First, I have to admit that I am die hard cheap about some things, and I have no beef spending in other areas. Second, I don’t recommend this solution for everyone, but it has worked well and served us so far. Third, in NO way NO how blame me for anything you read here! I am just sharing my experiences on MY network!
We have been using a “bargain” SAN for the last several years and I think it’s time to share what our systems is and how it works. First and foremost, we are using Open-E as the software platform to deliver our ISCSI SAN. This software component (linux based) is loaded onto hardware and VIOLA you have a SAN. For our hardware we have Supermicro Server Chassis with 3WARE Raid Cards. In the beginning we ran a separate network and connected each of our VMWARE hosts to that storage network. Most recently we changed our network over to 10GBE for VMWARE hosts and each of our SAN’s.
This has allowed us a much more simple approach to connectivity, and afforded us the opportunity to single connect each device with unlimited scalability. We were able to build our 60+ TB SAN for less than $20K. This cost savings on storage enabled us to build some other really fun items, but I don’t want to color the world too pretty, there are some things that need to be done if you are going to use less expensive storage!
Things to Think About With DIY Storage
Questions to ask yourself?
1. How good is my backup strategy? - Actually everyone should ask this question, but if you are going to go Cowboy and use less expensive storage, make sure your backup strategy is rock solid. We use a combination of replication / disk to disk to tape backup to ensure our storage is safe.
2. What raid level am I running? - Make sure that you don’t go too cheap! I know the numbers sound good on RAID 5 with no hot spare, but be smart! We use RAID 6 on both our SANS and have adequate hot spares on each to make sure we can survive any drive failures.
3. Don’t think Cheap! Think DIY! - All of our hardware is highly redundant. I can’t truthfully say fully because, there is only 1 motherboard, and 1 RAID card right now. Good news! The machine we chose is serious server hardware, has super redundant power and so far has been rock solid. The RAID card selected (3Ware) is also very redundant. The actual card can be replaced without loss of configuration or functionality of the SAN (I have actually personally tested this!). The card stores all RAID data both on every drive in the array and the NVRAM of the card, so you can completely change the card and still be rockin!
4. The Network is a must! - Don’t cheap on your network! Nothing can kill a SAN project (DIY or Super $$$) faster than an unreliable network.
5. Always pay for Support! - We gladly pay the super low price to Open-E every year to make sure we get software updates and have access to their engineers in the event that anything goes wrong! The only problem we have ever had was caused by a failed attempt to hook up an Apple server via ISCSI. It **might** work now, but I’m not holding my breath!
With budgets getting tighter and the constant need for more storage in our environments, this is one more way to meet the needs your ministry will likely place on you in the years to come!