No, I don't think you really want that capability. From what I see of your environment described in your scenario, I don't see a compelling need to have both servers accessing file shares at the same time. If you have a server go down, you'd still have to adjust the logon script and point people to the other server somehow. When I had OpenFiler, I was moving our file server to a dedicated server away from our SBS server. When I did that, I just had a batch file that recreated the shares on the new server. So the process was to run a batch unshare all the directories on SBS, disconnect the target on the SBS, update the logon script (find/replace), add the target on the File Server, run the batch to share the directories. Done. Maybe 5 minutes.
If your environment can't handle five minutes of downtime, then I would argue that your environment needs some heavy duty storage, such as EMC, and you should evaluate (as John Cook wrote while I was writing this) VMware and VMotion. On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 2:19 PM, John Aldrich <[email protected]>wrote: > Yeah… I want to be able to access the files from whichever server I > happen to be on at the time, so that if our “primary” DC goes belly up, I > can just switch everyone over to the secondary while I rebuild the primary. > J Hopefully that’ll never happen, but for that reason, I want to be able > to talk to the storage appliance from either server at the same time, not to > mention, when we bring email in-house, I want to be able to talk to the > storage appliance from it at the same time as our two DCs. J > > > > [image: John-Aldrich][image: Tile-Tools] > > > > *From:* Jonathan Link [mailto:[email protected]] > *Sent:* Friday, October 09, 2009 2:06 PM > *To:* NT System Admin Issues > *Subject:* Re: NAS/SAN > > > > I have no way of knowing the LSI might be the OEM for any of these > products, most SAN vendors put a significant amount of IP into all of their > units. Most sans won't allow you to take just any old drive and install > it. There's custom firmware involved, ya know. > > > > If you want to go really cheap, buy a server with a lot of disk capability > and multiple NICs, configure the RAID card for whatever RAID level you want > and then install OpenFiler on top of it. In your environment, if you aren't > virtualizing, OpenFiler's price is right, support is available and it works > well. However, it does not like multiple initiators accessing one target. > I used OpenFiler for 8 months and thought it was good for what it did, but I > wanted more and I wanted more comfort with the equipment/support. > > On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 1:47 PM, John Aldrich <[email protected]> > wrote: > > So, would you guys say it’s the old saying of “You get what you pay for” or > can you find a smaller company (say LSI, who is the OEM for a lot of these) > that would be just as good at a fraction of the price? > > > > [image: John-Aldrich][image: Tile-Tools] > > > > *From:* John Cook [mailto:[email protected]] > *Sent:* Friday, October 09, 2009 1:37 PM > > > *To:* NT System Admin Issues > > *Subject:* Re: NAS/SAN > > > > +1 on the EMC, stellar reliability although there was a steep learning > curve on the fiber management side. ISCI is definitly easier IMHO. > John W. Cook > Systems Administrator > Partnership For Strong Families > Sent to you from my Blackberry in the Cloud > ------------------------------ > > *From*: Mayo, Bill > *To*: NT System Admin Issues > *Sent*: Fri Oct 09 13:30:58 2009 > *Subject*: RE: NAS/SAN > > +1 > > > > My semi-sarcastic thought when I read the quote below (ask what they think > about StoneFly) was that the answer would be, "Who?" EMC, in particular, > are in the big leagues. I've never heard any other vendor say that their > hardware wasn't up to snuff. The knocks are generally "too expensive" and > "too complicated". As someone has mentioned before (in regards to the > rebranded Dell versions), EMC will negotiate on price. As for the "too > complicated", if you can't figure out how to use it, you probably don't need > to be administering the SAN anyway. > > > > My personal opinion is that when you are putting all your storage eggs in > one basket, you want to be sure that the hardware is reliable and that the > support is top notch. In my experience, that is definitely the case with > EMC. > > > ------------------------------ > > *From:* Martin Blackstone [mailto:[email protected]] > *Sent:* Friday, October 09, 2009 12:39 PM > *To:* NT System Admin Issues > *Subject:* RE: NAS/SAN > > Ive never even heard of them. > > > > *From:* Rene de Haas [mailto:[email protected]] > *Sent:* Friday, October 09, 2009 9:07 AM > *To:* NT System Admin Issues > *Subject:* Re: NAS/SAN > > > > Maybe ask the other guys (Lefthand, Dell, ...) what they think about > StoneFly. > > On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 6:01 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > They all like to point out the deficiencies of their competitors. Just tell > him to focus on his products values and get a demo or at least a > walk-through. > > Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry > ------------------------------ > > *From: *"John Aldrich" <[email protected]> > > *Date: *Fri, 9 Oct 2009 11:56:01 -0400 > > *To: *NT System Admin Issues<[email protected]> > > *Subject: *RE: NAS/SAN > > > > Thanks. That sort of talk made me suspicious that he was blowing smoke, but > it seems like a good product, nonetheless, and if it comes in cheaper than > thbig boy I may go with that, especially since ASB recommendsem. J > > > > [image: John-Aldrich][image: Tile-Tools] > > > > *From:* Sean Martin [mailto:[email protected]] > *Sent:* Friday, October 09, 2009 11:52 AM > *To:* NT System Admin Issues > *Subject:* Re: NAS/SAN > > > > That sounds like nonsense to me. > > > > Have you looked into Dell/EMCs CX4-120? Its the entry level CX unit that > provides both fiber channel and iscsi connectivity via "UltraFlex I/O > Modules". It supports 4GB/s and 8GB/s Fiber Channel and 1 GB/s and 10GB/s > iSCSI. > > > > -Sean > > On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 7:39 AM, John Aldrich <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Ok, I just got off the phone with a StoneFly sales engineerHe had some > interesting things to say about EMC/Dell/Equallogic/NetApp and LSI. I need > some fact-checking from people who know more than I about this sort of thin > he said that those are dum ISCSI devices that ct handle a lot of > connections at once and that I ought to buy their product because that > hardware can handle a lot more connections and a lot higher throughput than > the competition. > > > > Was he just blowing smoke up my rear or is that stuff true? > > > > Thanks! > > [image: John-Aldrich][image: Tile-Tools] > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > CONFIDENTIALITY STATEMENT: The information transmitted, or contained or > attached to or with this Notice is intended only for the person or entity to > which it is addressed and may contain Protected Health Information (PHI), > confidential and/or privileged material. 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