I asked this question a week ago but now I have what I feel are reasonable pricing numbers :
For 2 X4540s (24 TB each) I pay 6% more than for one 7310 redundant cluster (2 7310s in a cluster configuration) with 22 TB of disk and 2 x 18 GB SSDs. I lose live redundancy, but can switch the filerserver serving nodes with a short downtime if I have 2 X4540s. I have a live copy of 1/2 the disk on one file server and a backup copy of the other half of the disk on the same fileserver. The second server then has the other half live , and the first half mirrored. So I now have 2 disk paths and two network paths as opposed to only one in the 7310 cluster. Under these circumstances what advantage would a 7310 cluster over 2 X4540s backing each other up and splitting the load? Len Zaifman Systems Manager, High Perime formance Systems The Centre for Computational Biology The Hospital for Sick Children 555 University Ave. Toronto, Ont M5G 1X8 tel: 416-813-5513 email: leona...@sickkids.ca ________________________________________ From: Len Zaifman Sent: November 17, 2009 12:20 PM To: storage-disc...@opensolaris.org; zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org Subject: X45xx storage vs 7xxx Unified storage We are looking at adding to our storage. We would like ~20TB-30 TB. we have ~ 200 nodes (1100 cores) to feed data to using nfs, and we are looking for high reliability, good performance (up to at least 350 MBytes /second over 10 GigE connection) and large capacity. For the X45xx (aka thumper) capacity and performanance seem to be there (we have 3 now) However, for system upgrades , maintenance and failures, we have an availability problem. For the 7xxx in a cluster configuration, we seem to be able to solve the availability issue, and perhaps get performance benefits the SSD. however, the costs constrain the capacity we could afford. If anyone has experience with both systems, or with the 7xxx system in a cluster configuration, we would be interested in hearing: 1) Does the 7xxx perform as well or better than thumpers? 2) Does the 7xxx failove r work as expected (in test and real life) 3) Does the SSD really help? 4) Do the analytics help prevent and solve real problems, or arui?he ge they frivolous pretty pictures? 5) is the 7xxx really a black box to be managed only by the GUI? 6) If are in or near Toronto, would you be willing to let us see your setup? Thanks for any insights you may have and are willing to share. Len Zaifman Systems Manager, High Performance Systems The Centre for Computational Biology The Hospital for Sick Children 555 University Ave. Toronto, Ont M5G 1X8 tel: 416-813-5513 email: leona...@sickkids.ca This e-mail may contain confidential, personal and/or health information(information which may be subject to legal restrictions on use, retention and/or disclosure) for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any review or distribution by anyone other than the person for whom it was originally intended is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please contact the sender and delete all copies. _______________________________________________ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
