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When it comes to storage, the EqualLogic PS-series amazes me every time.

Last Tuesday I was at a client site investigating performance issues but when I opened SANHQ and the web interface on the PS 6000E one thing stood out. The performance issues were not caused by the storage device. The PS 6000E is hosting 12 virtualized Citrix XenApp servers en 8 supporting VMs and during heavy load the average latency is 1,2ms with a read/write ratio of 28%/72% and a max of 1100 IOPS.

But yesterday we had to swap SANs, a PS 5000XV for a PS 6000E and the ease with which this can be done amazes me every time. The hardest part was the process of endless firmware updates on the PS 5000XV to get it to a respectable level to get it to join the PS 6000 in the same storage group.

We had to upgrade from firmware version 3.3.0 to 4.3.4 but this is no simple task because you cannot directly apply 4.3.4. First we had to upgrade to 4.0.7, then to 4.1.7, to 4.3.4. Every time uploading the firmware using FTP, updating both controllers, restarting. This took us almost 2 hours to complete.

When this was done, all that was left was to join the PS 6000 in the existing storage group and evict the PS 5000 and this is the process that amazes me every time.

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Since last week I’ve got a new assignment which is a long way from home. Next to the downsides of traveling 5 hours a day and staying in hotels, it certainly has advantages.

During my 5 hour drive or when I’m staying in a hotel i have time to listen to the VMware Community Roundtable podcasts I put on my iPhone. For those of you who don’t know this. VMware Community Roundtable is a weekly conference call/chat for VMware enthusiasts. Every week there’s a different topic and this is your change to discuss these topics with the experts in the community. For those of you who don’t have time to attend, there’s the possibility to listen online or download the sessions as podcasts.

Last week I listened to a great topic which was called the ‘#66 – iSCSI Super Friends with EMC, NetApp, Dell, HP, VMware‘. This podcast was from September 30 so it was quite an old podcast but this was such a great session that I don’t want to keep it from you. This session discusses the multi vendor blog post by VMware (Andy Banta), EMC (Chad Sakac), NetApp (Vaughn Stewart), Dell/EqualLogic( Eric Schott), HP/Lefthand Networks (Adam Carter) on how to implement iSCSI with VMware VI3.5 and vSphere 4.

So for those of you who already heard it, sorry for the ‘old’ intel, for those of you who haven’t, this is a must read/hear.

The mult vendor blog post discusses can be found here:

• Using iSCSI with VMware VI 3.x
• Using iSCSI with VMware vSphere 4
  

I really liked the conclusion that you can build iSCSI storage solutions which are as fast as fiber storage solutions and that tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 storage definitions should not be based on the technique used but on the service level agreement with your end user.

Personally I wonder what the future will bring. Will fiber channel disappear in favor of iSCSI? As discussed during this podcast, ethernet is ideal for storage connections, the questions is which protocol to use, NFS, iSCSI or FCoE. We will see ……

Last week Iomega  announced a new NAS appliance called the Iomega StorCenter ix4-200d. It is based on  EMC storage technologies and contains four SATA-300 drivebays. With a storage capacity of 2, 4 and 8 TB it is the ideal NAS appliance for small businesses, distributed offices and home office networks that require advanced data storage and protection features without the need for a dedicated IT staff.

By default the Iomega StorCenter ix4-200d is configured as a RAID 5 array but RAID 10 or JBOD is also possible. Free disk space can be monitored on the front LCD display.

The Iomega StorCenter ix4-200d is equipped with two gigabit ethernet ports which support link aggregation, network failover and subnetting. It also supports various protocols like iSCSI, NFS, DLNA, uPnP, Bonjour, SNMP, FTP, HTTP and Samba so it can be used with Mac-, Windows- or Linux hosts.

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A few weeks ago I attended the ‘What’s new in VMware vSphere 4‘ course given by Eric Sloof. Eric pointed us to a very nice and cheap shared storage solution from Iomega which he also uses in his home lab, the Iomega Storcenter ix-series.

I have been scouting the local hardware vendors for the Iomega ix2 but I could decide to go for the cheaper 1TB or the more expensive 2TB version. Today I was browsing through the VMware HCL when I remember the dilemma and was wondering if VMware even knew/supported the little Iomega storage box. And what do you know ………… the Iomega ix-series is on the VMware HCL!

The Iomega StorCenter ix2 and the ix4-100 are supported for all versions of VMware ESX 3.5 and the larger rack mountable ix4-200r is even supported on ESX 4.0 as NAS or iSCSI.

So I will be heading for the shops to get my own home shared storage solution.

The Iomega StorCenter ix is available in the following configurations:

Today Dell EqualLogic introduced their new PS6000 series iSCSI SANs. The new models in this serie are the PS6000E, PS6000X, PS6000XV, PS6000S and the PS6500E.

One of the most interesting models is the PS6000S. This PS6000S is an enterprise-class iSCSI SAN with SSD technology and is offering an affordable and easy means to bring the low latency performance benefits of SSD technology. The PS6000S provides higher IOPS and as little as 1/3rd the latency of 15k rpm disk arrays, ideal for challenging applications, such as virtual desktop implementations such as VMware View with linked clone technology. The Solid State Drives (SSD) provide low-latency and high-IOPS.

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One of the feeds in my RSS reader is the VMware feed. One of the posts that caught my attention was the ‘High Throughput iSCSI with VMware’

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Dell is working very actively to train their partners in Dell EqualLogic SANs. The training consists of a large portion of the operator training, a bit of (pre-)sales training and also a large portion was what you could call a Q&A session.

I spent the last two days in Eindhoven at Core Education together with Froos to be one of the first in our company to follow this training.

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