Hello to everyone,
we are evaluating possible iSCSI-Configurations at the moment and I am kinda stuck.
We have two DS8000 currently serving about 2TB VMware-related disk-space via FCP in an active/passive setup.
What we are trying to achieve is to set up an iSCSI-Cluster with FCP-attached disks ( no local disks right now ), like we did with two GF920c about a year ago.
Since we don't own these machines anymore, we are looking for other possible configurations.
What we are looking for, is a solution including two heads with the possibility to attach local and DS8000-disks.
I found nothing about support for esx with vSeries, and nothing about attaching san-space to FAS3000.
Maybe anyone can help?
The v-series are not supported.
The FAS3000 are supported both iscsi and fc.
Check this:
All NetApp's are essentially the same. Only the underlying hardware is different, the OS is what makes them special. You can scale from a FAS270 to a FAS6000 by just swapping the head units, the disks and volumes would stay the same.
The V series systems are just the corresponding FAS box with no NetApp supplied disks and an extra license.
You could just as easily buy a FAS3000 (with FC or SATA disk shelves) and add the v-series license to it, then plug in your DS8000 shelves (assuming the DS8000 is supported by NetApp). That would be supported by VMware as I see it.
Thanks for the fast replies.
If I did not misunterstood your post, then I can buy a FAS3000 without any direct-attached disks, add the vseries-license to it and attach LUNs from our DS's?
That would be great!
I don't think that it will be supportet by vmware.
See the N5000 (oem) systems from IBM - only supported with internal storage.
Thats the point I am not sure of.
Maybe Netapp is not selling the vseries-license to ibm.
Maybe there are minor differences between the FAS3000 and the nseries.
As long as vmware does include such a config, I am happy
The N-Series from ibm is the oem of v-series.
You can of course contact NetApp and ask them - but when the system is not on HCL it isn't supported.
I thought, the N-Series is an oem of the FAS3000-series.
And FAS3000 is completely supported, according to vmware hcl.
I'll give it a try and contact both vmware-support and netapp.
Check e.g. this:
\- there is connection to ds4800 - works only with V-series (or with N).
Thank god, we have two DS8300....
I think, I will give netapp a call, to ensure, that the FAS-Series can work as a virtualization-layer, as the vseries can.
Maybe the SVC from IBM is a better choice for you - it can virtualize al the ds series.
Just a thought.
We thought about using SVCs, but we wanna build up a raid1 or raid5 based upon LUNs from two DS8000 and the SVCs can only build RAID0.
We have two FAS3020C, two FAS270s and an R200, which are fully supported by VMWare.
But he wanted a V-Series with virutalization layer for other systems, e.g. DS series from IBM.
What do VMware actually mean when they say it is only supported with internal storage?