently on the same files, providing vastly increased levels of workflow efficiency and flexibility. With shared files, the multiple steps of copying and moving files in the current workflow can be eliminated.
Performance is key for MediaMasters. Therefore, we have distributed the disk among the three locations, building affinity zones that provide extremely high bandwidth sharing for workstations that normally share projects.
Complete redundancy is built into the ADIC SAN, with A and B loops provided for all disk storage and for all application and NT servers in all three buildings. With this system, any workstation will have uninterrupted connectivity with any of the disks' resources through any possible single failure in the SAN. We have also consolidated the backup over the SAN, combining all backup into a single ADIC Scalar 1000 DLT tape library. The SAN's increased bandwidth will eliminate the backup window problems MediaMasters is facing, and the library will be able to retain several complete backup sets from different points in time. Since growth is expected, we offer a scalable library. It has room for more than 12 TB of data storage today but can be expanded easily to manage more than 60 TB.
ADIC (Advanced Digital Information Corp.), (800) 336-1233, (425) 881-8004. www.adic.com
Network Computing's Evaluation of ADIC's Proposal
We were impressed by the precision with which ADIC could fulfill all MediaMasters' requirements. ADIC's CentraVision file system makes its solution a strong contender. Unlike all the other solutions, which recommend heterogeneous platform support, ADIC's proposal divides the storage pool into separate segments with individual file systems. These pools cannot directly share data collaboratively. However, CentraVision replaces the file systems with its unique file system, which makes true heterogeneous file sharing a possibility. The catch to the CentraVision file system is that it relies on the Ethernet LAN to stay up. If for any reason your network goes down, back-end data access is lost.
Another interesting architectural choice is ADIC's decision to break up the storage arrays between the buildings. Only ADIC mentions the switch-to-switch limitations of the partially meshed backbone. By breaking up the disk arrays, depending on where the data is stored, the server would require only a single switch hop instead of two switch hops. Also, being on a single switch eliminates the problem of interswitch bottlenecks. This performance comes at a price, however. To maintain fault-tolerance, an increased number of redundant switch interconnects is required, adding to the solution's cost.
Like HP, ADIC pulls fiber all the way to the Sun workstations. With the distributed disk arrays, performance gains may also be seen on the workstations.
Given ADIC's backup expertise, anything less than a superior tape library would have been a disappointment. Based on its specs, ADIC comes through with an impressive Scalar 1000 DLT library. With six DLT drives and a native capacity of 6.3 TB, the Scalar library would provide more than ample tape performance and capacity.
ADIC uses eight- and 16-port Ancor SANbox switches and Emulex LightPulse HBAs throughout its SAN. Other than the tape library, ADIC doesn't make or even resell any of the SAN hardware. Therefore, ADIC can provide a solution that closely meets customers' needs. However, because the company doesn't make the products, support may be more difficult.
The ADIC solution is priced at just more than $922,127, which is midrange, and offers higher-than-average performance and resiliency design.
PROS AND CONS
ADIC
Pros
- Excellent performance and file-sharing abilities
- Fiber all the way to Sun workstations
Con
- SAN depends on LAN to function
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In Amdahl Corp.'s Words: Solution Summary
ASAN for MediaMasters will be designed using the LVS 4800, Brocade Fabric switches and other components necessary for the new storage infrastructure.
The LVS 4800 storage system is a key component of our SAN proposal. LVS 4800 supports enterprisewide business solutions for complex open system environments. With the LVS 4800 Storage System, MediaMasters will have more choice, versatility and cost-savings-all backed by Amdahl's world-class customer support and consulting services.
Our storage system and SAN infrastructure includes local or remote centralized storage management, proposed fiber optic infrastructure development for your SAN, factory-preconfigured data center cabinets, upgradable capacity (up to 3 TB per LVS 4800 unit), fault-tolerant and resilient SAN architecture, and a backup solution with Legato Software for SAN infrastructure to off-load existing network traffic.
The benefits of Amdahl's SAN solution include a modular architecture that lets you increase capacity and create custom configurations to meet virtually any publishing application demand; end-to-end, continuous data availability to allow nonstop access to your publishing applications; Fibre Channel architecture capable of up to 200-MB-per-second transfer speed to the host(s) per Availability Manager Module; global hot-spares capability that provides automatic rebuild in the event of a disk failure; and cache memory that is configurable between read and write caches for optimum performance. Cache algorithms complement our selected RAID level and application. The cache "learns" to prefetch larger and larger blocks of data when required to support "database engine" configurations and improve sequential processing. In addition, our world-class service and support organization provides 24x7 local and remote support, with more than 180,000 service support consultants within the worldwide Amdahl/Fujitsu/Siemens family.
Amdahl Corp., (800) 223-2215, (408) 746-6000; fax (408) 746-3243. www.amdahl.com
Network Computing's Evaluation of Amdahl Corp.'s Proposal
Like HP and Compaq, Amdahl suggests a partially meshed Fibre Channel backbone that consists of Brocade SilkWorm switches. Additionally, like ADIC, Amdahl has chosen to distribute storage pools throughout the three buildings using its LVS 4800 storage systems. Amdahl expertly details the specifics of the RFP, including the redundant nine-micron fiber runs between each of the buildings and the single-mode long-wave GBICs. But Amdahl falls short on backup. In its SAN solution, the vendor neglects to include any type of fiber-attached tape library.
Although Amdahl could have consolidated the storage into a single LVS 4800 disk array, we agree with its decision to install a disk array in each of the buildings. The two additional arrays add $80,000 to the overall price but give MediaMasters extra storage headroom and the ability to scale to a maximum of 15 TB of storage. The LVS 4800 is comparable with Compaq's ESA 12000 in both price and features. This array incorporates 512 MB of mirrored read/write cache and also provides six independent data paths to the disk drives. For even more redundancy, the LVS 4800 supports automatic path failover internally, at the I/O subsystem level. In our configuration, Amdahl pulls two runs of fiber from each of the LVS 4800's storage arrays; in comparison, HP pulls eight fiber runs to the XP256. With a limited 200-MB-per-second pipe coming out of the LVS 4800s, intensive I/O could create some bottlenecks.
Amdahl has traditionally dealt in the high-end equipment market space, so we weren't surprised by the impressive support offered for both the LVS 4800 and the Brocade switches. In its proposal, the vendor included a computer directly attached to the LVS disk arrays that monitor their health and-with the customer's authorization-will automatically call Amdahl's Worldwide Customer Support Center and transfer log files. Amdahl offers both basic and premium service-level agreements. Amdahl lacks a comprehensive SAN management package that gives administrators central control. With Amdahl's undeniable ability to support an enterprise-class hardware platform, we would like the convenience of a supported management solution.
The cost of Amdahl's SAN solution is $881,375 without service-level agreements.
PROS AND CONS
Amdahl
Pro
- Distributed LVS storage array brings additional scalability
Cons
- Lack of fiber-attached tape library
- Lack of SAN-management software
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In McData Corp.'s Words: Solution Summary
MediaMasters will employ a SAN based on the highly available McData ED-5000 Enterprise Fibre Channel Director that ensures easily expanded, 24x7, full-bandwidth operations for the company's rapidly growing business.
The first phase of implementation entails the migration of all JBOD storage to consolidated storage in one data center. The McData solution has been extensively tested and files have been installed with enterprise storage from all the major storage manufacturer.
In phase two, all JBOD storage can be retained as temporary storage attached to the existing servers or |
