Jonathan, thank you for your *serious* reply. I see your point. I will try to sit down with various engineers, even if it's only over the phone, to talk with them and find out what their products are all about and why they would be better than some other competitor. :-)
-----Original Message----- From: Raper, Jonathan - Eagle [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 11:00 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: SAN question John - I do not believe that we can help you significantly with this question. In the end, it really doesn't matter what any of us think, because our environments are all different and unique. What works well and may be appropriate for any of us, may be a horrible fit for you and cause you nothing but heartburn and stress. However, I would tend to agree with Niles. If you're not ready for a SAN, don't spend the money on it now. You really need to have a serious sit-down with the vendors/sales engineers (notice I said ENGINEER, not REP) of the different hardware, learn as much as you can from THEM, and ask LOTS of questions. Then ask them why you should choose their product over x, y, or z product. Take lots of notes, and then do the same thing all over again, no more than a few days apart so everything is still fresh in your head. Many times, some of the best education I've gotten has been from the manufacturers themselves. I've actually been to the EMC manufacturing facility in North Carolina - I spent two days there, on THEIR DIME to learn about their products (I had to get there & back, but after that, everything was on them). If you say to them, "I'd like an education on how your product works and whether or not it would be suitable for my needs and my applications.", you'll generally get plenty of intelligent people that will be happy to answer your questions. If they don't ask lots of questions about your environment and what your needs are, you're talking to the wrong people. I believe that the purpose of this list is really a, "I'm having trouble with x, has anyone seen this before?" or "why do you guys think x specification/technology is better than y", or "I'm having trouble getting this ADSIedit script working, what am I doing wrong?". I believe that if you sit down with the various manufacturers/reps, even if only on a webex session where they can whiteboard for you one on one, will answer many of your questions and make your original question about intelligence/disks seem trivial. Regards, Jonathan L. Raper, A+, MCSA, MCSE Technology Coordinator Eagle Physicians & Associates, PA [email protected] www.eaglemds.com -----Original Message----- From: N Parr [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 10:26 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: SAN question I think you just need to give up on your SAN dreams and go buy a decent NAS for a couple grand and call it good. You just said it's going to be a file server for the time being so why spend the money for a SAN now if you don't need it. I bet if I look back through the archives you first brought this up at least 18 months ago. When, if , you do need a SAN down the road you won't have already spent a ton of $$ on what will then be old tech and you can start looking at what will then be new. -----Original Message----- From: John Aldrich [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 9:17 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: SAN question Ok, guys. I'm trying to narrow down my many choices with regards to our on-going search for a SAN manufacturer. I'd like your thoughts on the whole question of adding more intelligence vs just adding more disks. i.e. the EQ vs LeftHand models. I can see arguments to be made for both models. I'll tell you that, initially, the SAN is going to be a glorified file server, however, we plan on hosting our email data store on the SAN when we bring email in-house later on. I've already verified with the email vendor that I hope to use that this is not a problem, so that's a non-issue. Other than that, the only database we would store on the SAN would possibly be the database from our Vipre install, although initially that would stay on the local storage. So, I'd like to see some discussions of the benefits of just adding a tray of "dumb drives" or adding a complete controller along with the drives (a la LeftHand.) I just don't know enough about the benefits of each model to know what would work best for us. I'm hoping that you guys who are more experienced would give me the benefit of your knowledge. Thanks, John Aldrich IT Manager, Blueridge Carpet 706-276-2001, Ext. 2233 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin Any medical information contained in this electronic message is CONFIDENTIAL and privileged. It is unlawful for unauthorized persons to view, copy, disclose, or disseminate CONFIDENTIAL information. This electronic message may contain information that is confidential and/or legally privileged. It is intended only for the use of the individual(s) and/or entity named as recipients in the message. If you are not an intended recipient of this message, please notify the sender immediately and delete this material from your computer. Do not deliver, distribute or copy this message, and do not disclose its contents or take any action in reliance on the information that it contains. ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
