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To: Fang Li who wrote (14680)	2/24/1998 4:46:00 PM
From: Fang Li	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29386

February 23, 1998, Issue: 703 Section: Reviews Compaq Puts Fibre inYour Diet Wayne Rash Jr. Compaq's new Fibre Channel Storage System delivers many of the features promised for this new means of connecting mass storage to servers in the computer center. This easy, flexible communications method between servers and disk arrays is finally a reality. Likewise, with Fibre Channel, the disks can be a long way from the servers they support, allowing great freedom in physical configurations. The Compaq Fibre Channel system consists of a new version of the company's existing SCSI array controller, but instead of using SCSI cabling, it employs a Fibre Channel transceiver. The resulting Fibre Channel controller communicates with its disk arrays using 50-nanometer multimode fiber optic cabling with ST connectors. Compaq uses an arbitrated loop architecture with a central Fibre Channel hub to create the physical connection to the disk arrays. In use, this resembles a network hub to which drop cables are attached. A separate fiber optic cable goes to each drive array chassis, which contains an array controller, as well as the disk drives. Once the fiber optic cable reaches the disk array, the process returns to being Ultra SCSI. In fact, the disk drives that plug into the drive array container are the same hot-swap Ultra SCSI drives used in other Compaq arrays. This allows users with existing Compaq arrays to upgrade to Fibre Channel without losing their investment in disk drives. This strategy is becoming popular as an early implementor of Fibre Channel hardware for companies other than Compaq. Because native Fibre Channel hard drives are still a rarity, building a full Fibre Channel RAID array is too expensive to be cost effective. Not to mention that most installations wouldn't be able to take full advantage of Fibre's bandwidth today anyway. Raidtec Corp., for example, an independent Fibre Channel RAID array manufacturer, has a new line of FibreRAID controllers and FibreArray subsystems that are all based on an arbitrated loop SCSI and Fibre Channel design. While Fibre Channel may promise some additional performance throughput, our tests showed that its combination with SCSI was already worth the effort and still allowed users to take advantage of the rest of Fibre's benefits, such as distance. Compaq claims that the drive arrays can be as far as 500 meters from the server with the 50-nanometer multimode fiber. With single-mode fiber, the distance can be as far as 10 kilometers. Compaq's loop design allows the drive arrays on the Fibre Channel network to support multiple servers. Depending on the server operating system, this could be clusters of two machines (using Wolfpack for Windows NT) or more. Setting up the Fibre Channel Storage System is surprisingly easy. Connecting the arrays and the server to the hub is more like attaching network cabling than the sometimes arduous task of running SCSI data cables. Once the cables are attached, Compaq's SmartStart configuration system installs your operating system of choice on the server machine controlling the array. Because the latest version of SmartStart knows about the new Fibre Channel disk controller, the install process is nearly automatic. Once the cables are attached to the arrays and the operating system is installed, all that's required is to configure the arrays. Formatting will be performed by the array controllers as a background operation, so you don't have to wait for the hours-long format process you might expect. Compaq's Insight Manager also is set up to handle the Fibre Channel storage system, so you can do most of the work of operating the server remotely. The array containers used with the Fibre Channel Storage System allow the use of either third-height or half-height hard disks. This means that you can install as many as 12 drives in one container. The result can be truly prodigious amounts of storage. The system tested in this review contained about 130 gigabytes of disk space through a combination of some 20 drives with capacities ranging from four to nine gigabytes each. Compaq states that by using the maximum configuration, users can install up to 72 disks in a six-array Fibre Channel configuration. Right now, that many disks would equal out to a total of more than 870 gigabytes of storage. With advances in both controllers and disk capacities, Compaq expects to hit the terabyte level fairly quickly. Though the gigabit speeds of Fibre Channel would appear to offer dramatic access speeds to users, in fact, the speeds available to any one user aren't much different from what users experienced with Compaq SCSI arrays. The reason is that although the channel as a whole can support speeds of up to 100 Mbps-2-1/2 times what SCSI can deliver-the individual drives are still SCSI devices. On the other hand, when several users attempt to hit the server at the same time, the extra bandwidth of Fibre Channel is obvious. We ran Windows Magazine's WinTune 97 on the Compaq ProLiant 6000 test server that was provided as a part of the test suite. The resulting throughput numbers (see chart above) showed that the Fibre-based SCSI disk subsystem performed as expected. It was fast, but not startlingly so when run from a single session. Additional tests that stressed the disks from several points at once demonstrated that the extra bandwidth shows up most with multiple sessions. Although the Fibre Channel Storage System was fairly pricey even by corporate standards, it wasn't unreasonably expensive considering the long-term benefits such a solution promises to data warehousing and data mining efforts. The tested price of approximately $25,000 includes the fiber controller, the array controllers, the Fibre Channel hub and all of the fiber drop cables required to attach everything, but it does not include the disk drives themselves. The entire setup we tested-including the 20 drives and the ProLiant 6000, along with a mounting rack and monitor-would cost slightly more than $100,000. We were required to add an uninterruptible power supply (we used an American Power Conversion Corp. rack-mount model) and a connection to the test network. The ease of use produced by Compaq's array management software-as well as the inherent, and rather surprising, ease of setting up the Fibre Channel mass storage system-help make this solution very attractive to businesses. Although network administrators will still need to know how to install their favorite operating system, most of the rest of the task is simplicity itself. Considering the flexibility that Fibre Channel provides, the resulting product should be seriously considered for large server installations. This is a well designed, substantial solution. SUMMARY Fibre Channel Storage Compaq 20555 State Hwy. 249 Houston, Texas 77070 800-345-1518 www.compaq.com List price: $25,000 as tested Copyright (c) 1998 CMP Media Inc. New Search \| Search the Web You can reach this article directly here: techweb.com