Her i Cinemaxx,Fisketorvet
Tag: dell
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Equallogic past and new present
A good colleague of mine pointed out a very interesting feature in the new PS6100 arrays, recently announced by Dell, the vertical port failover. But this is indeed an old feature…..When we worked with the old Type-1 and 2 controllers (the grey and the blue), you actually didn’t care where the ethernet connection where.
You simply looked at the switch and looked after the 3 connecting lights out of 6 possible.
I cant remember what it was called back then, I worked for a Equallogic reseller, and all my material is lost.But you could fail over a single networking port, to the other controller, which did cause some funny situations in the datacentres when an administrator wanted to have all the connections on a single controller “because it did look better”, and then he plugged out a cable to move the connection to the other controller. I did have some calls at that point from customers who couldn’t understand why the “passive” controller had all the connections. It did take some explaining to tell them, there was nothing wrong, and this was all part off the Equallogic virtualization.
From type 3 I believe it was, until the type 10 controllers, we only had the controller failover, where the whole controller was failed over to the secondary.
BUT now it’s back to basics, Dell has re-introduced the “Vertical Port Failover” on type 11 and 12 controllers. This is a significant gain, as you can fail a single network cable, and still be sure you have maximum throughput. As an old Equallogic guy this sweetens my heart.
By the way, Dell has also introduced some new arrays with the type 11 and 12 controllers. The type 11 is actually for the new PS6100 series 1Gbit arrays, and besides 4 x 1Gbit ports this also feature a separate management port. The PS6100 comes in different flavours, the 4U 24×3.5″ disk SATA based, and the 2U 12×3.5″ or 24×2.5″ disks in SAS or nearline SAS drives.
The type 12 controllers is the PS4100 with same configuration options as the bigbrother, but still the 4000 departemental arrays still has 2x1Gbit networking ports, and a management port.
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The Cloud
Looking back in the mirror we need to realise that cloud systems have been available for some years now. Not always adressed as cloud system.
In 2007 Sun had a system codenamed Honeycomb, an intriguing setup with several nodes sharing the data across the installation. What makes it an cloud solution and an private cloud, is the open interface to other applications. Customers could buy consultancy to integrate it into the Honeycomb API, or do it by them self. I was designed towards the public and health industry, especially for the Hospital sector, and all the scanning equipment they have. (Remember to read more) -
ISCSI vs Fibrechannel
Where is the world going ?
For the last 5 years I have been heavily involved in spreading the message of ISCSI for the enterprise. It has not been a easy stroll down the road in those 5 years. At the beginning no one knew anything about ISCSI, and only the brave on the edge of the wave dared to take it onboard.
I’m coming from a fibre-channel background, eduacating customers and sales people about it for more than 13 years, it was a big change involving my self into world of ISCSI. For a couple of years I did both technologies in sync, but was heavily focused on the ISCSI as my engagement with upcomer Equallogic grew. The demand for ISCSI has been steadily growing, but for large organizations it was not the most easy stuff to implement. When the windows ISCSI initiator was in the early stages (Ver.1.05a) it was a buggy ride, and when you combined it with e.g Adaptec ISCSI HBA’s things could be a nightmare to sort out. But it could also be the most sweet and enlightened heaven. Servers booting directly from the storage as everybody has been used to on fibre-channel. Remember to read more —>> (more…)
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2 Sides to the same Storage, with an 3rd angle
In recent years Dell has bought a few compagnies, starting with Equallogic and then some of the most interesting in the industry. I do not know why we had to bid for 3Par, we’ve got Compellent which is actually a nice fit to the Dell storage IP.
Equallogic is a fascinating product, I’ve been working with the PS-series since beginning of 2005, and the story has never changed. I had the pleasure to meet the founders back in 2006 in Nashua, NH, and I then found my call for Equallogic. The idea behind, which I usually call a “good-old collective” from the 60’s. All arrays work together, but they are also independent in their own rights. Some are the skinny ones with SSD and SAS disks, the fatter arrays are the PS65xx’s with 48-disks, and divided in to different departements (called Pools in EQL). With all arrays placed in up to 4 pools, it’s like working in a company with different departments, and all are working for the same goal
