As long as the topic is on everyone's radar (and I realize this is a bit off the 'all flash' subject line)...
We've been a NetApp customer for around 15 years now. Tried a Lefthand appliance just after they were acquired by HP, didn't really offer enough advantage to switch. We're now considering Exablox as a replacement for the NetApp (still spinning disk, not flash - but still, TB are TB). Native CIFS support, rather than requiring a Windows server to frontend the box, is one of the attractions (we're a pure Windows environment). We're looking to move from the single-datacenter deployment we currently use with the NetApp to replicated storage at 2 of our own locations. We're also in the process of trying to figure out how to implement the WAN connections that would support such a deployment. Anyone have any experience with Exablox they'd care to share? Thanks. Frank -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Maglinger, Paul Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2016 4:16 PM To: '[email protected]' Subject: RE: [NTSysADM] ALL Flash Storage The VM would still have to be serving up file services. We have a mixed environment of Windows/Unix that, among other things, need to read/write/move/rename butt loads of common files. Back when we used a lot of NFS it really got interesting from a permissions standpoint. Now that we have more or less standardized on CIFS it took a lot of complexity out of the equation. Paul -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Kurt Buff Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2016 3:41 PM To: ntsysadm Subject: Re: [NTSysADM] ALL Flash Storage I've not trusted CIFS on a SAN/NAS since Dell NASes left a really bad taste in my mouth back in early 2001. I'm sure they're better now, but my thought has always been to use a Windows VM as a front end, and not worry about it. What's your reason for using a CIFS provider vs. a VM with iSCSI/FC/FCoE on the backend? Kurt On Wed, Dec 7, 2016 at 1:08 PM, Maglinger, Paul <[email protected]> wrote: > One of our requirements is that it has to be able to support CIFS under heavy > load. We had a HP EVA a while back that used Windows 2003 Storage Server to > provide the CIFS shares. With our workload the CIFS would simply stop > responding and we'd have to reboot the server. Same with 2008. HP couldn't > resolve the issue so our solution was to break up the jobs into smaller > pieces. So whatever solution we come up with has to have a rock solid CIFS > server. BTW - NetApps handled the loads just fine. We'd stay with them if > they didn't triple the cost. > > Paul > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Kevin Kays > Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2016 2:44 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [NTSysADM] ALL Flash Storage > > We recently moved to Nimble, and our expectations were surpassed. The Nimble > sales team did a good job helping us to properly size the Array, and > suggested that we did not need all flash saving some money. > > I would be a bit hesitant to bite on the SmartStack concept; we have found > that in practice it does not live up to expectations. I understood it to be a > single support point, when in reality we still get bounced around. The > support for the Array its self has met our needs, no complaints. > > Kevin Kays > > On Wed, Dec 7, 2016 at 12:23 PM, Kurt Buff <[email protected]> wrote: >> Nutanix seems pretty outrageously priced for what you get. Ditto EMC. >> But, for larger organizations they might make sense - they just don't >> for us, as a smaller organization with only about 200 staff in our HQ. >> >> Pure is interesting, and we may ask them to participate in our >> process, but we don't have an opinion on them yet. >> >> Nimble is the favored candidate because of our IT Director's previous >> experience with them - I don't have any myself. >> >> Kurt >> >> On Wed, Dec 7, 2016 at 12:11 PM, Maglinger, Paul <[email protected]> wrote: >>> I'm watching this conversation closely. We're looking to replace our >>> NetApp because our renewal maintenance costs basically tripled. We of >>> course had the option to upgrade our heads for around the same cost, but >>> were surprised to find out that we would have to repurchase all of our >>> software if we did so. >>> So Nutanix, Pure, and EMC have been banging on our door and one vendor is >>> suggesting Nimble. >>> >>> >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: [email protected] >>> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Kurt Buff >>> Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2016 12:54 PM >>> To: ntsysadm >>> Subject: Re: [NTSysADM] ALL Flash Storage >>> >>> We also have a VNX 5400 (and a VNXe 3100), and we're going to dump it for >>> Nimble in the middle of the year, once our support runs out. >>> >>> The cost of renewing support will cover a new Nimble, basically, and we >>> expect much improved performance. >>> >>> Kurt >>> >>> On Wed, Dec 7, 2016 at 6:24 AM, David McSpadden <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> What is eveyone’s thoughts on All Flash Storage? >>>> >>>> I am looking to replace the Storage I have attached to my VNX5400 >>>> from EMC with either: >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> EMC Unity >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> PureStorage >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Nimble >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> I haven’t gotten all the proposals in yet but was wondering what >>>> everyone else thought about them? >>>> >>>> This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are property of >>>> Indiana Members Credit Union, are confidential, and are intended >>>> solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom this e-mail is >>>> addressed. >>>> If you are not one of the named recipient(s) or otherwise have >>>> reason to believe that you have received this message in error, >>>> please notify the sender and delete this message immediately from >>>> your computer. 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