Choosing iSCSI SAN storage?

[Kalsaa]

Hello,

We're building relatively small virtual environment for 10-15 virtual servers on 2 hosts using ESXi. Servers will be mainstream Dell, HP or IBM devices. For this we need a storage solution starting from minimum 4Tb and should easily scale up to about 10-12Tb if nessesary.

At the moment we're considering HP P2000G3, Dell Equallogic PS4100 Series but we would like to view other options aswell so all hints will be appreciated. Also comments about the two products mentioned will be appreciated.

Thank You!

[firestartah]

Hi

Well to set it out in the open i do work for EMC but for the Consulting arm so i dont sell tin but from what ive been hearing about the equalogics from friends and fellow VMware admins i'd stay away from them. Have a look at the VNX series by EMC,Netapp have some really great lower level iSCSI systems also. You've missed out pretty much the two best storage vendors products in your lists. Also if it's small maybe go for a NAS with iSCSI capabilities?

Just my 2 cents worth

Gregg

[Kalsaa]

Thanks!

I forgot to mention that EMC is within considerations also. Netapp I am not familiar with. Will take a look.

[NuRD]

Care to elaborate on the Equallogic issues you heard about?

[mcowger]

While I work for EMC as well (in a role where I am involved in selling tin), I'd def put the following on my list for an operation your size.

Dell Equallogic

HP MSA

EMC VNX

EMC VNXe

NetApp 2xxx series

Note that the EMC and NetApp kit both can do iSCSI *and* NAS, so that would give you some extra flexability.

[Kalsaa]

Thanks!

[KiwiSi]

Hi,

Disclaimer:  Another EMC guy.

If you have a limited budget for your vSphere environment you may also want to take a look at the Iomega IX12-300r.  Depending on the storage IO requirements of the 10-15 VMs you'll be running, this SMB storage solution may be worth taking a look at.  It will scale up to 24TB (12x2TB SATA II) and has 4 x 1Gb Ethernet ports for the iSCSI connectivity you require.

However it is important to note that it does use SATA-II disks so obvisouly you're not going to get the same level of disk performance as one of the other storage appliances mentioned who will generally be using SAS based disks, but it does come with a smaller price tag.

http://go.iomega.com/en/products/network-attached-storage-nas/ix12-300r/ix12-300r/#overviewItem_tab

If you think your VMs will potentially be IO intensive then definitely look at one of the other storage offerings mentioned by the others in this thread where you can leverage SAS based disk speeds.

Good luck and let us know what you end up going with.

Cheers,

Simon