On Thu, 14 Jun 2007, James C. McPherson wrote:
Al Hopper wrote:
On Wed, 13 Jun 2007, James C. McPherson wrote:
Robert Milkowski wrote:
...
JCM> As far as I understand it, I do not think that a plain
JCM> jbod version of the ST2530 is supported. I believe that
JCM> a jbod attached to the ST2540 (fc-connected) is supported.
If it works it doesn't have to be supported.
and practically speaking, I expect that it would
just work.
Is there any chance you could arm-twist someone into running a quick test?
I'll see what I can do. No promises though.
[ .... offlist .... ]
Thanks.
Many Thanks.
It seems wasteful to (determine the required part number and) order a
2530 JBOD "expansion" shelf and then return it if it does not work
out....
Obviously this is a huge hole in Suns' current storage product line.
There is a huge need for a ZFS saavy JBOD "box" with a high speed host
interconnect. The nearest alternative I've been able to dig up is the
Promise VTrak J300S - but I'd rather buy a Sun (or StorageTek) part
than a Promise Tech part. And, regardless of what the profit margin
is, I'd rather see Sun with that profit margin than Promise Tech.
Why? .... because:
a) I want to see Sun/OpenSolaris persist into the far distant future.
b) I'm a Sun customer - not a Promise Tech customer.
c) Sun engineers products - Promise is a mass market,
lowest-common-demoninator type supplier - with loyalty only to those
(upstream) suppliers who can provide the highest market volume
opportunites.
d) I'm much more interested in engineering excellence than mass market
appeal.
We've all seen the articles where someone declares that ZFS has upset
the status quo and will cause the hi-end dedicated hardware RAID
vendors major heartache. This will happen *only* if there is an
entire/complete eco-system ready/willing/able to fill the gap between
ZFS/host-based-RAID and the encumbent hardware RAID providers. And
I'm talking about a vendor with the technical credibility of Sun.com
and not some fly-by-night.storage.com outfit that no-one will trust.
And then there is netapp.com ... which Sun/ZFS should declare a
*target* of massive opportunity and completely obliterate.
Sun needs to provide the necessary ammunition to capitalize on the
"ZFS Advantage" and lead the market with high-bandwidth, direct
attach, JBOD based storage sub-systems. Don't ignore this ZFS based
market opportunity and let the encumbent vendors continue to operate
without the ZFS technology challenge that'll take serious dollars away
from their bottom line, if correctly deployed (as a commercial weapon
of mass *migration*).
PS: On a personal note, I'm looking at extending/expanding genunix.com
and have a proposal in front of Sun management for storage hardware
sponsorship. And I've specified cost-effective, ZFS technology based,
JBOB storage using the 2530 and the (Sun certified) LsiLogic SAS HBA.
Looking at ZFS and the current Sun product storage lineup, reminds me
of the situation many, many years ago, when AT&T had Unix Sys V - but
could never figure out how to turn that superior technology into a
serious revenue stream..... I'd really hate to see history
repeated...
Regards,
Al Hopper Logical Approach Inc, Plano, TX. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Voice: 972.379.2133 Fax: 972.379.2134 Timezone: US CDT
OpenSolaris Governing Board (OGB) Member - Apr 2005 to Mar 2007
http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/ogb/ogb_2005-2007/
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